Red Lorry Film Festival will commence in Mumbai’s leading cinema halls from March 13–15, positioning the city as a temporary hotspot for international filmmaking.
The festival’s horror programming ranges from psychological classics to contemporary crowd favourites that probe fear, trauma, belief systems and the uncanny.
This listicle highlights must-watch horror titles from the lineup, along with their screening venues and timings.
Mumbai is set to transform into a global cinematic hub as the Red Lorry Film Festival (RLFF) takes over the city’s most prestigious screens from March 13 to 15. While the lineup spans everything from high-octane action to romance and poignant world drama, it is the horror-thriller selection that offers the most chilling and visceral experience. In the curated darkness of a cinema hall, horror creates a shared language of thrill and dread alike. This year’s selection blends timeless psychological masterpieces with recent viewer-favourites that use the genre to explore trauma, relationships, rituals and the supernatural.
For those seeking the festival’s most intense horror storytelling, here are ten terrifying films (listed in no particular order) that will serve as the ultimate roadmap:
1. A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Jee-woon, 2003)
Where to Watch: PVR ICON (Sat, 2:50 PM) | PVR Juhu (Sun, 10:45 PM).
This landmark South Korean horror follows sisters Su-mi (Im Soo-jung) and Su-yeon (Moon Geun-Young) as they return from a mental institution to a secluded country estate. Domestic life quickly sours as a cruel stepmother and ghostly apparitions blur the lines between reality and psychosis. It remains a masterclass in atmospheric tension and Shakespearean-level tragedy.
2. Strange Harvest (Stuart Ortiz, 2024)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 2 (Sat, 10:45 PM) | PVR Citi Mall, Screen 1 (Fri, 8:20 PM).
A chilling mockumentary that tracks two detectives chasing "Mr. Shiny," an elusive serial killer active across California’s Inland Empire for decades. Blending police interviews with crime-scene reconstructions, the film slowly shifts from a true-crime procedural into a terrifying occult mystery tied to a rare planetary alignment.
3. The Whisper (Gustavo Hernández, 2025)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 1 (Fri, 12:15 PM) | Cinépolis, Screen 4 (Sat, 8:20 PM).
Lucía and her brother Adrián flee their violent father for a remote mansion, only to find that sanctuary can be just as dangerous as the threat left behind. As they fight for survival, a dark family curse begins to manifest in this atmospheric Spanish-language chiller.
4. Whistle (Corin Hardy, 2025)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 2 (Sun, 2:00 PM) | PVR Citi Mall, Screen 1 (Fri, 10:30 PM).
From the director of The Nun (2018), this high-school horror introduces an Olmec death whistle that summons death to anyone who hears its sound. Set against a windswept British coast, the film follows a group of students as they are hunted by the physical embodiment of their own future demises.
5. Son of Sara: Volume 1 (Houston Bone, 2023)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 6 (Fri, 11:00 AM) | PVR Citi Mall, Screen 1 (Sun, 10:30 PM).
Sara (Chloe Van Landschoot) and her partner Carol (Tymika Tafari) are on the verge of welcoming their child. As unsettling cravings and disturbing visions begin to trouble Sara, she agrees to attend a dinner invitation that soon descends into a violent and grotesque ordeal.
6. The Mermaid (Soudabeh Moradian, 2024)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 1 (Fri, 10:45 PM) | Cinépolis, Screen 4 (Sun, 11:20 AM).
A mysterious young woman is rescued from the sea by a fractured family living in an isolated beach house. As she grows closer to them, the bond becomes increasingly intimate and complicated, eventually leading everyone toward an irreversible turning point.
7. Dolly (Rod Blackhurst, 2025)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 1 (Sat, 11:00 PM) | PVR Citi Mall (Sun, 3:20 PM).
Based on Rod Blackhurst’s 2022 short film Babygirl, the film follows Macy, a young woman who is abducted by a monstrous figure determined to raise her as their own child. The story unfolds through a series of grim, relentless set pieces and revels in deliberately excessive gore.
8. Disforia (Christopher Cartagena González, 2025)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 1 (Sun, 10:45 PM) | Cinépolis, Screen 3 (Sat, 11:55 AM).
Disforia is a Spanish psychological horror film based on the novel by David Jasso. Esther and Tomás are a young couple fleeing the looting of their town with their eight-year-old daughter, Say. They travel to a rural house they had bought in better times. Their plan is to sell the property and escape to France. But Tomás is concealing other intentions.
9. Dead Of Winter (Brian Kirk, 2025)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 2 (Sun, 6:10 PM) | PVR Juhu, Screen 1 (Fri, 12:55 PM).
A grief-stricken widow stops by a remote cabin after getting lost on the back roads of Minnesota in the middle of winter. She soon finds herself in a desperate fight for survival as she encounters a murderous couple holding a young woman hostage.
10. I Saw The Devil (Kim Jee-woon, 2010)
Where to Watch: INOX Maison, Screen 4 (Sun, 3:00 PM) | PVR ICON (Fri, 5:20 PM).
For those who prefer their horror served with a side of extreme vengeance, this Korean masterpiece is a relentless cat-and-mouse game between a secret agent and a serial killer. After his pregnant fiancée is brutally killed, Secret Service agent Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun) embarks on a relentless quest for vengeance. Once he locates the murderer, he captures him and compels him to ingest a GPS tracking capsule so he can monitor his movements.
