<strong>Rannvijay Singh's paranormal thriller '3 A.M.' fails to deliver genuine scares</strong><br/> What's it about: 3 A.M. is the story of three childhood friends who manage to stay close over the years. Sunny (Rannvijay Singh) is the host of a reality TV show produced by his close friends Raj (Kavin Dave) and Cyrus (Salil Acharya). Everything seems to be going fine until Sunny's girlfriend Sarah ( Anindita Nayar) is found dead at a haunted spot. Shocked by what has happened, Sunny decides to go to the same place where she died and explore the paranormal phenomenon taking place. What happens later is a spoiler that needs to be watched, not told.

So many humdrum, predictable, one dimensional horror movies are being churned out of the Bollywood factory, that maybe it's time we should start dreading the prospect of watching one more such assembly line product more than the poor ghosts in the movie.

Director Vishal Mahadkar's second outing may not be a sequel, but it uses the same old notes to scare us. Creaking doors, moaning voices, dark woods, deserted mills, red eyes, and black magic. The techniques used are so predictable that instead of instilling horror, it is massively mirth inducing. '3 AM: The Hour of the dead' is set on the premise that demonic beasts and evil spirits come to life at the ungodly hour of 3 am. Instead of focusing on horror, Rannvijay Singh's MTV experiences are replicated in '3 am', where he is the host of a television reality show, albeit a faux one that explores the city's most haunted places. The VJ turned actor has worked hard to improve his acting skills, though more often than not you keep thinking this is another Roadies' Task.

It has always been known that life exists across parallel yet different plains, but the most intriguing being the plain that houses the realm of the spirit world. For ages, man has been engaged in the never ending quest of finding and proving that such a realm exists, with reports from every corner of the world sporadically throwing up instances of paranormal activity, the theory of ghosts, spirits and the undead have gained momentum and even films being made on the same.

The success of Raaz 12 years ago ushered in an era of a mutant genre: The Musical Horror. Apart from Broadway or unless your name is Tim Burton, I don't see how these two mutually exclusive genres can be combined effectively, which is why one is hard pressed to remember a quality spine-chilling Hindi flick since Ramgopal Varma's Bhoot. The wait continues with this film. 3 AM is the demonic hour when spirits chill between our world and theirs, turning into human-consuming menaces (ghosts). If this actually held true, many writers including this one wouldn't have careers (or lives). In fact, I'm writing this at 3 AM...but we digress.

What's Good: The intention to explore a new space in the horror genre and a few chills. What's Bad: The film picks up plot too late and loses steam soon enough. Amidst a high voltage, chilling scene, the film breaks into a song sequence and goes into a flashback mode.

Story: After the mysterious death of his girlfriend at the haunted Rudra Mills, a reality TV host and his friends venture into the forbidden land to determine whether ghosts exist. To gather proof, they plan to capture the supposed paranormal activities on camera. Do they survive? Review: Going by the title, the film also enlightens those who've unheard of 3 A.M being the 'devil's hour', where ghosts are thought to be at their most powerful. Can Sunny (Rannvijay Singh) and his friends (Salil Acharya, Kavin Dave) manage to decode the mystery surrounding the mills during this ungodly hour?

This year has been particularly eventful in Hindi movies' horror genre. Kicking off with the rather unambiguously named Darr@ the Mall that released in February, as many as seven horror films have hit the marquee so far. While Sunny Leone-starrer Ragini MMS 2 scored decently at the box office, others -- on account of poor content (Bipasha Basu's Creature 3D) and/or lack of marketing (Machchli Jal Ki Rani Hai) -- departed as unceremoniously as they had arrived.

<strong>3 AM is a slick scare fest</strong><br/> It's a film that does the horror genre proud. It's original and inspite of being a horror film, there is not even one creaky door in the length and breadth of the film. Yes, portions of the film are clumsy and embarrassing, specially the way the youngsters at the prologue are shown to talk. Why must all the 19 year olds talk with "dudes" and "bros" thrown in like noodles in a chicken dish? Serves no purpose. Fortunately, 3 AM doesn't rely on too many external props to wean us in its favour. It stays true to the horror genre without buckling under the pressure of perpetuating terror. The frights flow naturally.