While we've had a few movies in the horror genre recently, the slasher flick - a sub-genre where a group of youngsters are chased by a killer - is still an unfamiliar entity in Tamil cinema. Nil Gavani Sellaadhey is a competent entry in this sub-genre. Its based on a Hollywood film which has had several versions over the years but the newness of the theme in Tamil helps it hold on to our attention.

Sam(Anand), his girlfriend Jo(Dhansika), Arun(Ramssy), Priya(Lakshmi Nair) and Milo(Jagan) are five friends who head out to Thelloor since Priya wants to visit a temple there. The town looks abandoned with even the lone checkpost being unmanned. On the road, they come across a young woman and pick her up but once in the van, she warns them not to proceed further and pleads with them to turn back.

The film follows the template of a Hollywood slasher flick right from the beginning. So the first half of the film is devoted to introducing the characters and following them around as they have fun without any inkling of what's coming. There is some suspense during these portions also with the strange van that seems to be following Jo. Though the anti-climactic end to this is a letdown, the track does do its job of keeping us engaged through the time when nothing of note happens.

The story finally takes off as they go to Thelloor and run into the woman on the road. As the locations and the characters are introduced, it becomes clear pretty soon that the film is based on Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Barring the toning down of the blood and gore, its a pretty faithful copy of the original. But since this horror sub-genre is quite new in Tamil cinema, the film catches our interest in spite of the similarities. Some of the chases are skilfully constructed and some tension and suspense are generated since we don't who, if any, among the five, will be alive at the end.

But the film isn't too successful in maintaining the tension and suspense till the end. Since there aren't many variations in the locations and the murders are pretty tame because the violence is toned down, the chases get repetitive after some time. The backstory is not very convincing and turns uncomfortably weird when a psychopath is portrayed as though he is a hero. At the end, there are also a few loose ends that aren't satisfactorily explained.

The cast is mostly composed of new faces but the inexperience doesn't show. Anand, Dhansika, Ramssy and Lakshmi Nair look comfortable in front of the camera and are convincing both when they are scared and at the times they gather the courage to fight back. So they manage to make us feel sorry for them. Ironically, Jagan, the only known face, ends up being a little irritating as his quips and sarcastic comments aren't always effective or funny.