Fresh flavor combinations in cinema are getting harder and harder to come by.
Just when you think there's something someone hasn't done before, you discover a small gem that breaks the mold, technically pipping anyone else to the post without any pomp or ceremony. So when a film comes by promising to be "Pakistan's first zombie thriller", you'd better hope that film lives up to its pitch.
Thankfully, Nabeel Qureshi's full-blooded festive horror Zombeid more than delivers on its absurd pun of a title, indeed making a film designed to satisfy audiences celebrating during the Islamic festival and also mount an honest-to-goodness splatter flick, rising above the tide of mediocrity worsened by wannabe-crazy undead slop of the modern era (looking at you, Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead!).
Its central concept essentially boils down to 'gym bros versus zombies', taking a leaf out of the Die Hard school of action and setting the drama mainly within the confines of the neon-lit Muscle Factory, the hub of all testosterone in Karachi. Hoping to build himself back up to the shape that earned him the title of Mr Pakistan, Fahad Mustafa's Wali shakes up the politics of the toxic gym by winning the heart of Zumba instructor Zara (Mehwish Hayat), starting a cutesy love story on which to hinge the film's bloodshed.
Unimpressed by this development is Wali's steroid-loving former rival Marwan (Dodi Khan), whose doping operation in the gym locker room sees a couple of unsuspecting beta-males take a dose of a mislabelled zombie virus. Trapped in the training octagon as the undead hordes snarl through the ringed fence, Wali must lead an unlikely group of survivors through Eid's Night of the Moon before the building is demolished by the trigger-happy SWAT team on the outside.
Thinking too hard about the details of Zombeid isn't advisable. Questions like "why is an elderly woman celebrating her 75th birthday at a Zumba class?" will come up, but are irrelevant; sometimes it's just nice to have a chipper old lady as part of your zombie survivor group. Move on!
You might be thinking about the meaning of Eid al-Adha, and how its themes of sacrifice are relevant to the drama. Forget about it! Want to see a zombie get killed with a Stanley Cup? Or a ravenous attack repelled by an exercise ball? Here you go!
There's a pleasant ridiculousness to the comedy in Zombeid that doesn't overwhelm the tone or lessen the impact of its bloodletting, thanks in great part to its commitment to classic zombie lore. These are the fast zombies of the 21st century, make no mistake, but they're just as soft and squishy and stupid as the legions assembled by George A. Romero decades previously.
Quereshi uses pretty much every piece of gym equipment to dispatch them as he can, and while the suspension of disbelief is stretched as far as it will go with how to distract them (the undead are strangely and reasonlessly obsessed with sound here), it keeps the arterial spray pumping and the body count mounting.
Also in true Romero tradition, it has a marvellous Bub-style alpha zombie, whose transformation from human to rabid flesh-eating monster is impressively vile, transforming an already-repellant character (who shall remain nameless to avoid spoilers) and lathering them in make-up that looks halfway between cake frosting and candle wax. The prosthetics team have clearly put in overtime for the fleshy horror across the board here, and the money behind it is very much on the screen.
For all Zombeid's classic thrills, there's something slightly disheartening about how straightforward its heroes are. There's zero darkness to Mustafa's Wali, a wronged, humble and resolute leading man who never has a moment of faltering doubt or fear despite a bruised ego, battered body and the clear threat of being ripped to shreds at every turn.
The same can be said for Hayat's Zara, whose purity is only matched by how protected she is by Wali's knight-in-tight-tank-top. Granted, the two have starred alongside one another many a time under Querishi's direction, so audiences are fully aware of their well-worn chemistry; yet an extra dimension beyond the obvious archetype may have benefitted the overall picture.
At the end of a long night, there's not a lot to be shortchanged by. There's a gleeful disreputability to the carnage so integral to Zombeid's success that cheekily swerves away from its seasonal sentimentality, so much so that it can quite easily be enjoyed all year round.
With a sequel baited in the film's final moments, Qureshi has created a muscular work to live up to, and whether or not we're treated to 2ombeid (sorry, sorry...) in the future, Pakistan has still added a worthy contribution to the genre on its very first attempt.
The film is now playing in select UK cinemas, via Antenna Entertainments.