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| From http://horrornews.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hells_ground_2.jpg |
Dir. Omar Khan
Pakistan-UK
Originally intended to be a film
for the Halloween 31 For 31 in October, I am happy to have seen the first
Pakistani splatter movie in existence finally. It is a flawed film, but in
keeping with my belief that film viewing is a geographical and culture expedition
in celluloid form, this nightmarish West Asian horror film fits that idea
greatly while spilling goo and blood. On their way to a music concert, a group
of young adults end up on their way to Hell, an area of countryside that, after
significant pollution problems, had become a place of death. Zombies roam the
long grass and a white burqa-wearing killer awaits them as well. From this premise,
it is clearly a mix of pre-existing horror iconography – Lucio Fulci, The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (1974) etc. – but it has a delirious charm to the whole
work. Tonally erratic it may be, it adds a sense of unpredictability to the
film emphasises the hellishness of the characters’ situation. It also helps
that, despite being a lower budget, shot on digital work, the director and his
director of photography actually attempted to add some visual distinctiveness
to the film. When night rolls through for the main crux of the film, it feels
atmospheric, most of the screen completely swallowed in black and with fog
clouding areas of the image, giving this low budget film a character. Even before
these scenes it helps that the sense of space is conveyed and that, despite
being something all directors should know, the camera is actually pulled back from the actors once in a
while and the scenery is allowed to be seen; that later point is utterly
ridiculous to say, but it is amazing how many films, mainstream and
straight-to-video, have the camera jammed up an actor’s nostrils all the time,
or are locked by the cookie-cutter editing, resulting in visually flat looks. Combined
with the appropriately intense music put together by musician, cult cinema
writer and author Stepher Thrower,
and Hell’s Ground sticks out.
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There is the issue that, by
viewing this film because of it came from a different country, and celebrating
it for this, can inadvertently become patronising and dubious. With Hell’s Ground it cannot be argued
against though that, while its very influenced by the West, being a Pakistani
horror film, with clear differences from the likes of American splatter films,
is a factor in why it’s a lot more interesting a film. It’s not because it’s
merely from a different country though that this is the case. The diegetic music
for example, continuing with the sonic virtues of the film, is very different
in sound, regardless of its country of origin, to the kind of music used in
Western horror films, the distinct, vinyl-like sound to most of the songs
adding a dreamy quality usually non-existent in this sort of content and
helping the film greatly. It’s more downtrodden locations, of massive water
pollution part of the plot, lower class population and transsexual prostitutes,
in such a close proximity to the countryside and thick forests of trees is very
different from the many Western horror films too with the obvious exceptions,
as is the obvious cultural differences and the occasional references to
(Islamic) religion. It is not merely that Hell’s
Ground stands out for the better because it’s from a different country, but
because the distinct differences from Western horror cinema, separating nationality
from them, offer new perspectives on such repeated material. Hell’s Ground is still your basic gore
film which is loose and ping-pongs through numerous sub-genres without a fully
coherent story, but this crazed flippancy with its uniqueness feels fresh and
invigorating for me compared to a lot of redundant horror cinema elsewhere.
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| From http://shenanitims.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/hells-ground-burqamans-knife-is-the-star.png |
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