When it comes to creature films in Bollywood, we have been stuck forever with snakes who are actually humans (think Sridevi in Naagin), men who turn into hairy men (yes, in Jaani Dushman), and one-off wonders (not!) like Junoon where the main character (played by Rahul Roy) is a weretiger. And they have a few things in common — terrible stories, horrible acting and laughable CGI (Cringey God-awful Imagery).

So faith is hard to come by when Bollywood makes a creature film. Especially when it is not a creature native to Indian lore, like a zombie or a werewolf, and in a movie that is not a romance or a drama. And even more so if it claims to be funny, intentionally, and not as a by-product of all the horribleness mentioned above.

It is, therefore, a miracle that I can actually count not one but two creature horror films that a horror comedy buff can be proud of — last Friday’s release Bhediya, directed by Amar Kaushik, and the 2013 film Goa Goa Gone.

Varun Dhawan-led Bhediya might have been low on horror but the first time Dhawan transformed into a lycan, I did peek through my fingers. Nope, not because it was scary but because I was dreading a Junoon-like sequence. I needn’t have worried because the transformations were spot on and done really well.

Transformations are painful because of the rearranging of bones and Dhawan does well to express that, something that I certainly wasn’t expecting to see in a Bollywood film about werewolves. But where Bhediya scores is in the comedy, which might sometimes veer into cringey territory, but on the whole fits in seamlessly and makes for a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

In fact the last scene in Bhediya, where Dhawan is watching TV chained to a sofa, is very reminiscent of the last scene of Shaun of the Dead, the 2004 Hollywood zombie spoof that happens to be one of the best zombie films I’ve watched.

Which brings me to the only other creature film that left me gobsmacked — Go Goa Gone, directed by Krishna D.K. and Raj Nidimoru. Zombies in Bollywood?! A zombie comedy in Bollywood?!! I was terrified. But when the first zombie showed up, I was sold. Not only did the zombies look like zombies (the make-up was incredible) and act like zombies, they ate like zombies too and the movie didn’t spare the audience the munchy guts and gore or the headshots. It was glorious.

Add a smartly-written story that follows three friends in Goa who go to a rave party and find themselves stranded with zombies on the loose, hilarious dialogues, great acting and a guy with the worst fake Russian accent ever, and you get a howlarious chomp of a good time.

The Saif Ali Khan-Kunal Kemmu-starrer came out of nowhere and has scored itself a place on my all-time favourite zombie films list, nestled somewhere in there with Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Dead Alive — films that never grow old no matter how many times you watch them.

We hope the rumours about a Go Goa Gone sequel coming next year are true. With the kind of CGI used in Bhediya at its disposal and writers who can pen stories and characters who don’t take themselves too seriously, the time is ripe for Bollywood to raise the creature horror comedy bar a little higher.