418 movie review: A locked room only works as a horror device if what is behind it is worth the wait. The audience will tolerate the slow build, the unanswered questions, the hallways shot in low light, only if the reveal justifies the patience. The contract between a horror film and its audience is simple: scare me now, or promise me something worth being scared of later. Break that contract and no amount of sound design or dark corridors will save the film. 418, the Prashanth Neel -presented horror thriller, fails to honour this, other than in its middle act that the rest of the film does not deserve.

The year is 2020, just before the Covid-19 lockdown. A new batch of students arrives at VIMS, a medical college in a remote part of coastal Karnataka. Among them is Vivek, a young man whose parents bring him to the hostel and leave him in a building that was originally a mental asylum. Room No. 418, the room adjacent to where Vivek and his roommate Rohith are living, is locked and off-limits.…