FromZinda Laash to Zibahkhana: Violence and Horror in Pakistani Cinema

Abstract

This article is a historical overview of cinema in Pakistan. It pays special attention to the horror film, tracing its fragmentary early history and development during the industry’s heyday in the 1960s through to its contemporary re‐emergence since the 1990s. It begins with a contextual sketch of ‘Lollywood’s’ early history and the crippling legacy of partition, highlighting the political and economic constraints faced by Pakistani film‐makers. The article then discusses the emergence of an impressive cinema culture in the 1960s and violence as a theme of Punjabi action films since the 1970s. Finally, the authors list the factors that led to the collapse of the Pakistani film industry in the 1980s, before moving on to an analysis of horror’s unlikely re‐emergence in Pashto cinema since the 1990s, with particular reference to Zibahkhana (Slaughterhouse, 2007), an isolated contemporary horror film made for consumption by local and foreign audiences.

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