Zibahkhana

A BIG THANKS to Mr. Omar Ali Khan for making Zibahkhana. I was fortunate enough to find it on YouTube.

The tale is fairly simple at heart. A group of students (heavily resembling die-hard punk and rock fans) go out to attend a music concert. They happen to take a detour but are seriously misguided and end up at a place that is more or less like a zombie land. The dwellers have hideously deformed bodies due to constant consumption of water from a nearby pool that's polluted by chemicals. They manage to save themselves and get caught up in something even worse. But wait! There is something that puts 'Zibahkhana' miles ahead of the other flicks of the slapstick genre....IT'S SCARY!

Based on my observations, I have following things to say.

The movie is gruesome to the core.

The movie has all the elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, Dawn of the Dead, Cabin Fever and is a perfect slasher that uses the same staple to induce horror that Halloween and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre used. Fear of the unknown.

The film is heavily inspired by the heavy rock era of 70s. Its common for the youngsters to get stoned and find themselves miles away from their destination. Alone in the dark!

It builds tension step by step and divulges itself to be one of the best horror movies to find place in heart and mind for a long-long time.

'Zibahkhana' is capable enough to ensue cult-following. Believe me, that's the impression I've got.

It is quite an indigenous creation, hailing directly from Pakistan and I am sure in course of time we will have many good flicks like Zibahkhana from innovative Pakistani directors.

I think that the Indian scare whimper directors like R.K. Khanna, R. Mittal, K.I. Sheikh, Jeetendra Chawda etc. should learn something from this movie, because B-grade horror is almost dead in India and is looking for a messiah to revive it once again.

This film makes interesting viewing, primarily for its novelty value of a horror film coming out of Islamabad. The story, as you would have read in the numerous other reviews is about a group of teenagers who on their way to a rock concert lose their way and end up encountering zombies and being chased by a mace wielding freak. The gore factor in the film put me off, there's plenty of raw flesh and blood at display here, some of the shots would cringe any sane, humane individual. Apparently, the director takes great pride in this disgusting quality of the film. However, to instill fear in the audience requires much more than probing, poking and twisting of human flesh, intestines etc. And thats where the film doesn't work -- it grosses you out rather than actually scaring you.

However, the film does hold your attention in parts, and the acting by the ensemble overall is pretty good. The actor playing the Christian kid and Roshanie Ejaz deserve special mention. Rubiya Chaudry is clearly playing herself here and her comfort level shows on screen. Some of the photography is pretty decent too. However, there was no need for the theatrical vignettes into the family lives of the characters. Towards the end, you do root and feel for Roshanie's character and the credit for that goes entirely to the actor's performance and screen presence as the screen writing here is rank amateurish. Well, the makers probably didn't feel the need to have a taught script given most of Zibahkhana is a zombie-attack or an extended chase sequence.

On the whole, this isn't bad if you enjoy watching dead corpses, rotting remains of animals and take pleasure in the more disgusting aspects of this world. Next time, we hope that OAK would use a decent scriptwriter, many of which are to be found in the underutilized Pakistan showbiz scene. And yeah, we need to see more of Rubya and Roshanie.

One thing was very clear to me even before I saw the film: this was an ultra-low-budget production, made by a non-professional. Therefore, I wasn't expecting much, and that's exactly what I got. I also knew that the director, Omar Khan, was an enthusiast of cult, horror, and trash cinema, as evidenced by his loving attention to obscure Indian and Pakistani films on his website. Zibahkhana works well enough insofar as an amateur homage/reworking of some of the most famous horror staples, albeit with some local color and at least one ingenious touch (a burqa-clad slasher? Sweet!). It would be fair enough to sum this up as a cross between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hostel, set in Pakistan, with a dash of zombies for good measure. I just wish the writers could've developed the screenplay a little beyond the gleeful regurgitation of clichés that we get, because this could've been so much better (a case in point is the zombie subplot which is abandoned soon after the gut- munchers appear…more's the pity, because these guys looked awesome).

Anyway, let's move on beyond the script. There are some technical flaws, but one can overlook those as it was obviously shot on the cheap, using digital cameras. Still, the interior of the van at night was way over-lit, which could've been remedied without much hassle. The look of the film is fine, enhanced by a ubiquitous wide-angle lens. The acting by the young cast of protagonists isn't anything to write home about, either, but then they didn't really have good material to work with. What Khan does get right is an atmosphere of creepiness, and what he excels in is the level of violence and gore in the film. Yes sir, he really lets loose with the red stuff. Gore hounds won't have much to complain about here. And since that seems to have been the focus of Khan's energies, it may have been a wise decision to keep the running time short (78min approx), because clearly, the 'exposition' scenes were not going to keep audience interest levels up. Another nice touch is the soundtrack which is littered with retro Lollywood music. A clip from Zinda Lash (The Living Corpse) makes an appearance and the actor who played the vampire in that film, Rehan, is also featured in a bit part, where he hams it up hilariously.

So if like me, you go into the film with low expectations, you're likely to enjoy it for what it is: a gory, lurid and fast-paced pastiche of better known horror films, made by fans and for fans (with the novelty value of being a Pakistani gore film…really, how many of those do you see around?). If, however, you want something more substantial than that, you might be let down. Me, I had a pretty good time. Here's hoping Khan's next project improves upon his debut.

I ended watching this movie on a spur of the moment decision. I learned it was the world premier showing, and the director introduced the movie before the started.

This movie sports all that one can expect from a movie in its genre. Hapless teenagers looking for fun. Slasher zombies and your masked insane killer.

What it also contains are poor camera work, poor acting, stereotypical one-sided characters and an simple yet unbelievable plot. It also tries adding a few political themes on pollution and the degenerate behavior of the Pakistani youth. These factors makes the movie a comedy rather than a horror movie, and actually makes the movie watchable. I give it a 5 because it was good fun, for me nothing more.

Hell's Ground, promoted as Pakistan's first gore film, is a co-production from cult UK DVD label Mondo Macabro, who specialise in finding and releasing cinematic oddities from around the world, and Pakistan's Bubonic Films. Knowing that it was designed specifically to appeal to fans of obscure movies does detract from its appeal slightly—after all, cult films should be found, not made to order—but even if this had not been the case, I still doubt that Hell's Ground would have earned itself a permanent place on my shelf of splatter favourites.

The story, by the film's director Omar Khan, is a somewhat muddled affair, encompassing ecological issues, zombie horror, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired backwoods terror; the pacing of the film is poor, the action taking an age to get going and ending up as a repetitive succession of chase scenes through a jungle; the characters are simply Asian versions of those seen in an average American slasher—the attractive good girl, the sexy rich bitch, the nice guy, the stoner and the film geek; and as for the blood and guts... well, there is some but it's not all that impressive.

Whilst I dig the fact that different nationalities and diverse cultures can be united by a common love for horror, I would love for the next gore film to come out of Pakistan to be a little less influenced by the west, and to live up to its promise of outrageous excessive splatter.

5.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 6 for IMDb.