This Dark, Masterful 2018 Horror Movie Is the Perfect Blend of Folk and Fantasy

More than any slasher or creature, the best horror movies understand that there is nothing scarier than humanity. Yet even this can get distorted; too many scary movies focus so hard on being “edgy” social critiques that they turn nuanced ideas into one-dimensional takedowns of social constructs people already know are bad. It’s only the best films that imbue their critiques with genuinely disturbing concepts, with few doing it better than Rahi Anil Barve’s fantasy-folk epic, Tumbbad. Set in India, the film follows a young boy as he learns that not only are his community’s myths of angry gods trapped underground real, but they hold the key to finally escaping the lethal poverty he’s spent his entire life trapped in. With astounding special effects, the film merges folk and fantasy in a twisted fairytale that draws on legends many horror fans don’t already know. Yet while it puts ample time into bringing these terrifying myths to life, Tumbbad utilizes these legends to emphasize a central message many people (sadly) know well: beyond any Gods or monsters, it’s humans who are capable of the most horrifying things.

You Won’t Leave ‘Tumbbad’ Alive

Sohum Shah as Vinayak Rao talking to his son, Mohammad Samad as Pandurang, in Tumbbad — Image via Eros International

Few fantasy horror movies manage to become living fairytales like Tumbbad. It follows Vinayak, the beginning seeing him as a young boy (Dhundiraj Prabhakar Jogalekar) living in the titular village whose temple for the thief-God Hastur earns them nothing but daily sorrow and endless rain. His childhood is one of loss and horror as he discovers a demonic woman in his home at the same time his brother dies from a brutal injury; his mother takes the child away and makes him swear to never return to that cursed place…but the pains of poverty can make people do anything. Which is why, many years later, Vinayak (Sohum Shah), returns, learning that the fairytales about Hastur are real, and the deity lives trapped beneath his village. He goes and learns it’s relatively simple to steal from the maniac God, turning this infernal prison into an endless money scheme that turns him into a wealthy man who uses this once-destitute community as a personal playground. What follows is years of filthy riches and lethal cover-ups, with Vinayak learning that to maintain a wealth like this, he’ll have to become more of a monster than the very God he steals from.

Custom image of Rea Lest and Jette Loona Hermanis in November against a blue background

One of the Highest-Rated Folk Horror Movies Is a Strange, Fantasy Nightmare

This movie knows what folk horror really is.

Tumbbad is rife with the folk and fantasy elements that these subgenres are known for. The film offers beautiful animations to accompany its storytelling and the amazing set design perfectly encapsulates its eeriness, with audiences learning, through how these glamorous settings have been reduced to decrepit tombs, just how much this angry God has influenced the village. It’s through this contrast that most of Tumbbad’s physical horror comes through — particularly every moment Vinayak steals from Hastur, and one anxiety-inducing scene where his younger counterpart flees from the demonic woman — but the film’s most chilling aspects are how money changes its protagonist. Vinayak grows from a kindhearted boy to a ruthless man, ready to shed ample amounts of blood to keep his godly money-making machine a secret. But even as he becomes more and more merciless, viewers empathize with him; by exemplifying his pain early on, Tumbbad shows not only how thoroughly poverty can ruin someone’s life, but why it could turn them into the money-hoarding killer that Vinayak eventually becomes. He learns from a society that abandoned him that he must be just as brutal to avoid the destitution of his youth, with this plot spotlighting the toxic culture of greed that guides so many cruel, rich people like Vinayak today.

‘Tumbbad’ Shows the Horrors of Humanity

While Tumbbad becomes a horrific story of what greed does to society, that doesn’t mean the film skimps on its fantasy and folk horror. Rather, the opposite; it seamlessly merges its themes of human greed with the story of an angry immortal at its center, providing a shockingly grounded portrayal of how people will even use Gods themselves to get ahead in life. This is what makes it one of the most innovative folk/fantasy horror films audiences will see today. Rather than regress itself backwards or update classic elements for a modern audience, it somehow merges time periods, using the best of each to showcase how ancient terrors would reasonably interact with the fears viewers experience every day. It’s what makes it stand out not only in these subgenres, but in horror as a whole, becoming one of the most poignant depictions of how the evils of human greed permeate every aspect of human life — especially the spiritual — today.