This study focuses on delineating an alternative way of seeing Pakistani horror cinema. I present a temporal critique of Zinda Laash (1967) and Zibahkhana (2007) through Derrida’s notion of hauntology, to trace an unconscious flow of trauma, memory, and history through these films. These act as an affective means of resistance against a modern time consciousness that divorces the past from the present. Hauntology here embraces the agency of the past with which it denounces being forgotten. I employ a semiotic analysis, informed by post-structuralism and Affect theory, to explore a sense of disjointed time in Zinda Laash and Zibahkhana. My analysis reveals that the past, and a genealogy of its politics, is a necessary precondition to make any meaning in Pakistani horror films.
Display Component: Monsters At The Margins I & II
Display Component: 2D/3D Animations
Display Design Documentation
