Hell’s Ground (aka Zibahkhana) (2007)
Review by Willy Greer
Hell’s Ground (aka Zibahkhana) is the debut feature from director Omar Ali Khan, who funded the production with his chain of ice-cream restaurants. I know, right? It has the potential to be kinda fascinating (ala Herschell Gordon Lewis) or kinda deliriously wrongheaded (ala Hal “Manos: Hands Of Fate” Warren). Fortunately, the guy’s pretty talented, making the story even better than the two examples I just cited.
It’s being hailed as “The first Pakistani splatter film”, which might not seem like enough to warrant recommending it, but in fact it’s precisely the reason the movie’s so damn interesting.
A group of teenagers lie to their parents in order to sneak out to a rock concert. As they make their way out of town and into the woods, they run afoul of toxic-waste-mutated zombies, black magicians, severed heads and a homicidal, mace-wielding manic in a burka.
On one level, this movie isn’t anything we haven’t seen before; it is in fact a loving wallow in the archetypes, stereotypes and clichés of Khan’s favorite horror films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, the most obvious influences being The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Evil Dead. But Khan has applied the oh-so-familiar tropes of the genre to Pakistan’s current cultural anxieties: our young protagonists find themselves caught between an evil created by modern urban culture, and an evil created by oppressive, traditional culture. So, though the archetypes are universal (masked killer, zombie, witch, virgin, druggie, slut), Hell’s Ground uses them to reflect the culture of its country, as all exploitation the world over does, sneaking social truth in where nobody is expecting it.
It’s nice to know that grindhouse cinema is a universal language; it’s even nicer to experience a new variation on an old theme. The symbolism and the beautiful locations make Hell’s Ground a savory and exotic treat. Do check it out.
Available on Amazon
Watch the trailer for Hell’s Ground:
Popularity: 2% [?]
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