When fear takes over

When six strangers embark on a journey into the interiors of the Malnad region little do they foresee that they would come face to face with something that they can neither comprehend nor overcome. 

They encounter the worst crisis of their lives but none of the six are willing to give up. They are ready to confront what they call a super natural phenomenon and decipher it to its logical end. This is what SD Aravinda’s latest project, ‘Last Bus’ seeks to explore. 

Aravinda has played around with ordinary emotions to create something unique and different for the audience. The team has spent a lot of time understanding and researching the visual effects to be incorporated in the movie. 

“The various visual effects created in every scene is not to be missed. If one scene shows hundreds of bats swarming around and attacking people at the same time, another captures innumerable fireflies in the haunted house and yet another scene shows how the dried leaves come together to form something that resembles a man,” explains Aravinda.

The visual effects are at its best when the six people are stranded in a house. “The chain of events that happens in the haunted house are so quick that those caught in the situation hardly have any time to react. They can’t even think of what to do to save themselves. That’s when fear takes over and people begin to experience extreme emotions,” explains Aravinda. He concedes that fear forms the base of the movie and according to Aravinda, it does well to fire one’s imagination. “I feel people must celebrate fear instead of getting scared about it because fear forces people to think hard and literally jolts them into action and helps focus better,” reasons Aravinda. He feels people should look at fear in a positive way. 

He points out that the idea is not only to entertain people but to get them thinking about a host of issues and happenings around them. 

“I’ve observed that people like to get scared and many  times people associate with fear in a positive way. That’s why you find that the horror genre is very popular with movie buffs. The many scenes in the movie also challenge and puts to test one’s faith and belief in difficult times,” states Aravinda.  

The movie stands out not only for its breathtaking visual effects but effort has been made to shoot the film at the most exclusive and explored places such as Devaramane — a mountain range in Chikkamagalur district.

 The mountain ranges in Byrapura, Kundadri, and other virgin locations in Malnad have been explored and some of the scenes have been captured using drone cameras. 

The movie is releasing on January 15.