Review of 31st October (2016) by Zacho D — 30 Sep 2015

VIFF Review: "October 31st" believe it or not has nothing to do with Halloween or a white girl ordering a pumpkin spice latte. It's about the tragic true story that took place on October 31st, 2014 where Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own body guards who happened to be of the Sikh religion. Because of this, every non Sikh in the land went out to hunt down and kill every Sikh that they could find and this lasted for several days. The movie follows a Sikh family and their struggle for survival through the catastrophe.

Sounds like it would be a fantastic movie right? Not quite. Though the story itself is actually quite entertaining and it captures the tragedy on the big screen well, it has a lot of problems in the production area where if they only had a larger budget, they could have really nailed it out of the park. This would normally be a small issue, but the production problems in this film are large and distracting to the point that it really takes you out at a lot of moments. From the horrid sound design and sound editing that is hilarious, cheesy film editing and effects, and some bad dialogue here and there, it all effects the film very negatively. I hope someone can come back with a larger budget and make this story really come to life sometime in the future!

With all that being said though, the vioence is intense at parts with mobs literally beating and burning people in the streets and their homes. It also has a pretty good score, and pretty good performances throughout, so I am definitely recommending this one, just don't expect greatness or even a particularly good film.

I'm also recommending this film for the scene where a small character grabs a cigarette and "Smoking and liquor kills" appears on the left hand side of the screen for a solid 2 minutes as the guy smokes and drinks. Not even smoking and alcohol will harm your health, they "kill".