Dies Irae: Rahul Sadasivan paints an eerie portrait of remembering and refusing to let go

Dies Irae (Malayalam)

When left to their own will, painful memories that refuse to die can transform into something more sinister than sorrow. In Dies Irae , writer-director Rahul Sadasivan transforms grief into ghosts—omniscient and vengeful, blurring the thin line between remembering and refusing to let go.

If Rahul’s last film in the genre, Bhramayugam , anchored horror in the circular perpetuation of caste violence, in Dies Irae , he showcases grief as a state of eerie psychological decay. This time, though, the horror is more grotesque.

From the stiffened hand of a corpse that cannot be bent, to jump scares and apparitions that reveal themselves in shadows and sightings, Rahul goes all out with Dies Irae . But beneath the well-executed theatrics of the genre, he also create