Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche (1972)

When I first started to research about Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche I noticed that several texts claimed that the Ramsay-family was inspired by Hammer and their gothic horror movies of the sixties. This might be true of course, but after watching it I can clearly say that the main inspiration must be movies the Riccardo Freda’s The Ghost or Seth Holt’s Taste of Fear, and similar movies. If you seen these you know what I mean. The main antagonist is a living dead, just like Dracula and friends, but that’s about it.

A rich scientist saves a young big-breasted girl from the hands of some thugs and offers her protection in his house. That night she slips into his bed and claims she did it because she felt safe there. Our scientist, who works with something that will help people getting longer lifespan… or something, is of course a gentleman and offers to marry her. But the girl wants to get his money and together with her lover and a sleazy uncle they kill the scientist and bury is body deep in the woods. But maybe because he took is own medicin, the scientist returns from the dead as a zombie-thingie and want revenge on the killers!

What I really appreciate with Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche is how serious it is. There’s no real comic relief, not funny faces or silly slapstick-moments. The sing- and dance-numbers are few and the actors try their best to deliver a classic form of thriller without any tongue-in-cheek shenanigans. Most of the last of the movie is set in the house and/or the dark surrounding forest, which give us a couple of very effective thrills. The zombie-scientist himself is not overdone, just a black/blue face and staring eyes.

But the most interesting thing is the relationship between the girl and her lover, and the sleazy uncle, that’s getting more and more intense and frail for each minute. It’s greed, love and just pure madness mixed together. I wouldn’t like to call Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche a pure horror movie, even if it has a lot of horror moments and of course as a horror movie. It’s instead a rather daring thriller with supernatural ingredients and a few twists and turns.

The DVD from Friends Video looks OK, but has a logotype on the right side of the picture of the screen, in the middle. Transparent of course and after five minutes you won’t even remember its there. The English subtitles is also good (I guess, because I have no knowledge in the Hindi) and it’s a movie that is worth that dollar or two it costs at induna.com.