Film
Monsoon
Other titles called Monsoon: the 2020 film.
A Malayalam thriller about two women working in IT who discover a mysterious photo connected to their rented house's locked room. When they meet the building's owner, they're drawn into investigating secrets that blur the line between curiosity and obsession. Atmospheric and psychologically tense, it builds dread through everyday spaces and the tension between what people reveal and conceal.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like slow-burning mysteries that trust a small domestic puzzle, a locked room and a stray photo, to carry rising unease rather than explosions.
Skip it if you want the thriller to pick up fast; this one lingers in ordinary office and house life for a long while before the tension tightens.
What it asks of you: A slow, unhurried shape across more than two hours, where dread gathers through small conversations and quiet household detail rather than through jolts.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Memories in March2011
A Malayalam drama about hidden truths and family secrets that emerges slowly through conversation and revelation. Like Monsoon, it uses intimacy and restraint to create genuine unease about what people keep from each other.
But The pacing is deliberate and Interior-focused; if you want propulsive plot momentum, this moves at a different speed entirely.
The Invisible Guest2017
A locked-room mystery built entirely on misdirection and the unreliability of perspective. It has Monsoon's architecture—confined spaces, strangers with hidden connections, and the slow reveal that nothing is as it appeared.
But The twist-heavy structure means a second viewing feels completely different; some find that clever, others feel manipulated.
A Tale of Two Sisters2003
A Korean psychological thriller about two sisters in a house where reality fractures. It shares Monsoon's interest in domestic space as a source of dread and the way trauma hides in plain sight within ordinary rooms.
But It's deliberately ambiguous about what's real; if you need clarity and explanation, the ending will frustrate you.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Monsoon
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Vanished2020
Both use investigation of a central mystery as a framework to examine how people construct false narratives about each other and themselves when desperate or afraid.
An American thriller about a couple's obsessive investigation into their missing daughter that gradually reveals how trauma distorts perception and memory. It shares Monsoon's architecture of secrets in confined spaces but filters it through grief and American domestic life.
But It's more overtly violent and has a more punishing emotional register; the mystery resolves into genuine horror rather than psychological ambiguity.
More like this (8)
Kumbalangi Nights2019
A Malayalam ensemble piece about male friendship and the secrets people keep even from those closest to them. Same film industry, same region's understanding of how shame and silence work in small communities.
But It's fundamentally warm-hearted and comic in places; if you're seeking unrelenting darkness, it pivots away from it.
Badlapur2015
An Indian thriller about obsession and vengeance that unfolds through patient investigation and psychological cat-and-mouse. It mirrors Monsoon's slow-burn approach to uncovering what people are hiding.
But The violence, when it comes, is brutal; the tone is bleaker and more vengeful than contemplative.
Andhadhun2018
An Indian thriller that plays with unreliable narration and the audience's assumptions about who is deceiving whom. It has similar pleasure in constructing mysteries where nothing is accidental.
But It's a genre exercise—very clever but somewhat detached; if you prefer emotional investment over ingenuity, it stays at a distance.
Kahaani2012
An Indian thriller about a pregnant woman searching for her missing husband in Kolkata. It builds tension through everyday city spaces and the slow accretion of details that something is wrong.
But It's more action-oriented than Monsoon; the third act commits to spectacle rather than sustained psychological pressure.
Article 152019
An Indian social thriller that investigates systemic corruption and hidden crimes in small-town India. It shares the regional specificity and the sense that the real mystery is about power and what society chooses not to see.
But It's overtly political and didactic; if you prefer thrillers that don't declare their arguments, this wears its themes openly.
Natrang2010
A Marathi film about obsession, performance, and the blurring of identity. It's formally inventive and explores how people become trapped by what they've constructed, similar to Monsoon's interest in hidden lives.
But It's extremely long, structurally experimental, and demands active attention; conventional narrative satisfaction is not its goal.
The Handmaiden2016
Both films use the rented or inherited house itself as a character—a space where previous tenants' secrets seep into the present, and where what's hidden in rooms defines the whole story.
A Korean thriller about con artists, hidden identities, and the performances people maintain within confined domestic spaces. It's visually lush where Monsoon is austere, but structurally identical—everyone is lying, the house holds secrets, and truth arrives as a shock.
But It's considerably longer, more sexually explicit, and the tone is darker and more baroque than Monsoon's restraint.
The Housemaid1960
Both films understand that a house shared by strangers with hidden motives is itself a pressure cooker; the architecture and the secrets have the same weight.
A 1960 Korean film about a woman hired into a wealthy household where small cruelties and hidden resentments fester beneath surface politeness. It's the structural ancestor of modern psychological thrillers; it shows how Monsoon's approach—strangers in a house, unclear intentions, mounting dread—has deep roots.
But It's in black and white, moves at 1960s pace, and the gender dynamics feel very much of its era; modern viewers often find it slow.
People
Cast
- Aisha AzimVarsha
John JacobAnoos Mohan
Malavika MenonJessy
Directing
- Suresh GopalDirector
Writing
- Anil MukhathalaWriter