I refrain from watching trailers (like always) and saw this movie when it was available on Netflix. I really wanted to find out why people liked it and the rating it got on IMDB suggested a good watch as well. The following may contain SPOILERS so read at your own risk.
Sadly, none of that is true. The movie is as bad as it gets. Using "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" for this "comedy horror" was just to tarnish the original's name and to cash in on it.
Now for the acting, I could sense that Karthik was told to watch every Akshay Kumar movie because he tries so hard to imbue Akshay's persona into his that it is visible. I don't mean this as a compliment. The producers couldn't afford Akshay so they tried to turn Karthik into him? This doesn't settle with me. Karthik did try his best though so points to that.
Obviously, not to anyone's surprise, the saving grace of the movie is Tabu. Her acting really enhances the flow of the movie. The special effects used for her double role reminds me of Dhoom 3 but that was bound to happen as they copied the mirror sequence from it. Anyway, Tabu's screentime in the movie is what I looked forward to and she made her presence known in every scene. This was worth it.
Regarding the "comedy" part of this "horror comedy", I couldn't stop laughing mainly because I never started. The scenes with Rajpal Yadav and Sanjay Mishra are atrocious as Yadav looks 'done' with the movie and all the scenes with Mishra accompany cheap 'deaf' humour which fails to make you laugh.
The story, could've been better. It starts weirdly and ends abruptly. There are characters in the movie (looking at you 'Mihir') who are underutilized at a level that I want to call it a crime. The story definitely could've used more work. Karthik's character at the beginning comes off as very stalker-y and creepy. Furthermore he convinces Kiara to attend this once in a lifetime party while on her way home which is easily a plot to a slasher movie. Also, this "party" is in the middle of nowhere and I was really weirded out by the camerawork and VFX done here.
It seemed like want to prove that they had a VFX person working for them so they used him everywhere possible. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The more you get into the story, the worse it gets. There is a part that has been copied from Avengers! They copied it, but they made it worse! I really don't understand who approved that!? The makeup team which handled Manjulika was really well done. Like I said, everything relating to Tabu in the movie, is good if not decent.
This point here is a bit subjective and applies to some other movies as well. Through the years, I have started noticing background scores used in the scenes to enhance or make you feel a particular emotion. From TV serials to movies, everyone utilizes them in some or the other capacity. The way that this was done in this movie is laughable because they've zero creativity. They've used the "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" theme song's musical version and remixed it with some reverb and other tones and used it almost EVERYWHERE in the movie. If it's not this, then it's "Ami je tomaar". No matter the tone of the scene, they've used one of the two and passed it off as background score. It would've been better to not have any.
All in all, I've spent around half an hour writing a review that no one will probably read for a movie that everyone will hate.
Bad movie. (+1 only for Tabu)