Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ghoul’ On Netflix, An Indian Thriller About A Creepy Terrorist And His Young Interrogator

Did you enjoy Sacred Games when it premiered on Netflix earlier this summer? The same company that brought that Indian thriller to American audiences now brings us the horror miniseries Ghoul. Is it as good as their first effort?

GHOUL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Flashes of a prisoner cutting himself and drawing an odd symbol in his own blood.

The Gist: It’s the near future, where sectarian violence is out of control and the military has instituted marshal law, with crackdowns on any kind of free thought, like books or academic lectures. There are secret interrogation centers where military officers use any means necessary to extract info from terrorists.

After a highly sought-after ringleader named Ali Saeed (Mahesh Balraj) is captured in a creepy AF incident involving a ghoulish man who looked like he had had some innards cut out, a young secret police soldier named Nida Rahim (Radhika Apte) is sent to interrogate him. We know where her loyalties lie, since she’s seen in a flashback from a month previous turning in her professor father Shahnawaz (S.M. Zaheer) for his books and lectures.

The head of the interrogation unit, Colonel Sunil Dacunha (Manav Kaul), requested Rahim personally, even though her connections to her father make her loyalty questionable. He is also having issues with his family, causing him to hit the booze pretty much all day long. His second-in-command, Laxmi (Ratnabali Bhattacharjee) is unsure the colonel is fit to lead and is ready to forcibly take the facility over if his orders become erratic.

Our Take: Ghoul is an interesting hybrid of a terrorism drama and horror movie. The three-part miniseries is the brainchild of Mumbai-based filmmaker Patrick Graham, with help from producers like Get Out‘s Jason Blum. It’s from the same production company that brought Netflix Sacred Games, and the quality we saw there shines through here.

The first episode moves a bit slowly, though, taking awhile to establish why Rahim is being sent to interrogate this important target, and it only hints at why Ali Saheed is creepier than your average terrorist. Given the relatively brief running time, it might have gotten to the point a little faster.

The first episode did a good job of establishing just who Col. Dacunha is with only a few scenes, which will help the drama down the line. The visuals are also fantastic, drawing you into the action despite the dinginess of the dystopian landscape.

Oh, and if you’ve never seen an Indian series before, be ready for an interesting combination of Hindi and English that will keep American viewers on their toes.

Sex and Skin: Nothing.

Parting Shot: In a downpour, the interrogation center’s “welcome team” sees Ali Saeed come out of a transport vehicle. He’s so creepy that even the unit’s guard dogs cower in fear.

Sleeper Star: Bhattacharjee’s skeptical Laxmi will have more to say in the coming episodes, we think.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Starting early today?” Laxmi snarkily asks the colonel when she sees a freshly-emptied glass of scotch.

Our Call: Stream It. The production is first rate, as is the tension generated. The first episode of Ghoul isn’t super scary, save for shots of dead bodies from a terrorist attack, but we’re sure it’ll get more ghoulish in the next two episodes.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Ghoul on Netflix