Pakistan s first splatter flick in the tradition of Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre delivers spine-tingling thrills when an attractive group of teens pile into a van that runs out of gas in the middle of a ... more »dark mysterious forest. Their ghoulish nightmare begins when rotting fresh-eating zombies and a decapitated head-toting screaming banshee-like hitchhiker begin to terrorize them at every turn. But when a mysterious figure dressed in a blood-drenched burqa appears sporting a medieval weapon dripping in gore even the teens prayers won t save them from a night of savage demented horror.« less
"I saw Hell's Ground in the cinema and the audience reaction was fantastic - a mixture of laughter and some genuine scares. This is an excellent first outing for Omar Khan and he taps into the youth of Pakistan with a freshness and authenticity that has not been explored yet. The film is a homage to the old horror classics but is rooted firmly in Pakistani cinema. And most of all it is not pretentious playing out as a fun filled, gore fest that is made to entertain. Great fun, a good DVD transfer and some excellent extras. Hells ground is a breath of fresh air."
Lower your expectations and get ready for a fun ride
S. Boone | Louisville, KY | 06/15/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"By "lower your expectations", I don't in any way mean that this is a horrible film. I liked it a lot. But don't expect that it's going to be a zombie/gore film to top all others you've seen. It's more a fun homage to zombie/gore films of old, given a Lollywood/Bollywood twist. A bunch of young folks have procured a van and lied to their parents about their whereabouts so that they can attend a concert 5 hours away. They procure a hideously decorated van with lurid murals on the side for their trip, and of course, they HAVE to try a short cut, run out of gas, etc., in an area where polluted water has turned the locals into flesh-eating zombies. They do escape that area and wander into something much worse though, for there's a sort of "Leatherface" character running about the woods slaughtering, but the twist is that this character is wearing a "burqa". One of the young girls finds an old woman and tells her of this character but the woman tells her "that's silly, men don't wear burqas". So it's a WOMAN? Eeek!
Lots of fun music to this, plus a appearance by one "Rehan" whom one of the young folks (OJ) identifies as "Dracula" from "Zinda Laash" (The Living Corpse", although the man denies it. It really is the actor that played him though. But OJ's friends just think he smoked too much hash.
Don't expect too much from this...I liked it but you have to take it in the spirit in which it was made, a fun homage, not the gore film to top all others. Yeah, it's kind of cheesy & derivative, but so what? It's also lots of FUN, and that's why I watch a lot of movies. 4 out of 5."
Shocked!!
Hamood Rehman | Houston, TX United States | 06/27/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Just saw this movie, this is an awesome thrill ride in Pakistani settings. Being a horror fan, I would say this is one of the best. I was shocked to learn that the budget for this movie was well below $100,000 which is mind-boggling to say the least. Can't wait for the next flick by Omar Ali Khan."
LOLLYWOOD HORROR WITH EXTRA KETCHUP!
CLINT BRONSON | las vegas,NV. | 03/30/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Well Pakistan now getting with the times for it has been a very long time that this country has tried its hands in HORROR the first time was in 67 with the DRACULA/DR.JEKYLL story ZINDA LAASH. Here we have HELL'S GROUND which I watched but not in English which did make the story hard to follow but did my best with visuals. Teenagers in a van ala TEXAS CHAINSAW are going to a show when they stop for gas a teenage girl gets out and confronts a man who reminded me of the old guy from FRIDAY THE 13TH ("It's got a death curse!!!") we get back in the van and leave just to get lost and stranded on the road (hey folks it had to happened) we then get served up Zombies Paki style (and if you thought the tambourine player was funny in D.O.T.D. you ain't seen nothing yet :) our teenagers have to fight off not only zombies but a craze sicko in a burqa. Is it a man or woman for only woman are suppose to wear burqa's? Anyway the killer has a weapon that would make GO-GO go crazy over from KILL BILL.
This movie was directed by Omar Khan and it is obvious he loves HORROR films especially from the 70's (my personal favorite decade) and by mixing TEXAS meets NIGHT OF THE you get a good movie to watch. The pluses for me on this movie was the background being Pakistan-the 70's style directing (great for I am tired of the MTV-CGI style of directing we are getting from U.S.A.) there are humorous moments in this like the one kid having a bunch of MONDO films and we get a version of Paki/Dracula on the t.v. (man I tellz yaz that vampire is everywhere's)
anyway I enjoyed this and am happy that Amazon has a english version of this. So try some SPOOKY from diff. country."
A Pakistani Classic In The Making!
Brian Lueth | Chicago, IL United States | 09/10/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"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 and observe some of the strict religious 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. Super sweet horror!"