Which Bollywood Stars Could Menace in Top 10? - Part 3

We have carefully selected a rounded list which narrows down to ten spontaneously disturbing movies in Hollywood overall, and although there are one far too many, we have tried our level best to let you cringe your way down to number 1 and finally break out into that sweat we promised you throughout this month!

Bates (Anthony Perkins) is a troubled shy young owner of Bates Motel. His relationship with his overtly dominating mother is highly prioritized till the end, and they live together in a house that overlooks the motel. On the other hand we have secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who flees with her employer's money and decides to make a stop during a frightening storm just before reaching her lover in California. Of course that's when Bates and Leigh first meet and shortly following is one of the evergreen scenes in horror film history that has often made us wary whilst taking a shower. Alfred Hitchcock's traditional suspense/horror in this movie is literally remembered just the same as its release fifty years ago, and is often ranked among  one of the best movies of all-time, whence the genre of slasher movies became reasonably acceptable of extensive violence, and began a trend in upcoming movies of the same category. The movie is based on the novel titled the same by Robert Bloch who loosely inspired the character of Norman Bates on the real-life insane Ed Gain crimes and his isolated lifestyle, and is indirectly inspired by the character of the incredibly violent Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films.

So who in Bollywood could own the big creepy house overlooking his motel, dress smart, that including a nice expensive dress his mother would absolutely adore, and sound like the perfect guy theoretically! Okay so we may be bending the truth slightly here, so he's jealous, obsessive and is actually a misogynist due to his mother's implications who preached that women are dirty (except her of course), but let's not forget the details! We truly believe that Ranveer Singh would do wonders as Bates and could demonstrate a fine example of the Multiple Personality Disorder, which was discovered during the climax. Bates had developed two co-existing identities, one as 'Bates' and the other as 'Mother' whom he killed and preserved in that creepy house we mentioned previously. Now although Singh hasn't turned into a psychotic killer in his movies, we have seen him run through a series of several versatile personalities, each significantly different to the other, and the potential to hide facts about his on-screen characters in his performances is well conceived, and we think he'll be a superb psycho!

Quote it: "Mother-m-mother, uh, what is the phrase? She isn't quite herself today."

Tagline: Forget about the rain, and forget about being tired, our advice is keep driving!

 

A young FBI cadet, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) must extract insight from a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial-killer Dr Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in order to pursuit another serial killer known as Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), who skins his female victims' corpses to fulfil his tailor-made dresses designed with human skin. However, we see Lecter and Starling develop a doctor-patient relationship midst the hunt for Buffalo Bill, whose next victim is a U.S Senator's daughter.

Now before we continue, we are aware Sangharsh, the Bollywood remake of this movie starring Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta was released in 1999, which was a flop at the box office, and this may partially be due to a wrong cast. Let us explain Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter was simply menacing beyond sanity, and this was simply because this guy had no fear and could literally smell you coming and if that's too little to frighten than try talking to this guy, his voice could practically breach your safety walls and put you to sleep no different from a lullaby and then eat you alive - that meaning literally! And it gets better or perhaps we should say worse, he could walk into a crowd and practically go unnoticed - basically getting away with murder, while comfortably digesting a friendly hand or two!


His intelligence was what made us fear him, and to match that kind of enhancement we need someone as vicious looking and polite-talking (you know what we mean) older guy, who we could still love despite him being a youthful hero. So our choice for our desi Dr Hannibal Lecter is Kamal Hassan! We think he would be at the top of the list who could maximize this character within the same sixteen minutes Hopkins did. Although we can't blame the makers of Sangharsh for getting the cast wrong, as the roles of both Starling and Lecter proved to be a tough choice even in Hollywood. Apparently Dr. Hannibal Lecter was to be played originally by Gene Hackman who later turned it down due to the evolving graphic content, which was also a deterrent for actress Michelle Pfeiffer (the first and original choice of the three-hundred applicants lined up for Starling) who grew nervous regarding the subject matter. But we honestly think times have now changed for the better and actresses would be lining up to be in such films. So our version of Starling would be none other than Vidya Balan who proved that her professionalism in acting is of the same calibre as Hollywood stars, and her serial-killer hunt for the psychotic tailor 'Buffalo Bill' aka Jame Gumb would suit well in the form of Ranbir Kapoor, who could rise up to this role with honours and take this opportunity to further his career one step higher. Now this sounds like a cool movie with an exciting cast - popcorn anyone?

 

Quote it: "I'm having a friend for dinner."

Tagline: Drop of Chianti anyone?

 

A 12-year old girl Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) is possessed by a demon, and her actress mother, Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), resorts to desperate measures in bringing her daughter back through an exorcism conducted by two priests, Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and, Father Joe Dyer (William O'Malley). This movie was based on the novel written by William Peter Blatty titled the same, and was inspired from the real exorcism story of Roland Doe in 1949.

Now this movie gives you as much horror one can possibly cope with, since its theatrical release in 1973, an overwhelming effect took over crowds at first sight and is till date considered to be one of the most scariest movies of all-time, and that too without the use of cheap tricks (we can let the 'pea soup' pass considering the time-period it was filmed in), and the abnormal behaviour - yes, we're talking of the classic spider-walk down the stairs - which was enough to freak everyone out so much that we're still terrified! The Exorcist is a psychological thriller that bores a scar on your soul, and imprints your mind with terrors that never really leave you by simply putting into perspective a situation we'd all be afraid of - the concept of the devil existing. This detail became so daunting for audiences at the time that it resulted in the movie being banned on a large scale internationally, many screenings were paid emergency visits by paramedics after people went into hysterics and others fainted. The UK itself made the movie available in 1990, but the film still went on successfully and is popularly considered the most successful adult horror movie of all-time, and if you haven't seen this movie and are about to, you will not be wondering what all the fuss was about.

So, finally we are at number one in this list, and although we're short of a few child stars to play the role of the devil - oops, we mean the possessed girl - we doubted if we could find anyone young enough to play this role, so as an exception we've chosen from a potential point of view, and at first we wondered who could play a role of a possessed evil entity as well as Vidya Balan's Bhool Bhulaiya act. But a few days ago, we witnessed a mystical significance in a television performance and although until yesterday this movie was also somewhat banned from this list, we thank Isha Sharvani's horrific act in the popular dancing show Jhalak Dikhla Ja for bringing this movie back at number one! Yes that's right, a little unexpected we agree, but talent like that needs a bigger platform, and we're sure Sharvani would be any director in the horror genre of movie-making's dream come true, or perhaps they'll prefer 'nightmare'. After her effortless spider-walk, vengeful spirit mood, climbing on walls and throwing her choreographer almost off stage in one performance and one take, we're going to say this chick can freak anyone out. And honestly if the makers of Exorcist knew Sharvani existed, they would re-shoot Regan's spider-walk trailing her mother and licking her ankle from time to time in one sitting without any strings attached - literally, but unfortunately they were unaware of her, as were we until a few days ago, and so they worked with CGI artists to digitally remove the wires supporting her posture in the year 2000 for a re-release of the movie. We do hope her talent acquires her more potential roles such as this in the future, but for now we'd like to say Isha Sharvani performed at an international class.

Quote it: "I'm the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps."

Tagline: Keep repeating, this is just a movie... this is just a movie - unless you know the Hanuman Chalisa of course.

 

Well folks, there you have it, our chosen list of Fright-Fest movies and the potential B-town celebrities in roles like we've never seen before. Let us know which movies in this genre you would like to see your favourite Bollywood star in? Pour in your hate-fuelled comments on the choices you think we made wrong, tell us why? Who do you think would look good in your favourite scary movie this summer?

Editor: Gunia M.