“A single creak in the night—only then do we realise how deep family secrets can burrow.”

orror at its best thrives within the fine line between what it presents and what it leaves implicit. Deemak—a psychological thriller through impressive performances and a director willing to trust his actors—balances these elem-ents with a chilling sense of precision.

Without revealing too much, the exchanges between a man and a woman, and between a mother and son work far beyond cultural extremes. They remind us that domestic anx-ieties and suppressed traumas are universal.

An unexpectedly refreshing film, it explores the tense relationship between Samina Peerzada’s bedridden matriarch, Kulsoom, and her daughter-in-law, Hiba.

Kulsoom’s possessiveness knows no limits. She refuses to share Faraz’s affections—even when he becomes a father himself. Faraz (Faysal Quraishi) wrestles with his divided loyalties between love and duty. For Hiba (Sonya Hussyn), Faraz’s wife, there’s bitter hatred towards her mother-in-law for their perpetual battle for her son’s attention. From the beginning, the film takes us to a world in which recognisable domestic dynamics have a creepy........

© The News on Sunday