Half review: Samjad’s vampire revenge thriller earns praise at Sitges
Deadline praised Samjad’s fast, graphic Malayalam vampire thriller, while another review found its action inventive but repetitive.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
2 min read
The Half movie review from Deadline gives Samjad’s Malayalam-language vampire revenge thriller a strong festival nod, praising its rapid-fire action, graphic violence and Midhun Mukundan’s techno-bhangra score. Damon Wise’s review was published October 12 after the film’s run at TIFF and Sitges.
Half follows Ethan and Ivy, half-vampire twins played by Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj. After a roadside encounter with a criminal gang, the siblings set out to retaliate in a near-future setting shaped by highway crime and corrupt policing, according to Deadline.
What is Half about?
It is an action-horror revenge story rather than a conventional vampire tale. Samjad said in a TIFF interview that he and his collaborators wanted to put their own spin on vampire mythology, with a raw, fast style that avoided slow motion.
Deadline says the film keeps much of its backstory spare, then turns Ethan and Ivy loose on the gang after nightfall. The review identifies sunlight as the twins’ weakness and says Ivy is deaf and non-verbal, adding vulnerability to the pair’s otherwise formidable abilities.
Viewers should expect extreme material: the reviews describe graphic killings, mutilation and sexual-violence imagery.
Why are reviewers talking about Half?
Deadline credits Samjad’s clear staging of the fights and Very Tri Yulisman’s choreography, while also finding the movie’s criminal underworld setting sharply drawn. Wise’s main reservation was a coda he considered confusing and longer than necessary.
The enthusiasm is not universal. A review published by IndieWire and carried by Yahoo called the film visually distinctive, especially for its practical gore and martial-arts-inflected action, but said the repeated combat sequences and thin characterization eventually wear down its momentum.
Samjad directed Half and co-wrote it with Praveen Viswanath. The cast also includes Amala Paul, Abbas and Sreekanth Murali. Its runtime is 1 hour and 36 minutes.
The film premiered in TIFF’s Midnight Madness section in 2026 and has also screened at Sitges, according to Deadline. An earlier TIFF review said it was seeking U.S. distribution; the available information does not establish a U.S. release date or platform.
Read Deadline’s review of Half.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.