Movie Review for The Old Ways on Netflix India OTT

Keep your expectations real - The Old Ways does not have a premium starcast or the directorial credentials that make it an obvious pick during your work-from-life. However, like many horror flicks and gore movie plots that performed rather well with their directors and lead performers later blossoming into bigger names in the industry, The Old Ways does many things right to impress. The best part is that it wastes no time in revealing the storyline without unnecessarily stretching it. The first shot happens to be in the room where the supposedly possessed lady has been chained. Yes, this movie too is about possessions and being taken over by ghosts when you venture into the badlands and lesser-visited areas. The story is not too dramatic but it is told at a good pace. There is no time to take a popcorn break as Cristina realizes that her body has been taken over, and then gets on a quest to get rid of the unwanted spirit, and later, become a witch doctor lady of sorts herself. The entire movie presents just about four or five faces. There is no melodrama or too many special effects. This is a good movie if you like a lightweight horror flick where the fear is in the victim's eyes rather than computer-generated graphics. Combine the basic plot with a bit of sorcery and tales that only some village folks would know about, and The Old Ways comes up with a decent concoction. Highly recommended if you don't like to watch something too scary before going to bed but still want to see something that spooks you a little. A good effort overall, and it also makes me wonder why Netflix India has not been promoting or recommending this movie in any way. Perhaps, their content spotting team needs to do a better job of looking at their own inventory of decent movies and recommending it when a browser chooses the genre-based filter.