Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Nuhash Humayun
Starring: Sohail Mondal, Shirin Akter Shila, Afzal Hossain, Chanchal Chowdhury,
Pritom Hasan, Novera Rahman
The thrill of a spooky yarn is so universal that at this point there
probably isn't a nation on Earth that hasn't produced its own horror
anthology movie. Writer/director Nuhash Humayun's
Pett Kata Shaw (which Google translates to English as
"Stomach Cut") probably isn't the first portmanteau horror to come from
Bangladesh, but it's the first to receive this level of western
attention, with no less than Jordan Peele nabbing Humayun for a future
project.
The film began life as a series on a Bangladeshi streaming service, and
its four episodes have now been combined into a feature for its
international release. This means the sort of wraparound you expect from
such anthologies is absent as the film simply presents its four stories
as standalone segments.
Anthology films often front load their thrills so it's a surprise that
Pett Kata Shaw begins with arguably its weakest story.
That's a relative assessment though, as unlike most anthologies, there
are no bad segments here. Things kick off with the tale of Mahmud (Chanchal Chowdhury), a confectionery store owner paid a creepy visit by a Djinn (Afzal Hossain) as he's closing his store late at night. The Djinn has a sweet tooth
and demands candy in return for granting Mahmud a wish. Constantly
berated by his wife for his poor memory, Mahmud asks the Djinn to gift
him a photographic memory. This makes Mahmud something of a local
celebrity, with crowds gathering to test his memory on everything from
cricket scores to scientific theories. The gift soon becomes a curse as
Mahmud finds himself being driven mad by the amount of knowledge
swirling around in his head. Hossain is a sinister presence as the Djinn
but the segment doesn't do enough to explore its setup and ends with an
ineffective twist.
The same can't be said for the following segment, which boasts a
blackly comic twist to its horrors and the most satisfying ending of all
the episodes. Student Hasan (Shohei Mondol) returns home with
some fresh fish to his dorm room to find his roommate lying dead on the
floor and a Petri (an evil female entity from the sea) sitting at his
kitchen table. Remembering some advice from his mother, Hasan maintains
eye contact with the demon (played by former Miss Bangladesh
Shirin Akter Shela) while cooking her the fish he brought home.
Mondol does his best Bruce Campbell impersonation as thoughts race
around his panicked head, and Humayun shoots close-ups in a manner that
recalls Sam Raimi. It ends with a great twist that will have the women
in the audience rolling their eyes and mouthing "Typical man!"
In third place is the strongest segment, which is something of a
mini-anthology in its own right. Nagib (Morshed Mishu) and Sara
(Syeda Taslima Hossain Nodi) are a bickering couple backpacking
through a rural area when they stumble across a remote village. The
locals brag that every one of Bangladesh's superstitions originated in
their village. Nagib and Sara listen cynically as backstories are
narrated which give rise to various famous Bangla sayings. These stories
are told using traditional string puppets and they all come together to
cleverly tie into the segment's creepy payoff.
While the first three segments have a vein of black comedy running
through them, there are no laughs in the sombre concluding segment. As
with the second story, this one is also about a young man haunted by a
woman from the sea. In this case it's the spirit of his ex-girlfriend,
who took her own life by hanging herself. The young man tortures himself
by constantly replaying his final video recording of his lover, to the
point that her final words appear to whisper on the wind coming in from
the coast. Wracked with guilt, the man finds himself drawn to the sea…
The segment has an atmospheric setting of a coastal village, all chilly
gusts and ominous tides. It's a melancholy piece that might have been
better suited to a middle segment however, as it sends the audience off
on quite a downer with its dark subject matter. With its meta-commentary
on storytelling, the third segment might have been a better choice to
close out the film.
Pett Kata Shaw isn't remarkable enough to stand among the
classics of the horror anthology sub-genre, but it's a rare case of a
portmanteau film where every segment works to some degree. Western
viewers will likely enjoy seeing familiar horror tropes given a Bangla
spin as the film reminds us that no matter how different our cultures
are, we're all scared of the same things. It will be interesting to see
what Humayun will produce with the backing of Peele.
