For years we have seen countless Bollywood films drawing inspiration not just from world cinema but also from folk lore and supernatural beliefs, developing story lines that sometime thrill and entertain or even leave you flabbergasted. Though there have been numerous films that have focussed on the genre of horror/ thriller that hit screens over the past years, this week we see the release of the horror film, DOBAARA: SEE YOUR EVIL, which is an official adaptation of a western horror flick Oculus that was well received.

Dobaara: See Your Evil is about a haunted mirror that has been claiming victims since centuries. The last victims were the Merchantt family, where the only surviving members are Kabir Alex Merchantt (Saqib Saleem) and his sister Natasha Merchantt (Huma Qureshi). Ten years ago, their parents Alex (Adil Hussain) and Lisa (Lisa Ray) had brought the mirror into their home, and were killed after a series of spooky events. But the blame of the murder was put on Kabir, who was sent to a correctional facility. In the present Kabir is released, declared mentally sane now.

Dobaara: See Your Evil fails to answer this question, but each of these actors spook you in this remake of Mike Flanagan's paranormal film Oculus. Things happen again and again inside a plush villa in the United Kingdom as the reel-life (and real life) brother-sister Saqeeb and Huma grapple with their childhood horrors. Adil, a sculptor, brings home an antique mirror and all hell, literally, breaks loose. The mirror is possessed with the spirit of a century-old witch who was burnt alive and is out to reek revenge.

Whatever is done can be done again. There is nothing new in this world. With this prophecy arrives a possessed mirror that can manipulate your mind even before you sense it. It has happened many times before and it's going to happen again. Your natural instinct is to destroy it but the mirror knows how to trick your subconscious. It's a self-defence tactic it has mastered over centuries. However, this time the potential victims, Natasha (Huma Qureshi) and Kabir (Saqeeb Salim), have braced themselves with the latest gadgets and a plan. They might not have realised it yet but the audience knows where they are headed.

The film is a remake of Mike Flanagan's 2013 horror film Oculus. Alex Merchant (Adil Hussain) is an artist settled in the United Kingdom. He has a beautiful wife Lisa (Lisa Ray) and two children Natasha and Kabir. They seem to be a happy family until one day when Alex buys an old mirror, which is allegedly possessed. Many centuries ago, in ancient Britain, a woman, accused of practicing witchcraft was burnt at the stake and her spirit was captured in the mirror. The spirit of the mirror kills whoever owns the mirror.

Oh no, yet another horror movie? Banish your fears. While Dobaara: See Your Evil isn't half as messy as all those grisly ghosts-and-ghouls flicks that Bollywood foists upon us, it isn't a spine-chiller either. The official remake of 2013's Oculus - it's so official that the writer-director of the original American film, Mike Flanagan, serves as executive producer here - isn't a slavish, exploitative copy. It assumes a life of its own. If only director Prawaal Raman had injected more muscle into the intriguing tale of a spooky, havoc-wreaking antique mirror, it would have been a cracker of a film. It isn't and that's a shame.

Let's face it: Bollywood does not do horror and spook stories well. The long intervals between the very few effective supernatural thrillers the industry has produced in the past century - such as Mahal, Madhumati and Bhoot - is a testament to that. In the same year as Ram Gopal Varma's Bhoot, in 2003, director Prawaal Raman did manage an interesting anthology of short stories titled Darna Mana Hai (Fear Is Not Allowed). The genre has suffered a drought since then.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, are you the most evil of them all? This is a question, 25-year-old Natasha keeps asking a haunted mirror, an exhibit that is waiting to be auctioned in the gallery she works at. Standing there in front of this object she so despises, she recalls her childhood--when her parents, father Alex (Adil) and her mother Lisa (Lisa), her brother Kabir and their pet Rambo were so blissed out. But she also vividly remembers how things took a turn for the worse, when their dad brought home a `haunted' mirror.