A good horror flick is one with enough suspense, which keeps its viewers at the edge of their seat. Debutant director Akshay Akkineni’s Pizza – a remake of 2012 Tamil hit of the same name – is somewhat an average horror movie with a good plot.

The story is about a young couple Kunal (Akshay Oberoi) and Nikita (Parvathy Omanakuttan) struggling to make ends meet. Kunal is a pizza delivery boy, while Nikita is an aspiring writer who writes ghost stories for a living.

Life is uneventful until, on a seemingly routine delivery, Kunal delivers pizza to a bungalow and ends up being trapped inside. The bungalow, which turns out to be a haunted, has dead bodies appearing from every corner.

As a sequence of supernatural occurrences unfold, a terrified Kunal tries every way to escape. Finally, he escapes – only to find out that his pregnant wife is missing.

Frustrated with the haunted house trauma and his wife’s disappearance, Kunal decides to search for Nikita himself.

The film has a strong plot, but fails in screenplay. Thirty minutes of the 107 minutes long movie were wasted on an absurd nightmare, the lead characters’ life – plus a song.

The most intriguing part of the remaining film is the time Kunal spends in the haunted house. Despite the use of hackneyed horror stunts, the director manages to keep a good grip on the viewers with good execution and decent use of 3D. Background music, lighting, visual effects and makeup – all did well for the part.

But unfortunately, the film fails to offer anything else.

As a protagonist, Oberoi did very well. However, if the screenplay and direction had been better, one would have expected a much better performance.

Parvathy Omanakuttan did a fair job. But due to short screen time, she didn’t have much opportunity to show her skills.

Other supporting cast had nominal roles to play.

Negative point

The screenplay has too many faults that are hard to miss. One of them is the scene where Kunal is talking to his boss on the haunted house’s landline, while in the flashback he was seen talking on a cell phone.

Another fault is the unnecessary ending, which leave the viewers scratching their heads.

---

The final word

---

Although the screenplay is weak, the twists and turns in the film make it gripping and watchable.

---

Written and Directed by Akshay Akkineni; Produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur and Bejoy Nambiar; Edited by Sreekar Prasad; Cinematography by JayKrishna Gummadi.

Starring: Akshay Oberoi, Parvathy Omanakuttan, Arunoday Singh, Hussain Dalal, D Santosh, Omkar Das Manikpuri.