India, April 18 -- For a long time, Indian horror-or rather Hindi horror-had been shackled by the usual tropes. Reliance on the grotesque, too many jump scares, titillation, and sleaze mixed with spooks. The formula worked, but also hindered the growth of the genre here. A few storytellers have tried to subvert that in the last few years, and Smita Singh's Khauf is another milestone in that direction. While far from perfect, the show is a positive step in reinventing Indian horror in the slow-burn mould where content and real-world issues merge with traditional scares to give a story that is not just scary but also relevant.

Madhuri (Monika Panwar) moves into Room 333 of a working women's hostel on the outskirts of Delhi, close to Sanjay...