Known as "Zibahkhana", which means slaughterhouse in Urdu, but the English title is Hell's Ground, attempts to dismiss the notion that the country's film industry is troubled and that scary films must be serious, wrote The Chicago Tribune on Wednesday.

"Even the film's director, Omar Ali Khan, 45, a film buff who also runs a chain of ice cream shops in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, admitted that any film involving a midget zombie and doll heads will never be taken too seriously".

"We're completely trying to blow away the idea that everything has to be serious," he told the Tribune. "I haven't made any space on my mantel for awards, that's for sure. We'll go for the people's award."

Pakistan has become increasingly less prolific in regards to the film industry during the past few decades, with the nation's film city Lollywood only producing 40 films last year.

The Tribune said the significant decrease in Pakistani films is due in part to increased government restrictions and complaints from national religious groups. But experts say the Pakistani industry is also at fault, for failing to compete with rival India's vast film powerhouse, wrote Tribune.

According to Dawn, the more affluent or self-professedly "educated" elites have consistently refused to own Pakistani cinema. "Perhaps this is one of the reasons that such a clear divide exists between films screened in cinemas and those in local festivals, why some people call themselves "directors" and others "film-makers".

Bubonic Film's first full-length feature, Zibahkhana, however comes as a refreshing surprise. It premiered in Karachi on Tuesday.

The film draws on local cinematic traditions and convert them into a well-executed gore fest, which, significantly, bases its plot on issues relevant to Pakistan, such as polluted drinking water and class/culture divides.

Director Omar A. Khan, a self-professed fan of B-movies and slasher-zombie flicks, has also long been a Pakistani horror/action film aficionado. His film is simple in plot: a group of English-speaking boys and girls take an unauthorized road trip to attend a concert. They pass through an area where villagers have long been protesting against chemical pollutants in their water sources, and there are rumors of hideously deformed people. As night falls and they take an unfortunate short-cut, their worst nightmares come true: zombies, flesh-eating monsters, and finally, a mace-wielding serial killer.

What makes Zibahkhana unusual is that it manages to be relevant and outrageous at the same time, and comments on the issues that plague Pakistan without preaching. As Mr Khan commented at the premier, he did not set out to intentionally craft a "meaningful" film; he simply aimed to create cinematic entertainment, and one that would serve as his tribute to the local film industry. He and his team deserve credit, therefore, since the film succeeds on all counts.

The film's cast also testifies to Khan's commitment to Pakistani horror. In the role of Deewana, a chai-wallah who predicts our yuppies' nasty end, is veteran actor Rehan who played Dracula in the Pakistani version of the Bram Stoker classic. Returning to the silver screen after a 30-year gap, Rehan has clearly lost nothing of his craft. Then, the shrouded serial killer is played by Sultan Billa, who was Sultan Rahi's stunt double for years. Other actors have been drawn from local television and theatre, including Najma Malik, Kunwar Ali Roshan, Ashfaq Bhatti and Salim Meraj.

Like every good horror flick, Zibahkhana draws its grotesqueness from ordinary scenes and situations gone hideously wrong. The Blair Witch Project chilled the spines of its American audience through dark and impenetrable forests, a camping trip gone wrong. But in overpopulated Pakistan, particularly the Punjab, you are never more than a few kilometers away the nearest settlement. Accordingly Zibahkhana, which was shot in Islamabad and puts its main characters somewhere around the Lahore-Islamabad motorway, draws its thrills from the malang gone mad (and sporting a severed head), a mechanic's workshop that proves to be a butchery and zombie villagers who are very far from being the smiling face of agricultural Pakistan. The crowning touch is the serial killer called Baby, whose face is hidden not behind a leather mask, as is common in western films, but a far, far more effective cultural symbol. "I shouldn't spoil the shock, but let's just say that it's recently become inextricably linked with Islamabad", writes Hahrah Mumtaz in her article in Dawn.

The serial killer dons a shabby white burqa . Khan said he was not making a political statement. He simply feared two things when he was a child -- a woman in a burqa, and the tinny sound of the call to prayer when dehumanized over speakers. He called his killer Burqa Man.

"We underused Burqa Man," Khan admitted. But there is always next time. The movie, more campy than scary, ends on a cliffhanger. Cast members are hoping for a sequel.

The film premiered at the NatFilm Festival in Denmark in March and has since been screened at the Philly Film Festival in the US, as well as in Islamabad and Lahore. It is now set to do the circuit, including New York at the Asian Film Festival on July 3, Sitges, Montreal, Finland and Los Angles. Given that it is not slated for commercial release in Pakistan "though it ought to make the attempt" it may have been easy to claim that it is Pakistan's first horror film. To their credit, the Zibahkhana team sought no such pretentiousness. It embraces the Lollywood (and other) traditions that inspired the film in the first place, and the screening was preceded by a Channel 4 documentary on horror cinema from India and Pakistan. This gave Zibahkhana context, linked it to its forerunners in the subcontinent and refused the "where no man has gone before" temptation with a shrug of the shoulder.

Zibahkhana is well worth a watch, even if you shy away from gore. With slick port-production work, a nicely chosen soundtrack and commendable acting all around, it represents what Pakistani cinema is capable of. Given that Khan has no formal association with the film or television industries " he runs the The Hot Spot chain of ice cream joints" one can only wish that more directors would follow in his footsteps.

(DesPardes Staff)

Stills from "Zibahkhana"