Ghoul (miniseries)

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Television series
German title ghoul
Original title Ghoul
Country of production India
original language Hindi , English
year 2018
Production
company		 Blumhouse Television , Phantom Films, Ivanhoe Pictures
length 45 minutes
Episodes 3 in 1 season ( list )
genre horror
Director Patrick Graham
idea Patrick Graham
script Patrick Graham
production Dipa de Motwane, Jason Blum , Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane
music Naren Chandavarkar, Benedict Taylor
Initial release August 24, 2018 on Netflix
occupation
synchronization

Ghoul is a three-part Indian Horror - miniseries from 2018 by Patrick Graham based on the myth of Arab Ghul based and was originally intended by Graham as a film. All 3 episodes were released worldwide in one go on Netflix on August 24, 2018 .

action

The series takes place in a dystopian , near future, in which after religious terrorist attacks the government has established a fascist police state with the new security agency "National Protection Squad" (NPS). Citizens who are anti-government, anti-national and disseminate corresponding thoughts and literature are arrested for re-education on suspicion of terrorism.

The Muslim Nida Rahim, who is training at the NPS academy in the "Advanced Interrogation Methods" department, reports her father, a teacher, for inflammatory literature and, before completing her training, is promoted to the "Meghdoot 31" interrogation center, where on On the same day of their arrival, the prisoner Ali Saeed, the most dangerous terrorist leader and greatest enemy of the state, was brought in. After he causes various interrogation officers to lose control during several interrogations by revealing their sins and secrets, Nida discovers that the prisoner is not a human, but a ghoul .

Mythology of the Ghoul

In the Persian - Arab culture, a ghoul is a dangerous demon that can change its shape and devour people. He also has these characteristics in the series. Here he is depicted as a vengeance demon summoned by a trade. When the ghoul reveals himself in his actual form, he is shown in the body of the last person taken over, but with blue-gray skin, overly long and pointed fingernails and teeth and completely black eyes. Nida, who then already suspects that Ali Saeed is not human, but does not yet understand what he is instead, receives an explanation from the Mawlawi about the mythology and properties of the ghoul in the third episode , which is also the first mention for the audience and explanation of the series title is:

“There is a ghoul in Arab legends. The man you locked up, this Ali Saeed, is not a human, a ghoul, a jinn ! The Hindus call such a monster or the devil. Anyone can summon the ghoul. He has to sell his soul for it and paint this mark here with blood. ... First the ghoul shows us all our sins, and then they become his tools. He uses it to destroy us completely. [...] That is exactly his most powerful weapon. He takes on the identity of the last person in whose flesh he struck his teeth. "

- Mawlawi : Episode 3

The symbol for summoning the ghoul consists of two quarter circles of an upper half, which are connected at the corners by an arch. The ritual also includes repeating the formula: "Complete the task, reveal your guilt, eat your flesh," which forms the title of the third episode.

Part of the explanation of the Mawlawi has Netflix for the third trailer for Ghul used August 9, titled the "What is Ghoul?" And to explain the series title. Netflix itself added the following description of the ghoul:

"According to Arabic folklore, a Ghoul is a demonic phantom or an evil spirit that blends in right with humans. The Ghoul is flaccid and can take the shape of any human. A human can trade his / her soul to call upon the Ghoul. It is also considered a fiendish Jinn who dwells in your past guilt, feeds on it and makes you feel remorseful. "

“According to Arabic folklore, a ghoul is a demonic or evil spirit that adapts to people exactly. The ghoul is limp and can take the shape of any human. A human can trade his soul to summon the ghoul. He is also seen as a devilish Djinn who dwells in your guilt of the past, feeds on it and makes you feel guilty. "

- Netflix

History and production

After reading a lot about modern torture , such as 9/11 and Camp X-Ray, British filmmaker Patrick Graham, who moved to Mumbai in 2010 , said he had a nightmare about an inmate in a prison that terrified the guards and prisoners. and after waking up this is developed into a script. When asked about the nature of the dark supernatural in his story, while reading about Arabic folklore, Graham came across the ghoul , which, due to its properties, was a perfect fit. Graham wanted to use a monster from a mythology previously unseen in horror, that zombies , vampires and werewolves were too hackneyed.

The script was originally supposed to be a movie , but had problems with the censorship authorities , possibly because of the portrayal of the army. After the announcement of a partnership between the production companies Blumhouse Productions , Ivanhoe Pictures and Phantom Films on September 3, 2014 for the production of Indian horror films , Graham joined Phantom Films and Ghul became the first production of this partnership. Filming began in India in 2016. The film was shot in the basement of the Tulip Star Hotel, according to the leading actress Apte, for over a month 14 hours a day in a damp, dark and foul-smelling location. After some material was shot for the film, Graham felt that a longer format would do the story better, and turned it into a miniseries after Netflix acquired the production rights in February 2018. This allowed background stories to be added for more character depth; much of the first episode, which shows Nida and her father's relationship, consists of such additional material.

Marketing and Publishing by Netflix

The series is the second Indian series production for Netflix after The Godfather of Bombay by Phantom Films, which was released in July 2018. Producer Vikramaditya Motwane and actress Radhika Apte already worked there. The advertisement for ghouls in India referred to this by painting over old posters for The Godfather of Bombay with the ritual symbol in blood to conjure up the ghoul. Netflix released a total of three trailers for Ghoul from July , including one without words and one that explains the series title. The pre-premiere of the series took place on August 22, 2018 in Mumbai on a black carpet matching the horror genre . Was published Ghul on Netflix worldwide on 24 August.

Episode list

No. German title Original title Initial release Director script
1 From the smokeless fire Out of the Smokeless Fire August 24, 2018 Patrick Graham Patrick Graham
Religious violence is rampant in the country and the government is taking strict action against it with secret prison camps. An anti-terrorist unit storms a suspected terrorist hideout and meets a distraught man smeared with blood who keeps saying: "Everyone is dead." Further down they find the terrorist leader Ali Saeed, who whispers something in the ear of the unit's captain, and arrest him .

A month beforehand: Nida Rahim and her father, who has literature for his students, run into a police checkpoint and her father is harassed, but Nida can see to it that they are let through. Her father shouts angrily that they will pay for it. But later she reports her father for inflammatory literature. During the first questioning, she asks him to cooperate and assures her that he will be released unharmed.
Now: Nida's training is terminated prematurely on the order of Lieutenant Colonel Dacunha and she is promoted to the Meghdoot 31 interrogation center. Major Laxmi Das expresses doubts about Nida because of her religion, because there are also Muslims among the prisoners. After a tour, she learns that the captured terrorist leader Ali Saeed will also arrive and that she should question him. Laxmi also doubts Dacunha because he is drinking again. Ali Saeed arrives at night during a thunderstorm.

2 The nightmares will begin The Nightmares Will Begin August 24, 2018 Patrick Graham Patrick Graham
When asked about his name for the first time, Ali Saeed is silent, but when Nida is supposed to hit him and question him, he tells her "Nidu", as she only called her father, and she is confused and unable to hit him. During the break, all the guards have nightmares, Nida some of her father. During the next interview with Chaudhari and Gupta, a baby screaming is suddenly heard and Saeed asks whose idea it was to kill the woman and the child. This leads to an argument in which Chaudhari stabs Gupta to death. Next, Dacunha wants to question Saeed alone when he begins to say something in an unfamiliar language. Nida lets the Islamic cleric hear it, who say it is Aramaic , which Ali Saeed actually cannot. Saeed suddenly speaks in the voice of Dacunha's wife, reproducing an argument between them. Furious, Dacunha executes Saeed electrically, causing a power outage. While everyone else is leaving, Nida hears her father's voice and asks the unconscious Saeed about him when she sees the ghoul in the dark. When the others return, she tries to warn them that Saeed is not human, and Dacunha has Faulad Singh, a notorious interrogator, brought to Meghdoot.
3 Reveal their guilt, eat their flesh Reveal Their Guilt, Eat Their Flesh August 24, 2018 Patrick Graham Patrick Graham
While Faulad Singh is in Ali Saeed's cell, Nida learns from the Mawlawi that Saeed is a ghoul, a man-eating shapeshifter who can be summoned through a ritual. The ghoul Saeed eats Faulad Singh and in his form frees the prisoners except for the mute Achmed, who is sitting in a special cell. Nida is pursued by Singh, but reaches the other guards in time, but they do not believe the story. Instead, Major Das suspects Nida of having freed the prisoners himself and of being a terrorist, and removes Dacunha with the others because he drinks a lot. Nida and Achmed are locked in a chamber where they find the other prisoners who have hidden there. Nida learns from them that Chaudhari and Gupta killed Achmed's wife and son to get him to talk, and realizes that they are in an execution chamber where their father was also killed. When a prisoner's body is found, it becomes clear that one of them is the ghoul. While the Mawlawi, the ghoul, attacks the others, Nida and Achmed escape through a chimney, but she is bitten. Upstairs, the two of them sneak into Dacunha's room and hide from a guard, downstairs the guards find Nida in the chamber. While the ghoul in Nida's form attacks the soldier above, Nida is tormented below by Laxmi, who tells that Ali Saeeds mentioned Nida's name when he was captured, but Laxmi is killed by Dacunha. He tells Nida that her father conjured the ghoul, and she realizes that the ghoul was right in criticizing the methods. The last of the living gather in Dacunha's room, where Nida plays the recording of her father's questioning and hears that he planned to see her witness the deeds of the ghoul. While Nida and Achmed escape the ghoul through a blown window, Dacunha detonates a hand grenade to kill him. After the called reinforcements arrive, Dacunha comes outside, but Nida thinks he's the ghoul and kills him. She is arrested and performs the ritual to summon the ghoul in the cell.

Cast and dubbing

The German synchronization is created for a dialogue book and the dialogue director of Angelika Scharf by the CSC Studio in Hamburg .

role actor Voice actor
Nida Rahim Radhika Apte Linda Foelster
Lieutenant Colonel Sunil Dacunha Manav Kaul Clemens Gerhard
Ali Saeed Mahesh Balraj Tomas Kroeger
Major Laxmi Das Ratnabali Bhattacharjee
Shahnawaz Rahim SM Zaheer

reception

In the IMDb reached Ghul a rating of 7.2 at about 10,000 given reviews and Rotten Tomatoes , a critic score of 86% and an audience rating of 79%. The critical consensus formulated there is: “Short, eerie and surprisingly moving; Ghul's infused variety of horror is well known but effective. "

In the Indian reception, the political criticism of the series is particularly praised. "Ghoul tackles social change alongside Relion in an effective and dramatic way." Saraswati Datar of News Minute writes:

“In a global environment where regimes in India and abroad are trying to make countries 'great' again or bring back 'ache din', Ghoul sounds a warning bell of the dangerous consequences of state sponsored intolerance. Like its titular ghoul, it reflects the cruelty and depravity we are all capable of and is an unfortunate reminder that inspite of the millions who lost their lives over the centuries, human beings are a cursed lot who will succumb to the same divisive demons of religion , politics, and their lovechild, intolerance. "

“In a global environment where regimes in India and beyond are trying to make their countries great again or bring back 'ache din' ( Hindi for 'good days'), Ghul is issuing a warning of the dangerous consequences of state-sponsored intolerance. Like the eponymous ghoul, it reflects the cruelty and depravity we are all capable of, and is an unfortunate reminder that despite the millions who have lost their lives over centuries, people are cursed to be the same divisive demons of religion, politics and whose child succumb to intolerance. "

- Saraswati Datar : The News Minute

The plot of the series is often found to be subversive. Rohan Naahar of the Hindustan Times criticizes, however, that the political structure and subtext of the beginning are abandoned and buried under the supernatural horror.

In Germany, Juliane Klein from Citizen Z sees the series as a “welcome change” and judges it positively: “Although the background tended towards mystery and superstition in some circumstances, the contrast to terror and military themes managed to capture this wonderfully. Here the story and, above all, the cinematic achievement could flourish and walk the tightrope with the viewer between gloomy folklore and real madness. ”The rating on film-rezensions.de is significantly more negative and overall only average:

“The idea of ​​actually wanting to combine two stories is more problematic. On the one hand there is the one given by the scenario: Ghoul tells of a world full of fear and brainwashing in which anyone would betray everyone. Kind of 1984, just in India. This is an attractive idea, but is hardly worked out here. After the beginning, which looked more closely at terror with a psychological component, the series then changes to a pure supernatural horror. But here, too, Ghul fails to build its own identity. Unlike the insider tip Under the Shadow, which cleverly combined Iranian society portraits with folkloric horror, both are neglected here. The most regrettable omission is that Graham used Persian-Arabic mythology for his eponymous monster instead of looking around in Indian. There is nothing to be seen here of horror made in India.

If you ignore the fact that Ghul wastes not only the initial scenario, but also the chance for original horror, the series is at least solid. Above all, Mahesh Balraj as a mysterious prisoner leaves a good, and indeed terrifying, impression. To be locked in a dungeon with a supernatural being is also always grateful. But not really much was made out of it, the skills of the ghoul are also used far too little, not to mention the boring characters. The hunt for criminals and monsters is unfortunately far from the hoped-for highlight. As a horror for a video evening, this exotic variant is not the worst choice. "

- Oliver Armknecht : film-rezensions.de

Awards and nominations

Ghul won the Golden Trailer Awards 2019 for best horror / thriller poster in a television or streaming series. At the Indian Television Academy Awards 2018, the two actresses Radhika Apte were nominated for best actress and Ratnabali Bhattacharjee for best supporting actress in a web series.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Netflix India: What is Ghoul - Teaser Trailer (HD) - Netflix on YouTube , August 9, 2018, accessed August 20, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Akhil Arora: Ghoul Trailer explains the meaning of the new Netflix Series . In: Gadgets360 ° . August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b Sankhayan Ghosh & Gayle Sequeira: Subversive, Artistic and Rooted: The New Hindi horror movie . In: Filmcompanion . August 24, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Kennith Rosario: From Arabic folklore to an Indian prison . In: TheHindu.com . August 23, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b Udita Jhunjhunwala: 'Ghoul' director Patrick Graham: 'I wanted to bring a new, old legend to the forefront' . In: scroll.in . August 22, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  6. ^ Evan Dickson: Blumhouse Partnering With Ivanhoe and Phantom to Make Horror Films in India . In: Collider . September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  7. ↑ a b Molli Mitchell: Ghoul on Netflix location: Where is Ghoul filmed? Where is it set? . In: Express . August 26, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  8. ↑ Netflix: On the set of 'Ghoul', starring Radhika Apte . In: ArchitecturalDigest . August 23, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  9. ↑ Akhil Arora: How Netflix's Ghoul Came to Be: 14 Hours a Day for Over a Month in a 'Leaky, Damp, and Horrible Smelling' Place . In: Gadgets360 ° . August 21, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  10. ↑ Akhil Arora: Netflix Adds Three New Originals to India Slate . In: Gadgets360 ° . February 23, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  11. ↑ Netflix series, Ghoul is taking over the city! . In: Times of India . August 14, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  12. ↑ Akhil Arora: Ghoul Meaning, Release Date, Cast, and Everything Else We Know . In: Gadgets360 ° . August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  13. ↑ Akhil Arora: Netflix's Ghoul gets new wordless trailer . In: Gadgets360 ° . August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  14. ↑ Ghoul screening: Kubbra Sait, Jim Sarbh and Sanya Malhotra walk the black carpet . In: TheIndianExpress . August 22, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  15. ↑ a b Ghoul. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing index , accessed on August 12, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Ghoul in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  17. ↑ Ghoul at Rotten Tomatoes (English)Template: Rotten Tomatoes / Maintenance / Various connoisseurs in Wikipedia and WikidataTemplate: Rotten Tomatoes / Maintenance / Wikidata name different from the page name
  18. ↑ Original: "Short, spooky, and unsurprisingly poignant, Ghoul's concentrated brand of horror is familiar, but effective." Ghul bei Rotten Tomatoes (English)Template: Rotten Tomatoes / Maintenance / Various connoisseurs in Wikipedia and WikidataTemplate: Rotten Tomatoes / Maintenance / Wikidata name different from the page name
  19. ↑ Sampada Sharma: Ghoul review: Netflix's latest series is unnerving because it is unafraid . In: IndianExpress . August 24, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  20. ↑ India has won! Good days are ahead: modes . In: The Hindu . May 16, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  21. ^ Saraswati Datar: 'Ghoul' review: Some genuine scares, and a frightening insight into the future . In: The News Minute . August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  22. ↑ Dipti Kharude: Netflix's 'Ghoul' Is Low on Scares but High on Subversive Ideas . In: The Quint . August 23, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  23. ↑ Alaka Sahani: Ghoul review: The series articulates perils of hyper-nationalism . In: Indian Express . August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  24. ↑ Rohan Naahar: Ghoul review: Netflix's Sacred Games follow-up is even braver, scary in unexpected ways . In: Hindustan Times . August 24, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  25. ↑ Juliane Klein: Ghoul Review - Is Netflix's Indian Horror Mini-Series Worth It? . In: Citizen Z . August 31, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  26. ↑ Oliver Armknecht: Ghoul Review . In: film-rezensions.de . August 25, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  27. ↑ The 20th Annual Golden Trailer Awards Winners . In: Golden Trailer . Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  28. ^ Indian Television Academy Awards, India 2018 . Retrieved August 20, 2019.