Zombie Film Review:

HELLSGROUND (Zibahkhana)

Director: Omar Khan

Year: 2007

Tagline: Texas Chainsaw Massacre Meets Dawn of the Dead, a mega-splattery zombie strewn slasher flick...

Original Title: Zibahkhana

Review: Mmmm. anything billed as TCM meets DOTD, a mega splattery zombie-strewn slasher flick!! This is not some grainy bollywood flick, which fights, tooth and nail, that stereotype as much as the next person. This is a bloody amazing genre piece from a country that doesn't do the horror genre… this is more a horror film with some zombies in it, but it still rocks

Zombie Quality ***

On my god… a zombie midget… lots of bloody latex, gouged eyes, not a grade Hollywood effects, they look like zombies, act like zombies and eat like zombies, so they are zombies… nice… with a Pakistani twist that does not overwhelm them but gives them a little something that the bog standard Western cinema culture sometimes lacks...

Zombie Behaviour ***

Eating flesh, infecting, trying to devour the living the zombies are good and surprisingly traditional considering their origins, Omar definitely learned his trade in the US of A and sometimes the cinematography shows this...

Zombie Threat *

Not really a threat unless you are a morally lax Pakistani teen lost in a specific wild part of the country full of druggies and looonatics… But then again if you are and you hear that spiked metal ball swooshing, you are gonna end up as a gory splat... BUT NOT A ZOMBIE victim... Only one star for this I'm afraid...

Gore Content ****

Pretty high, some off camera stuff is suggested but sawing someone in half in the style of a butcher and pulling gore coated weapons out of peoples brains scores highly in anyones top 10 most wanted gore scenes... So a cool four out of five here...

Overall Quality****

This film is good, not as many zommers as I would like but still an amazing horror experience from a brand new country in this field… the morally depraved victims and spiritual female mirror the more traditional American format more than they would want to admit! And although don't quote me on it, but there is definitely a feel of Scooby Doo (in a good way) to this movie... WATCH IT AND LOVE IT !!!