Vash Vivash Level 2 Review: A Rare Sequel That Truly Terrifies And Lingers Long After It Ends
Vash Level 2 manages to provide memorable horror imagery and an unsettling premise that makes the credits roll seem interminable.
Krishnadev Yagnik's "Vash Level 2" is an aggressive, violent, and ambitious follow-up that has the guts to increase the stakes of its first part — sometimes to disturbingly effective measure, sometimes at the expense of sense. With the sleeper hit Vash (2023), this Gujarati horror-thriller comes back with bigger stakes, a larger canvas, and an unnerving new nemesis that transforms a school into a setting for psychological terror.
Twelve years after the first, Vash Level 2 does not hesitate to immerse itself in its hell. A typical day at a girls' school turns into chaos rapidly as students come under a sinister hypnotic spell. The metamorphosis is petrifying — adolescents, who were once beacons of hope and purity, turn into creepy, robotic predators. Synchronized terrace jumps and public acts of violence are profoundly unsettling, hinting at the suspense of a slasher movie mixed with the craziness of the zombie apocalypse.
Whereas Vash employed a close, claustrophobic space and close-in family melodrama to heighten the horror, the sequel broadens its focus — unevenly. More characters, more action, and more set pieces fill out the expanded plot, but sacrifice some of the first film's tightness and emotional hold. The anarchy is intentional, sometimes slipping into confusion.
Janki Bodiwala, newly minted with a National Award for Vash, takes a surprisingly low-key role in this one. Her character resides in a frightening vegetative state for much of the movie, her stiff smile as disturbing as any scream. Though she only has one big scene of influence, her unnerving quietness contributes a haunting element to the atmosphere of the film.
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While its excesses of narrative pull it down, Vash Level 2 manages to provide memorable horror imagery and an unsettling premise that makes the credits roll seem interminable. It's less tight than its predecessor, but it's ambitious in trying to reinvent the franchise in something greater — and significantly darker.
