Cult — All Blood, Not Enough Dread

Cult — All Blood, Not Enough Dread

Rating: 2/5 · Telugu · Slasher action thriller · Released 30 October 2026 · Certificate: A · Runtime: 2h 32m · Director: Vishwak Sen · Music: Ravi Basrur · Cast: Vishwak Sen, Gayatri Bharadwaj, Tarak Ponnappa, Murali Sharma, Srikanth Iyengar

Vishwak Sen deserves credit for nerve. Cult, which he directs and headlines, is pitched as a true slasher, a genre Telugu cinema rarely attempts. But a slasher lives on fear, and for all its gore, this one rarely makes you afraid.

Sen plays DSP Sankalp Nayak, a no-nonsense cop newly posted to Goa. Meanwhile, a group of college friends attends an exclusive party at an isolated estate thrown by a minister's son. A masked Game Master seals more than 300 guests inside a venue rigged with explosives and forces them into a deadly survival game. Sankalp has to get in, keep them alive and unmask the killer.

Sen's screen presence is the film's engine. His entry and action blocks are raw and physical, and the interval block lands with real punch. Ravi Basrur's thunderous score is easily the strongest technical element, and the final act, where the trapped guests fight back, finally delivers the energy the trailer promised. The production design of the party venue is also impressive.

The games themselves, though, are neither clever nor suspenseful, and the comparisons to Squid Game do the film no favours. The first half is slow, the post-interval stretch sags, and at over two and a half hours it needed a firmer edit. Beyond Sankalp, the characters are plot devices, and capable actors like Murali Sharma and Srikanth Iyengar are wasted. By the second half, the slasher drifts into a routine hero-versus-villain actioner.

Critics landed between 1.25 and 2.75 stars, and the film opened weakly at the box office.

Verdict: A bold experiment with a strong lead, a great score and a decent climax, undone by thin writing and toothless suspense. Only for committed fans of gory action, and strictly adults only.

Critical reception drawn from: Flickonclick (incl. 123Telugu and 10TV ratings), Gulte, Deccan Chronicle,