Khooni Murdaa (1989)

Mahakaal by the Ramsay family is probably the most famous Hindi Elm Street-remake, but four years earlier director Mohan Bhakri unleashed Raanjit, an obsessive serial killer and rapist on the world in Khooni Murdaa - which takes everything good from the Elm Street franchise and cooks it to something very fat and unhealthy. Yes, no other country know how to boost an original movie and make something even more entertaining from it. Khooni Murdaa is no exception! The story is familiar, yet... not. Or yeah, maybe it's more familiar when you see it.

Raanjit (Kiran Kumar) is really sadistic serial killer. He likes sneaking up on young lovers in cars and kill them! One day he's finally caught, is sentence to psychiatric care. Like all clinics in horror movies they are easy to escape from, and so he does - running into a gang of over-aged college students out camping in the forest. He tries to kill one of the women, but is caught and burned to death by them! Afraid that they've done something really bad the students hide the body in a scrapyard. But Raanjit wants revenge and comes back as a scorched supernatural avenger, armed with knifes on his fingers and eager to kill in the same way as his American buddy Freddy!

Here's a fact: Raanjit is a bad mother compared to that wimp everyone loves, Mahakaal! Raanjit looks badass, is very, very violent and kills more time than Mahakaal ever could imagine! He's dark and sadstic and lacks the campiness of Mahakaal and the comedy routins of Freddy. This is more a fast movie Jason Voorhees, but with more creative killings. Gore is something quite rare in Bollywood productions, but this actually have a few scenes of graphic violence and blood - very short, but still there to spice things up. Everything is like cheaper versions of the effects in the Elm Street movies, but the roughness is something I often appreciate. We all know it's not for real anyway and not even the crappiest effect can take me out from a movie (no, not even cheap computer effects - as long the story is good, or at least entertaining). Even the famous Johnny Depp-killing gets a Hindi make-over here!

Except the beginning and set-up Khoon Murdaa is quite different than the original Elm Street, more like typical slashers. But when the ghost of Raanjit finally comes back there's Elm Street scene for scene - at least a combination between part one and three, with a dash of silly comedy and dancing in-between! The final is the best:  it's long and has a high body count and a few fun stunts here and there. Like all Bollywood movies a few martial arts moves is tossed in for good measure, the way I want it.

You can find Khoon Murdaa on one of those 3-in-one DVDs from India. Cheap, very cheap, but without subtitles. Don't worry, it's very easy to follow this story. The picture quality isn't bad either and we can still enjoy the nice colours, which reminded me of the Ramsay family. It's a competent and fun, and cheap.