Bramayugam

"Bramayugam" (2024) — subtitled "The Age of Madness" — is an Indian Malayalam-language folk horror you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Rahul Sadasivan. Set in 17th-century South Malabar: a wandering folk singer, stranded after his companion is killed in the forest, stumbles onto a crumbling mansion and accepts an invitation to stay a few days.

The host — played with unsettling stillness by Mammootty — seems generous, even cultured. The lone cook is harder to read. Arjun Ashokan's singer slowly pieces together what the invitation actually means. Sadasivan shot the entire film in black and white, inside tight, claustrophobic spaces; there are no jump scares propping this up, just a sustained, tightening dread rooted in Kerala folk mythology. One of the more formally disciplined horror films to come out of India in recent years. Stream Bramayugam online on iFILM.