Hell’s Ground (2007, Review)

aka Zibahkhana

Director: Omar Khan

Cast: Ashfaq Bhatti, Sultan Billa, Osman Khalid Butt, Rubya Chaudhry

Danger After Dark (TLA Releasing) / Urdu and English Language with English Subtitles / 78 min / Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 5.1 Dolby Digital / NTSC Region 1 / Not Rated / PURCHASE

A group of kids on their way to a concert run out of gas and run into trouble. From scary old people, to pollution mutants and a burqa wearing, spiked mace wielding maniac, these young people have one shitty trip. They are warned by the old people about treading on “zibahkhana” or “hell’s ground” but of course they don’t heed it because, well, they read the script. After running over an apparent zombie/mutant and running out of gas, the teens are stalked by a killer, a nutty hitch-hiker and their loony mother.

Billed as “Pakistan’s first splatter flick”, Hell’s Ground doesn’t break much new ground. An over-used plot and awful camera tricks nearly ruined the entire movie for me. Some kind of lens, almost like a fish-eye lens, is used when trying to create a sense of terror. It succeeded only in being annoying. The movie is shot almost 100% at night and instead of using lighting for atmosphere, the director decides that it’s OK to place HUGE spotlights all around so that the dark, scary forest looks like a fucking football field lit up for the big game.

The over-used smoke machine right off-screen billowed so much that it looks like a friggin Dark ShadowsEvil Dead. Speaking of nods to other genre classics, I was appalled at the camera shots and set-pieces grossly and obviously lifted right from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The entire hitchhiker scene is mimicked to the point of walking the line of plagiarism. episode. With the misuse of lighting and smoke the set may as well have been a stage in some high school performing

With a scene of one of the teens in his room with a poster of Lustig’s Maniac and a floor full of Mondo Macabro (owner Pete Tombs produced it or some such shit) DVD’s, you could see that director Omar Khan loves the genre. But like others before me I have to ask, where is the line between homage and rip-off? At least he picked a great movie to borrow from. I mean he could have picked something shitty like a George Romero movie, amiright?

Really the only interesting things about this one was the two hot chicks, the gore and the fact that it was from Pakistan. The chicks and the gore speak for themselves, but the Pakistani take on Western horror was kinda cool to see. Their interpretation and presentation was… well, different. Different enough to keep me from hating it in spite of its numerous flaws. I would recommend it for that reason alone. The well done grue and hotties are just a nice bonus.

Greg Baty

Greg is a lifelong genre film fan who digs boobs, blood and beer. He also enjoys old school punk rock, comic books and spending time with his beautiful wife Ellen and his cats Sydney and Alabama. Greg is the webmaster, Editor in Chief and Head Writer for Cinesploitation.

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