India, 1918. On the outskirts of Tumbbad, a cursed village where it always rains, Vinayak, along with his mother and his brother, care of a mysterious old woman who keeps the secret of an ancestral treasure that Vinayak gets obsessed with.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.8/10
IMDb: 8.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.69/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Rahi Anil Barve
Production
Filmgate Films, Film i Väst, Sohum Shah FIlms, Colour Yellow Productions, Eros International
A visually striking, folklore-rooted horror fantasy that turns greed into a literal descent into the earth. Its atmosphere, creature design, and mythic scale make it stand out well beyond a standard genre exercise.
Best for
Viewers who like dark fairy tales and mythic horror
Fans of lush cinematography and practical creature work
Audiences interested in Indian folklore and period settings
People who enjoy horror with strong thematic bite about greed and obsession
Skip if
You want fast-paced, jump-scare-heavy horror
You prefer straightforward plots over allegorical storytelling
You dislike slow-burn atmosphere and grim endings
You are looking for light fantasy or conventional monster-movie thrills
Overview
Tumbbad is the kind of horror film that feels excavated rather than manufactured. Set in a rain-soaked village and steeped in folklore, it builds a world where greed is not just a vice but a curse with physical consequences. The result is both eerie and strangely beautiful, with imagery that lingers long after the story moves on.
Worth noting
What makes it especially effective is how committed it is to its own nightmare logic. The film’s creature design, lighting, and production design give it a handmade grandeur, while the central descent into treasure-hunting becomes increasingly grotesque and tragic. It plays like a dark fable about inheritance, appetite, and the cost of wanting more.
Bottom line
It is not a breezy watch, and it is not interested in reassuring you. But for viewers open to slow-burn horror with mythic ambition, Tumbbad delivers something rare: a genre film that feels culturally specific, visually rich, and genuinely unsettling.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Liz (3★) · 1548 likes
Womb Raider
sydney (4★) · 773 likes
capitalism really does have men crawling into the womb of the earth to rip out enough money for a sex slave and a baby machine and hoard the rest just so nobody else can have it...damn! also some of the best lighting in a horror movie ever, and very gooey and gnarly and disturbing
cherryz (4.5★) · 484 likes
'Grandmother you have a tree growing through you'.....oh my how they both laughed. Goto sleep or Hestor will get you......zzzzzzz
You can't discourage a youngster and their eagerness for treasure! This is bloody brilliant. Grandmother is terrifying, yet there is far worse in store. As much as she'd like to eat him, she warns her grandson to forget the treasure! Granny hearts him after all.
The journey Vinayak goes on for the sake of gold coin is incredible. Its scary as hell. I tell you he's earned his dosh.
This Indian horror done good, a big dough doll smile from me.
chakkaroh (5★) · 327 likes
Holy fuck.
Just imagine the amount of folklore and traditional stories that are in our culture that has been overlooked because we've been trying to imitate the rest of the world.
Just imagine the possibilities if we truly embrace our collective past and make films that are truly rooted in ourselves and not the identity we have forged by plagiarising other cultures.
Tumbbad has open up a vast land of untold stories that are burning to be told and I have goosebumps when I think about the future that I'm going to be part of.
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3★) · 193 likes
Having seen a number of action movies from various locations in India, I came across this horror movie and decided to vary it up a bit.
The film eventually has its moments of inventiveness and fantastic make-up work, with the tree emerging out of this tetric creature, the gore, and the whole scene within the heart of the primary demon of this picture being one of its great attributes. The cinematography is also simple yet effective in setting the tone.… more