What they have come together to do is give birth to a new genre
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Any discussion of "Hell´s Ground" should begin and end in the same place. As touted in the press materials and on the back cover synopsis, it is Pakistan´s first horror film. Yes, you read that right. Pakistan. As such, the film is one giant homage to other thriller´s, from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to "Psycho" and just about everything in between. It is filled with the standard horror film clichés-all by design, mind you-and directed by the owner of an ice cream shop. In that vein, then, how much can we reasonably expect from the finished product? Maybe its simply not rational to expect great things from the 78 minute production and, yet, as the vanguard of a new kind of Pakistani theater experience, should it be held to American standards?
Tell me if any of this sounds familiar: a group of teens lie to their parents regarding their whereabouts as they travel to a concert. Along the way, their beat up van runs out of gas, they meet scary backwoods characters and, ultimately, find themselves on the run from a creepy psycho. In the end, the kids are nothing for than fodder for the killer, who cuts their bodies into various pieces for amusement. Oh yeah, one character ends up having to put an end to the sadism once and for all. But not before one last scare…
I lost count at the horror clichés in the last paragraph. And that was my overriding thought from the first frame of "Hell´s Ground" (also known as "Zibahkhana"): clichéd and unoriginal. It wasn´t until the solo commentary track with producer/director Omar Ali Khan did I realize this is what he was going for. See, in Pakistan, films are generally geared toward an older, more traditional demographic, featuring conservatively safe topics. This is a revelation to the Pakistani youth, all of whom identified with the teens here, the good girl, the dope fiend, the Christian boy, and so on. By intending to make a slasher flick in the tradition of American productions, Khan turned the Pakistani film industry on its head.
But it didn´t come without cost. Several times in the commentary, Khan mentions the censorship board cut various segments of the film and, astonishingly, let sequences go because (as he theorizes) the split second change between English and Urdu-a language spoken in Pakistan and India. Based on what made the final cut, I´m left to wonder what scenes were excised and not included on the DVD?
At any rate, even though it feels derivative and the script has a perverse need to try to explain everything by the end, I can´t in good conscience tear the movie apart. It´s the first of its kind, produced by people with little or no film experience in a country where the material most likely didn´t go over very well. Would it be right to haggle over plot minutiae in "Metropolis" or critique "The Jazz Singer"? No, it might be best instead to point to where the story gets it right and no so right to serve as an outline for next time.
And I do hope there is a next time for Khan; he has a love of film, a willingness to put himself out on a limb and a deft way of combining reality with pure fantasy. Several times in the film, especially early on, we get glimpses of the real Pakistan, a place where fashion shows happen in close proximity to contaminated water supplies. Even the opening titles are superimposed over scenes of a city street, allowing us to get an idea of where the movie takes place. The script doesn´t pander to those of us not familiar with the country. It dives right into the characters and situations, daring us to keep up and figure it out as we go along. There might have been a pull to load the beginning with needless exposition for an international audience; by not doing so, Khan and co-writer Pete Tombs demonstrate they respect the viewers.
The cast of unknowns do their jobs as respectably as they can, all things considered. When was the last time an actor or actress in an American horror film was nominated for an Oscar? Generally, the genre doesn´t lend itself to anything but running, screaming and, well, dying. And that´s what the actors do here. If anything, they all have careers in the genre; I wouldn´t doubt they are celebrities in Pakistan, which will translate into work for the foreseeable future.
By giving us time with the characters in the first half of the movie before introducing the scare elements, "Hell´s Ground" allows them to begin to form well rounded people, not just pawns to be killed. Don´t me wrong: in the end, there isn´t any compassion or empathy for them, only a bloodlust from the audience wanting to see death and carnage. That is the implicit promise films in the genre make to the viewer, isn´t it? By the end everyone will be dead? By necessity, that makes them pawns in the final analysis. We can see it happening step by step: the moment the group separates, we know nothing good is going to happen.
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