It's the stuff of (our) nightmares. A new kind of serial killer is afoot, knocking off not little children or homeless pedestrians but—wait for it—film critics. 

In R Balki's upcoming thriller Chup, film critics get their ultimate comeuppance as a deranged and vengeful artist goes around wiping them out, carving out literal 'stars' on their foreheads. The film's trailer, which was released today, shows Sunny Deol as a cop investigating these bizarre murders. Parallelly, Dulquer Salmaan and Shreya Dhanwanthary appear in a love track, wheeling around cinephile Bandra. Is Dulquer the killer's next victim? Or someone else? 

The trailer also presents as a framing device the story of Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Guru Dutt's bleak, defeatist masterpiece that was trashed by critics and ended his directorial career. "You critics are killers," says Pooja Bhatt in the trailer, cupping a nice mug of tea. 

Chup is co-written by R Balki, Raja Sen and Rishi Virmani from a story from R Balki. The film is releasing in theatres on September 25. 

Speaking about Chup, Sunny Deol said, "It is a very thrilling story. It was a very interesting shoot for me personally. Balki’s vision for this story was so crystal clear that the film seemed to have it’s own pace during shooting."

Dulquer Salmaan shared, “I have done different films in my career, however this one really hits it out of the park in terms of the character and it’s story. It feels like you're looking into someone’s inner workings and the character I play is especially unique so it was an altogether new experience for me."