Hell’s Ground (Zibahkhana – 2007)

U.S. DVD Release

Five Pakistani teens lie to their parents, hit the road and head out to see Pakistan’s hottest new music group but they’ll go through Hell and back before reaching their destination! When the group is faced with flesh-eating zombies and a mace-wielding, burqa-wearing psycho, they must work together to find their way out of the deadly forest or end up sold as meat for tourists!

This was just beautiful! Not only was this Pakistan’s first splatter film but it was a GOOD splatter film! It had everything from cross-dressing cannibal freaks to flesh-gobbling mutant zombies infected by a mysterious virus! What really hooked me though was the authenticity of Hell’s Ground, it was an honest-to-goodness Pakistani production, not some weak-kneed American smell-alike slasher clone. Omar Ali Khan’s characters face real issues confronted by Muslim youth today, including their struggle to maintain their individuality while also doing their best to honor some of the strict traditions of their families. This flick felt real, honest and it was fun to boot!

No jokin’, I haven’t had chills run down my spine during a zombie sequence since Fulci’s Zombie and Khan’s zombie sequences gave me a full-blown case of ‘em! I actually played one sequence over and over again just taking in all the freakin’ awesome zombies! Everything from the throbbing score to the shambling guru just smacked of Italian gore and Romero’s best work. Lovely.

Now, the film wasn’t perfect. Khan mixes zombies and backwoods cannibals and, in my opinion, didn’t mix them all that well. I wanted more zombies until the psycho shows up, then I wanted more psycho until the next zombie showed up! The balance between the two just wasn’t effective enough for me. You get what you get though. Hopefully Khan’s next effort focuses more attention on one or the other instead of both.

Magnificent! Hell’s Ground was a ball to watch; the women were breathtaking, the gore was admirable and you simply cannot go wrong with a few bad ass zombies thrown into the mix! The addition of a gender-bending murderer was just a plus! Check this out and let’s hope Khan continues to make more genre gems like this one.