Highlights
There is no denying that South Indian cinema has dished out a number of spectacular and unimaginable horror flicks in its course of time which are laden with beautiful mythical beliefs. Be it psychological thriller or horror blended with comedy these movies depict that the filmmakers in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada industries are not bound by the restriction of ordinary story telling.
Few are the lists that will explain some of the South Indian horror films that are strong with their basic concepts, gripping settings, and the capability to generate horror sensation among the viewers. Their purpose may be educational if you are curious about the regional Indian cinema and scary if you are a horror movie fan. These films are unmissable.
1) Bramayugam (Malayalam)
- Director: Rahul Sadasivan
- Cast: Mammootty, Arjun Ashokan, Siddharth, Amalda Liz
- Rating: 7.9/10
This new Malayalam period horror film is set for release in the year 2024 and has popular actor Mammootty in a spooky avatar. Based in the medieval period it depicts black magic as well as black arts and makes an extensive use of visuals and arrives at creating an efficient use of background score. It has received many positive reviews from professional critics owing to its creativity in the horror flick.
2) Manichithrathazhu (Malayalam)
- Director: Fazil
- Cast: Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Shobana
- IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
This is undoubtedly one of the gems of Malayalam cinema from 1993. It is a psychological thriller telling a story of a woman possessed by a vengeful dancer’s spirit. It is a mix of horror, drama and comedy with raw talent of Shobana in the lead and remakes of this film have been made in different languages.
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3) Yaavarum Nalam (Tamil)
- Director: Vikram Kumar
- Cast: R. Madhavan, Neetu Chandra and Sachin Khedekar.
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
This is a 2009 Tamil horror thriller movie dubbed in Telugu as ‘13B’, which deals with the life of a family, which mysteriously starts mimicking events of a television channel. Thus, the movie has a lot of interesting brainstorming and moments that cause gradually increasing fascination and fears.
4) Eeram (Tamil)
- Director: Arivazhagan Venkatachalam
- Cast: Aadhi Pinisetty, Akshata, Srinath, Nanda and Sindhu Menon
- IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
This film produced in the year 2009 is a horror thriller that depicts a scenario of a cop who was investigating the circumstances that led to the death of some people, who turned to be killed by an entity known as a water spirit who is after taking her vengeance. Appreciated for the work in creating an immersing plot and the originality of water-based elements in the film.
5) Demonte Colony (Tamil)
- Director: R. Ajay Gnanamuthu
- Cast: Arulnithi, Ramesh Thilak and Sananth Reddy
- IMDb Rating: 7/10
After hearing local folklore about the real place in Chennai, four friends shoot a horror movie in 2015 in the found footage style choosing an old colony as a shooting location, opening the doors to hell. Well-known for a correct application of jump scares and the creation of a tense atmosphere.
6) U-Turn (Telugu)
- Director: Pawan Kumar
- Cast: Samantha Ruth, Aadhi Pinisetty, Rahul Ravindran
- IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
This 2018 Indian Kannada-language supernatural thriller film was remade later in Telugu The film storyline focuses on the happening of mysterious deaths related to a flyover. While reporting a story, a journalist comes across traffic violations and the retribution by the souls of the victims.
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7) Arundhati (Telugu)
- Director: Kodi Ramakrishna
- Cast: Anushka shetty, Sonu Sood, Sayaji Shinde
- IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
This period horror-fantasy from 2009 weighs the story around a woman who has to fight an evil sorcerer who poses a danger to her royal bloodline. Considered as one of the most popular horror movies in Telugu industry, it has nice special effects and Anushka Shetty at her best.
8) Oru Vadakkan Selfie (Malayalam)
- Director: G. Prajith
- Cast: Nivin Pauly, Manjima Mohan, and Aju Varghese.
- IMDb Rating: 6.7/10
The inter-generic element of this movie which is an out and out comedy drama is reinforced with horror in the situation which has gone out of hand with a young man after taking a selfie. This is one of the film’s highest strengths because it combines the elements of various genres and has some really eerie scenes.
9) Kapala (Kannada)
- Director: Vinay Yadunandan
- Cast: Abhimanyu Prajwal, Pratiksha Gowda, Aryan Chaudhary and Sushma Gowda
- IMDb Rating: 8. 8/10
The movie’s starting point is Bangalore. Two of the subjects, brother and sister, currently reside in an apartment in the city with a friend. The young man is in bad company, he stumbles into serious trouble coming close to death.
10) Zero (Tamil)
- Director: Shiv Mohaa
- Cast: Ashwin, Shivada, JD Chakravarthy
- IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
A man marries a woman with the anger of his dad. After she has rented a new apartment, she gets inflicted by the spirit of evil that seeks to bring doom on the entire world.
