‘The Last of Us’, ‘Logout’ and ‘Khauf’ deliver chills and thrills

Sudhish Kamath finds out the similarities among Khauf, Logout and Pedro Pascal’s The Last of Us

Three thrillers, three kinds of fear — from post-apocalyptic grief to digital dread and real-world horror, this week’s picks remind us that escape isn’t always comforting. Sometimes, it’s confronting. Whether it’s the infected, the haunted, or the hyper-online — each story hits a nerve, lingers, and leaves you changed.

Escape used to mean fantasy — superpowers, song and dance, happy endings, the works. Now it’s live-streaming the zombie apocalypse and thinking, thank God it’s not here yet. Let’s just hope the finale drops before the zombies drop by. I’m talking about The Last of Us — so bleak, it makes Mumbai traffic and low battery feel like blessings. No clickers, no bloaters, no fireflies — just good old mosquitoes, rent and GST. The show’s first season blew up, thanks to the eponymous game’s cult following, and fans embraced Pedro Pascal’s brooding take — earning him full Zaddy status. The show is known for brutal realism, where every character arc feels like it’s probably going to be cut short to a cameo. And this week, it topped its own body count with a big death, and we might not get over it. Episode 2 of the show’s second season, directed by Mark Mylod, (who also directed that long take big death episode in Succession), dropped with a 9.5 on IMDb.

The big moment lands like a sledge hammer to the face. You brace yourself but it’s still going to smash. Game fans knew this was coming, and, to their credit, most kept it to themselves. But some of you just had to tweet. You don’t have to mourn with memes, keep it to yourself. Still, this wasn’t just a shock value death. It’s a pivot. A ‘nothing will be the same’ moment that opens up the show to the themes game fans are familiar with. So if you haven’t started The Last of Us Season 2, get out of your bunker, take a chance, on JioStar.

A mostly, one-actor film, without clichés, is no small feat. But Logout pulls it off. Babil Khan brings flashes of the legendary Irrfan, grounding a social-media thriller with real emotion. Influencers in movies are usually narcissistic dopamine addicts, but here, he’s just human. Obsessed, but grounded; smart, yet flawed. Shaded with the dark and the light and the greys, minus the cliches we find in this space. TVF’s Biswapati Sarkar and director Amit Golani deliver a lean, no-fat thriller that’s smart, tense, and surprisingly tight.

Now streaming on Zee5.

Smita Singh’s Khauf is horror rooted in reality — a haunted hostel in post-Nirbhaya Delhi, echoing trauma and truth. Trigger warning: it deals with sexual assault and its lasting shadow. This horror doesn’t hide under the bed. It holds up a mirror — disturbing, raw, and hard to shake off. It is not a feel-good watch, but an essential one. The last show you watch to escape. Now streaming on Prime Video.

Alert: Rajkumar Santoshi’s Andaz Apna Apna starring Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Raveena Tandon, Karisma Kapoor and Paresh Rawal among others, re-releases in the cinemas on Friday. Do catch the exclusive chat on the comedy classic with film critic Raja Sen only on FOMO Fix online.