Haunted 3D Echoes of the Past review: This AI + Vikram Bhatt collab is what happens when nobody cares anymore

HAunted 3D: Echoes of the PastDirector: Vikram BhattCast: Mimoh Chakraborty, Praneet Bhatt, Mannveer Choudharry, and Chetna PandeRating: ★In preoccupied 3D: Echoes of the yesteryear, Mimoh Chakraborty's type Dev says, "When the unacceptable becomes possible, the only when thing left to believe is the impossible." It sounds absurd until you look at this week's box office. Somehow, films as painstakingly assembled as Imtiaz Ali's Main Vaapas Aaunga and Kangana Ranaut's Bharat Bhaagya Viddhaata have opened below Vikram Bhatt's latest horror flick. At this point, the supernatural isn't on screen; it's at the ticket window. The trade has always had one golden rule: expect the unexpected. This weekend, it feels more like a warning than advice.I sauntered into a half-full theatre and settled into my seat, expecting a run-of-the-mill horror film. After all, Vikram churns them out with such regularity, they seem to emerge from the same assembly line. Yet somehow, Haunted 3D: Echoes of the Past manages to sink shockingly low, even by his own standards.The premiseThe story revolves around Dev (Mimoh Chakraborty), a successful filmmaker who mysteriously disappears to Nainital without informing anyone in Mumbai, where apparently people are obsessed with him. Accompanying him is a friend. They arrive at an old palace and, from there on, the film practically writes itself. Haunted mansion, tragic backstory, tormented heroine, reincarnation, trapped spirit. One has seen it all before.What's baffling is that the story is credited to three writers: Mahesh Bhatt, Suhrita Das and Shubham Dhiman. That it took three people to come up with a story that feels assembled from leftover parts of a hundred other horror films is an achievement of a very different kind. Unbearable first halfThe first half is unbearable. Even weak horror films often have something to keep viewers invested: good music or just nice locations. Haunted makes it clear: its makers couldn't care less. The film is an AI-generated slop, stitched together with such poor production values that the viewer is left numb.One is reminded of Bhatt's earlier work, 1920, where he claimed using just candlelight for many scenes to create a haunting visual texture.Compare that to Haunted, which looks so carelessly shot that it would appear substandard even on a television screen. It's a warning sign of a future where AI will become a convenient excuse for creative laziness.The second half somewhat looks interesting. The execution, though, is botched up.Acting-wise, Mimoh tries his best, but he can't do anything with a dated script like this one. Chetna Pande does what she can, too.Lacks any effortOverall, what makes Haunted 3D: Echoes of the Past unbearable is not that it's bad. Bad films are made every Friday. It's that it lacks any effort. Here is a film set inside a palace, yet even that is AI-generated. The frames are so flat that one begins to wonder where the money went. What's apparent is the struggle to clear the low bar of even looking professionally made.Which is why it validates the worst fears surrounding AI. For a horror film, the most haunting thing here is the absence of a creative pulse.