Anna Mathews, Oct 24, 2025, 05.04 PM ISTCritic's Rating: 3.0Story: The peace of Nellikkampoyil village is disrupted with the appearance of an a two-legged, hoofed creature of the night. Can the youngsters of the village catch this 'ghost'?
Review: Nellikkampoyil Night Riders is a horror thriller film with Mathew Thomas in the lead.
Shyam (Mathew) comes home to Nellikkampoyil from Mangaluru for holidays and spends the days catching up with friends and his girlfriend. But the peace of the village is disrupted with the appearance of an otherworldly form, a two-legged, hoofed creature of the night. While villagers try to hunt him down, Shyam stays clear of such attempts, because he has a secret that he carries. He is scared of the dark, because he has his own personal ghost.
But when his girlfriend and their families suffer, Shyam and his friends decide to tackle the problem head on.
Nellikkampoyil Night Riders, like Sumati Valavu, is set in the 80s or 90s, before mobile phones could make fighting and spotting ‘ghosts’ easier. The first half of the film, helmed by director-editor Noufal Abdullah, benefits immensely from the music by the Neha Nair-Yakzan Gary Pereira duo, Abilash Shankar's camera work and the edits. All the departments come together brilliantly to give you scares that get under your skin and stay with you scene after scene. But that is in the first half.
In the second half, the film is let down by sluggish writing - Sunu AV and Jyothish M. The identity of the ‘ghost’ also feels quite uninspired. Still, there is some novelty in the script and the scary first half keeps interest going. The characters - good acting by all, including Mathew and Sarath Sabha - and romance, too, are different from what we usually see.
And in one scene, when Shyam feels haunted by his ghost and screams from his bedroom, no help comes. But once he stops screaming after the ghost has disappeared, his mother calls out, ‘Has she gone?’ It’s a hilarious, clever scene that adds up when the film is over.
Because this is a horror film not about making the spirit go away, but about conquering one’s fears.