Balloon Movie Review: A Template Horror Comedy That Does It’s Job Neatly

Balloon, starring Jai and Anjali in the lead roles, is a typical horror comedy movie.

We all know how much of horror comedy movies we had in the past few years and towards the end of 2017 we have one more to add to the list.

This genre (horror comedy) became very popular in 2014-2017 that every director attempted some kind of horror comedy combination.

We also had a few refreshing ones like Yaamirukka Bayamey, Darling, Aranmanai, Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae, Maragadha Naanayam, and Kaashmora.

Aval stood out from the rest and took horror to extreme and left no room for comedy – it did well too!

Now we have Balloon that’s a perfectly templated horror comedy. In fact the director of Balloon, Sinish, openly admits that.

He lists the movies that he got inspiration from while writing the story/script for Balloon.

The list includes the popular Hollywood movies like Mama, The Conjuring and also It. In fact we can see a scene in the movie that’s very similar to the one that is seen in “It”.

Since the director has raised his hands by giving credits, we get to know what can be expected from the movie.

We don’t end up expecting too much and then get disappointed.

Sinish certainly deserves a pat on the back for his honesty – smart move!

Nevertheless, Balloon manages to keep the audience entertained by scarring them as well as making them laugh.

Especially when you know when you’ll be scared, its really challenging to scare you, right? But Balloon does manage to scare you at places thanks to the BG and the smart script.

The story is not something exceptionally new – Jeevanand (Jai) sets out to a haunted location, a house near a haunted house, to get inspiration for writing a horror script.

He is accompanied by wife Jacqueline (Anjali), friends/assistants Yogi Babu and Karthik Yogi and his nephew Pappu.

Jeevanand is someone who neither believes in ghosts nor in God. Soon after their arrival they start to witness eerie happenings at their own house.

We then have possessed characters, exorcism, scares, and so on. We are also presented with a flashback where Jai again appears as a balloon seller (Charlie).

There is a love track between Charlie and Shenbagavalli (Janani). We have Joy, a girl that Charlie wanted to adopt.

The flashback could have been a bit more emotionally intensive as it fails to make an impact. Jai’s performance/appearance as a clown is neat.

Once the reason behind the eerie happenings is revealed, the movie starts to become more and more predictable and loses the thrill.

However, the use of comedy at right proportions and the right timings keeps the movie going without boring the audience.

Yogi Babu deserves a special mention for giving us the laughs. The comedy is used in the right amount – neither too much nor too little.

The comedy is used generously in the first half and very minimally in the second half – we get laughs and reliefs despite the scares in the first half, while the second half gears towards a more serious approach.

The climax has a twist, but that’s not a surprise or a “wow” factor.

Yuvan Shankar Raja deserves a special mention for his background scores without which the scary scenes would have simply fallen flat.

Balloon is a subtle combination of horror, comedy, tragedy, sentiment, surprise and even politics. But did it work?

The comedy worked great for sure. The rest worked in bits and pieces.

Nevertheless, Balloon is an entertainer.