Hell's Ground

Hell's Ground (Zibahkhana) (2007)

Runtime: 77 minutes

Directed by: Omar Khan

Starring: Kunwar Ali Roshon, Rooshanie Ejaz, Rubya Chaudhry, Haider Raza, Osman Khalid Butt

From: Bubonic Films/Mondo Macabro

Would you believe that this is a gory horror flick from Pakistan? Would you also believe it's pretty entertaining for what it is? I talk all about it below: 

This is a film I heard about in 2007 (it played at a few United States film festivals; after all, the first gory horror flick from Pakistan will naturally get attention) but completely forgot about until I stumbled across it yesterday and as it can be rented from Amazon Video (albeit, the print doesn't look too good), it was something I had to spend a few bucks on immediately.

I heard this compared to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and that is fair as that was a big inspiration. However, other films also inspired, from Romero zombie movies to Jason Voorhees. One character even has the classic poster of the William Lustig Maniac hanging in his bedroom. The story, it's not exactly original: a quintet of teenagers lie to their parents in various ways so they can get in a crappy old van and travel to a rock concert. They take a wrong turn, and... they have to deal with more than one calamity. Not only is pollution rearing its ugly head, but there's a killer who wears a unique getup and wields a pretty great weapon... which at least as of now is revealed by the poster on the movie's page here at Letterboxd. It certainly is distinctive.

As I said already, the movie is pretty gory at times, so those of you that love such things should enjoy seeing that. Things are cliché (there are stock characters, including “the bitch”; in addition, marijuana is smoked; that makes this feel like something from the 70's or 80's... which works for me. While it does seem derivative, I was still entertained so I can't complain. Plus, for a nerd like me it was interesting to see life in Pakistan... from how the cities to the countryside looked, the music, the food, etc. Plus, I learned that English is commonly spoken there and it is common for people to switch between their native language (such as Urdu) to English and back. I know precious little about the country, despite the fact that it has almost 200 million people. Thus, while this doesn't have too many surprising moments, I was still entertained. The fact that this was decently made and the setting of being in the woods at night is naturally spooky, that helps also.

For those that have seen the infamous 60's cult film known in the West as Dracula in Pakistan, the star of that (Rehan) has a cameo appearance here, which was a nice thing to do. While the setting is the big draw here, for those that dig The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and/or 70's to early 80's horror, there's a decent chance you'll dig this too.