Zinda Laash


Zinda Laash is a 1967 Pakistani Urdu-language horror film directed by Khwaja Sarfraz,. and starring Asad Bukhari, Habib, Deeba, Rehan, Zareen Panna and Nasreen. The film's plot borrows heavily from the 1958 British Hammer Horror film Dracula, as well as from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name. It is the first horror film produced in Pakistan, and also the first to be X-rated.
Zinda Laash was released internationally under the title The Living Corpse, and was released in the United States as Dracula in Pakistan.

Plot synopsis

Professor Tabini is experimenting on an elixir that he believes will conquer death. When he tries it on himself, however, he dies. His assistant finds his body, and carries it downstairs and into a crypt in the basement. He rises from the grave as a vampire and chomps down on her neck.

Cast

Release

Theatrical release

Zinda Laash was released theatrically on 7 July 1967, and was a box office disappointment.

Festival screenings

Zinda Laash has the distinction of being the first ever horror film to be screened at two major film festivals abroad; the Sitges Film Festival in Spain and the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland.

Home media

In 2003, Zinda Laash was released on DVD by the label Mondo Macabro. This release includes an audio commentary by Omar Khan and Pete Tombs, a making-of documentary, and "South Asian Cinema", an episode of the Channel 4 TV program Mondo Macabro.

Reception

In a 2004 review of the film's DVD release, John Beifuss of The Commercial Appeal called the film "arguably the find of the year, for cult movie fans", writing: "A mind-bending fusion of Hammer-style vampirism with the exotic song-and-dance numbers that are all but mandatory for movies made in Pakistan and India, is both derivative and innovative, campy and scary."