A common enough factor in Western culture is the first job for many teens and young adults, pizza delivery. While not necessarily as common in other areas of the world, the concept of a person coming across terror while on the job serves enough of a relatable setup to work in a genre film like this, as Karthik Subbaraj's Tamil movie proved enough of a hit that it not only spawned a sequel but remakes in several other Indian territories.
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Living together in a small apartment, Michael Karthik (Vijay Sethupathi) and his girlfriend Anu (Ramya Nabeeshan) are constantly worrying about the future due to his job as a courier for a pizza delivery company. When she announces that she is pregnant, he feels even more pressure on their relationship, to the point where he asks her to postpone having a baby until later. While they're in the middle of their argument, a call goes out for him to deliver an order to a strange house in the wilderness where he's suddenly confronted by a series of supernatural torments and strange incidents. While trying to stop the events from continuing, Michael realizes that something may be affecting his relationship more than he expected and races to save Anu before it's too late.
There are a lot of positive aspects in “Pizza.” The main feature to like here is the rather strong setup from Subbaraj that introduces a strong and enjoyable central relationship. Since so much time is spent on Michael and Anu with their living arrangements and discussions about the future together, they come off like a realistic couple in the throes of a lived-in relationship. Knowing how much Anu wants to settle down into a family with Michael and raise their unborn daughter together despite his financial concerns about all of them living as a family feels genuine and realistic. This plays off quite well in setting up the constant need to be working and taking odd assignments at work to help themselves along and prepare for the future. It's a factor that ends up generating a lot of sympathy and attachment to the couple so that the scares that emerge later on have a weight to them. The setup at the house comes off rather fun as well, with the introduction of the family at the house on his delivery route or the various side characters at work, having a lot to like while setting up the storyline quite well.
This turns the middle part of Pizza” into a rather impressive series of supernatural activities and hauntings. Things start off ominously with the daughter feverishly drawing and chanting in an eerie language to herself which is quite unnerving, but the later delivery that traps Michael at the house is where this gets terrifying. From finding figures impaled halfway up a wall with large knives plunged into their body, a series of chilling setpieces playing around with music heard from an object in the distance, or seeing objects disappear suddenly, there's a lot to like in this section. With the focus squarely on Michael the entire time, there's an unnerving quality attached to his walking around the darkened house unaware of what's going on. Escalating matters is a strong series of tactics that are generally amusing to watch while being terrifying in execution. As bodies start piling up around the house, phone lines don't seem to work as they should and no one can be trusted, this highlights a rather impressive turn that the story takes. The twist that arises is incredibly shocking and quite well-written since it's surprising how everything gets revealed and impacts what's been known to that point, which is where the film shines.
One of the biggest detriments is an overlong setup that causes the movie to be much longer than it really should. All the enjoyable setup that goes into making Michael and Anu's relationship feel believable, including their arguments but also the times where it stops to focus on the happy times when they're on dates or enjoying time together, also cause an excessively long build-up. It's around the forty-five-minute mark when Michael arrives at the house and things start happening which is a bit too long to spend before getting to the point of the film. As well, the other big factor emerges once the twist has been revealed and a lengthy backstory involving the origins of the twist and what led to everything taking place, which is rather problematic. Far too much of this part of “Pizza” relies on explaining in detail what happened and hardly any of it makes an impact at all. This is the wrong kind of feeling to be had when dealing with a genre film of this kind. It ends the whole thing on a bad note and is what all bring this down overall.
A generally likable and enjoyable effort, “Pizza” has more than enough positives to be worthwhile for genre fans due to a strong central setup and plenty of thrilling setpieces. Those that are intrigued by those factors or are interested in the film as a whole will be the biggest proponents of this one.
