Movies
[Fantasia ’15 Review] ‘Ludo’: Indian Bloodbath Lacks Cohesion
The Indian film Ludo, co-directed by Q (Gandu) and Nikon, shrugs off cohesiveness and a palpable message in favor of bloody havoc as it hurls its audience into sheer chaos during its latter half. The title comes from the board game of the same name, which originated in India as “Pachisi” (aka Parcheesi). The game is one of the few cultural touches in Ludo. It’s supposed to hold some importance in the mythology behind the narrative, but I’ll be damned if I could grasp the game’s significance amidst all the mayhem.
The film takes place on one rowdy night as Ria and her best friend Payel head out to paint Kolkata red. Running out in the skimpy outfits (by Indian standards), the two young girls meet up with walking erections Pele and Babai. Drinking and dancing ensue and soon it’s time for the four to shack up and do the damn thing. They find no luck getting a hotel room and decide to hide inside a shopping mall until closing so they can run amuck and bang to their hearts’ content. It’s a teenage fantasy we’ve all had, I’m sure.
All four would’ve gotten their rocks off too if it wasn’t for the creepy ass homeless couple lurking in the mall’s shadows. The old hag pulls out an ancient-looking Ludo board and soon Ria and Payel find themselves in the game of their lives.
Ludo goes through a lot of typical horror beats, including the introduction of four shallow teenage characters we never form any emotional attachment to. Then at about the halfway point, the film takes a turn and starts digging into some material that’s promising and off the beaten path. There are gnarly flashbacks to primeval times that introduce new characters who tie into the game (somehow). There are visceral bursts of fanged women and ancient rituals with pounding drums. Coinciding with these flashbacks is the girls’ metamorphoses as the game consumes them, body and soul.
The beginning of Ludo is extremely vibrant and raucous as the girls meet up with their suitors and haul ass through the nightclubs and alleyways of Kolkata. Q and Nikon obviously have a sharp eye for making stuff (like partying teens) we’ve seen a million times before feel fresh and alive. They flirt a bit during this first act with addressing India’s sexual and cultural repression, but it seems like the filmmakers are unsure how to deliver a tangible message.
There’s a lot of promise in Ludo that gradually dissolves when the horror elements kick in. By the end, after we’ve seen guts consumed and other hideous acts occur under the mall’s roof, I wasn’t sure what was trying to be said other than “look at how crazy this shit is!” There’s an edginess to their film trying to find balance with the message, but the two never cohesively mesh. And what the hell is up with the game again?
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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