The Deserving review – mute serial killer yarn takes cues from horror classics of the past

Here is a horror film with a decent premise. Karter (Venkat Sai Gunda) is an artistic sort – specifically, a photographer, apparently of some renown. He’s also mute. And a serial killer. He’s depressed; he feels trapped by his crimes, but he can’t stop killing, he doesn’t want to go to prison and he can’t quite face suicide. One day, he begins to feel he isn’t alone in his house. It seems the vengeful ghosts of his victims are resting uneasily and have set out to torment him.

But there’s something here that just falls short. It’s a shame that the film-makers were working with such an evidently small budget: the vengeful ghosts are giving Halloween at Alton Towers vibe, which blunts the spook factor somewhat. You can detect delicious whiffs of classics like Peeping Tom, Carnival of Souls and Psycho in the air as the film begins, but rather than building as it goes into something special in its own right, The Deserving runs out of steam.

Likewise, the fact that the lead is mute is intriguing, until it isn’t. To begin with, this facet of his character forces Sai Gunda to perform without the usual means of expression available to an actor: not just dialogue, but tone of voice and so on. It’s the sort of limitation that can bring out the best in a performer. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t quite have the depth of storytelling needed for this choice to fully sustain; by the end, you’re kind of hoping for a miracle twist enabling him to find his voice.

To begin with, everything is so promising, but by the end you’ve not really learned or experienced much you didn’t have a flavour of half an hour in. You could edit the film into an excellent and genuinely creepy 20-minute short and not really miss anything. As a calling card for a bigger and better resourced project, it’s not at all bad, it’s just frustrating that something which starts so well can’t sustain that initial interest.

• The Deserving is on digital platforms from 1 October.