Irul 2021

Alex Parayil Soubin Shahir, a writer and businessman, and his girlfriend Archana Pillai Darshana Rajendran plan a weekend off the grid, with no cell phones, hoping to give Archana a heartfelt surprise. En route, a sudden downpour strands them as their car stalls in the rain, and they seek shelter in a nearby house. The owner of the house, an eccentric figure, welcomes them in and explains that the storm has knocked out the telephone line, offering them a place to stay for the night. As the three settle in, the owner critiques Alex’s book, “Irul,” which draws on a real-life serial killer who murdered five women. The owner argues that the story is too imaginative and not grounded in actual facts, insisting that the killer’s motive was curiosity rather than vengeance against women.

When a power outage plunges the house into darkness, Alex and the owner stumble into the basement to locate the main switch. A gunshot shatters the quiet, and Archana follows the noise to find Alex dragging the unconscious house owner into the living room and binding him, accusing the man of being the serial killer that inspired Alex’s book. The owner insists he is only a thief who broke in to steal and that the phone line was cut by the storm, but Alex refuses to let Archana call the police, revealing that the house belongs to him. He confesses that his plan was to propose to Archana there, yet he was startled by the appearance of a stranger inside his own home and chose to improvise, driven by curiosity more than malice. The tension rises as they exchange conflicting narratives about what happened in the basement, and each recounts small but telling details that challenge the others’ stories.

The atmosphere thickens with suspicion as Archana starts to doubt Alex’s innocence. Unni, who has become involved in the night’s events, reveals troubling inconsistencies: he finds multiple rings in the house, not just the single ring Alex displayed; a gun linked to Alex surfaces; and Archana learns that Alex had purchased a cellphone while he had prohibited her from obtaining one herself. The trio ventures back to the basement to examine a corpse that seems connected to the previous killings, and the atmosphere becomes increasingly volatile. A brutal confrontation erupts: Alex assaults Unni while Archana aims a gun at Alex. At Unni’s provocation, Alex decides to kill and bury him, but Archana fires first, shooting Alex in the stomach as he pleads with her to leave. Wounded, Alex asks Archana to go, but Unni moves to finish what he started, catching Archana off guard and forcing her to pull the trigger herself.

In the morning light, news reports confirm the grim outcome: the bodies of Alex, Archana, and the girl identified as Vani Balan Jipa John have been discovered, with investigators reporting that the killer remains at large. The film closes with the chilling implication that danger still lurks, and the truth behind the night’s events continues to echo in the silence of the storm.