The crimes are bigger and bloodier in Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders, and the motives even messier; but at its core, the film is a hollow reproduction of its genre predecessors, a familiar formula traced into an inferior product. By Karan Madhok

Flash fiction by Karan Madhok: ‘Kunal imagines Yashaswi Sir running in the dark, back towards the bus, through the grass and the weeds and the shrubs. Over snakes and rabbits and frogs. Away from the light, seeing nothing, vacuum only making way for more vacuum.’