Ghoul: Series Review

So, in keeping with the Spooky theme for this October, I’ve decided to review Ghoul, a new Netflix original miniseries that recently showed up in “suggested for you,” on my homepage.

Ghoul is set in India, in the near future. Sectarian violence has lead to India becoming a fascist police state, where anything resembling “anti-national” thought is banned. This includes religious teachings, political dissent, etc. We follow our main character, Nida Rahim (Radhika Apte), a young cadet training for India’s police force. Nida turns her father into the authorities after he tells her that he’s been teaching his students ideas that are not sanctioned by the government. Nida is quickly reassigned to a detention camp where suspected terrorists are “interrogated,” aka tortured. However, when a terrorist named Ali Saeed (Mahesh Balraj) is brought in for questioning, events begin to take a mysterious and terrifying turn, and Nida questions why she, of all people, was assigned to this prison.

Ghoul is a good bit of supernatural horror that uses a relatively small amount of horror to effectively build tension. Throughout the episodes, the suspense mounts as the pieces of the very well constructed plot fall into place, one by one. In the final episode, when the series should be hitting its climax, it begins using more and more action, trading some of the suspense for some good old adrenaline. That’s not to say the series looses its way, just that the earlier episodes are more effective than the show’s final act. Still, it did give me some pretty good chills, so if they were trying to give the audience a decent scare, then mission accomplished.

However, due to this focus on the horror, I feel like some major themes went under-explored. Nida is a Muslim, which the series does make note of, and it feels like the discrimination she experiences because of that is woven into the series, but again, it’s never explicitly explored. There’s also the question of how a fascist state “protects” its citizens by stripping them of their rights, but this is also underutilized. Instead, the ramifications of the police state are only really explored at the beginning and end of the series. One thing it does explore relatively well, however, is the use of torture — both physical and psychological.

The acting is uniformly great. Though I’m not sure if any of the cast members are major actors in Bollywood, they definitely should be. Apte gives a grand performance as Nida, and Manuv Kaul shows off his considerable talent as the alcoholic Colonel Dacunha. Also worthy of note is Balraj’s performance as Ali Saeed, which manages to give off just the right amount of creepy for his role as the main villain. The series was shot in Hindi, but, at least on British Netflix, was dubbed over in English. The voice-over cast is pretty good, but I still would have preferred that they simply used subtitles instead. No matter how good a job you do, it’s going to be disjointing when you see the characters lips moving out of synch with the dialogue.

If you’re the type of person who craps their pants every time they watch a horror movie, but still wants to see some decent spooks this October, then Ghoul is the show for you. Though the show doesn’t use too many special effects, the ones it does use are pretty high quality, and the suspense will keep you at the edge of your seat as you binge through the three episodes. Though a somewhat lackluster ending deadens it, it’s still probably worth your time to give it a watch.

3/5 stars