Rahul Sadasivan is a serious man. The same realisation came to those who bravely sat through the late night preview of Dies Irae, the film's sequel to Bramayugam.

He and Pranav Mohanlal have created something that is nothing less than a short, exciting and terrifying experience. Horror that slowly crawls up your spine and... plays with your hair is at its best in this strange and uncompromising form.

Maybe the way to judge a horror movie is by how well it stops the three people who have been yapping beside us with their popcorn buckets. (Who would consider eating in the middle of a scary film? Another man placed separate orders for dinner and dessert prior to and following the intermission.

Dies Irae is the kind of movie that can cut through the background noise, it introduces enough chaos to make you sit up and take notice. Ice cream and popcorn bucket can wait. The happenings up there are far colder than your ice cream melting.

In Bhoothakaalam and Bramayugam Sadasivan has already shown that he thinks differently than any other filmmaker working in Malayalam cinema now.

He demonstrates once more with Dies Irae that a minimalist and formalist approach can produce the most terrifying effects. The early parts of the movie make a great attempt at deception.

The rug (or bedsheet) is pulled out from under you just when you think you're seeing something you've seen before. In terms of the level of fear it arouses it is more akin to actual genre outings from recent Korean films like Exhuma and The Wailing.

To create an immersive audio visual experience that is comparable to the best of international cinema, Sadasivan his incredibly talented cinematographer Shehnad Jelal, composer Christo Xavier and the sound department whose work deserves to be seen on an Atmos screen use what is readily available and well known.

In contrast to some recent overhyped and extravagant extravaganzas which have demonstrated that too many cooks can ruin the broth, Dies Irae also benefits from having few characters.