Forbidden Zone | 1982 |

There are exceptions, but these days most retro-camp seems to have largely forgotten everything before the fifties. As pop culture continues to plunder itself for material, we have seen parodies of and homages to squeaky-clean sitcoms, cheapo exploitation films, 70's porno, and even overbaked 80's drama. I suppose this makes sense, seeing as culture reflects the age of those within it. It's only a matter of time before someone makes a kitschy "indie" musical with singing hipsters and jokes about Neko Case.

Forbidden Zone

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: $19.95

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Well, in the 80's there was at least one filmic cheesefest that overlooked poodle dresses and doo wop in favor of skewering older targets. Yes, it's Forbidden Zone, the movie that does for Max Fleischer cartoons, racist caricature and swing music what Rocky Horror does for sci-fi flicks, gender caricature and rock 'n' roll. Only it does it so much better. Why? Because Forbidden Zone is a genuine underground original that took real dedication to make, and because it doesn't really feel like anything else, not even other pieces of similarly-minded camp. It may be unfocused and immature but it contains so many memorable images and sequences that I'd say it's pretty much required viewing for anyone interested in the offbeat.

What plot there is centers around the bizarre and (mostly) stereotypically Jewish Hercules family: Ma is a shrill victim of abuse, Pa is a cranky, Yiddish-accented tarmaker and Gramps is a savage and senile former wrestler. The "kids" (clearly played by older actors) are the foulmouthed boy scout Flash (Phil Gordon) and his “older” sister Susan (the wonderful Marie Pascale Elfman), also known as Frenchy due to her flamboyant (and totally authentic) accent. The children are warned away from the mysterious door in the basement that leads to the sixth dimension, but Frenchy is so "curiuse" that she disobeys and wanders through.

And what a world she finds. Created entirely on studio sets, it is a pop-art subterranean wonderland decorated with oversized Fleischer-esque cartoons and images of dice, ruled by constantly horny King Fausto (Herve Villechaise, Tatoo of Fantasy Island), jealous Queen Doris (Susan Tyrell, up for an Oscar nomination shortly before this) and their daughter, the comely, whip-cracking Princess (Gisele Lindley). Frenchy is soon taken prisoner, and it falls to her family to rescue her from the vicious Queen.

It's sort of hard to describe this film in words (massive understatement), because so much of it is pure visual and aural style. The novelty songs, the intentionally horrendous costumes, the anachronistic and badly mimed blaxploitation gunfight: all of it needs to be seen to be understood. And when you do, you'll either immediately reject it (a perfectly legitimate response) or be drawn to it, entranced.

There is a lot of deliberately offensive content here: blackface, Jewish stereotypes, Arabic stereotypes, gratuitous nudity, incessant dry humping, a gorilla getting it’s brain smashed in with a club. But it’s all important for the film to work, because a) it establishes the movie as a world completely without boundaries, and b) it springs from the often blatant attitudes of the films it parodies. In fact, Forbidden Zonecomes maddeningly close to real satire, but stops short, perhaps wisely. One gets the feeling it could have made important statements about American culture if it weren’t so interested in being silly.
Despite its faults, I think it's a great sort-of-lost treasure. The cast is all funny and each has moments to shine. Matthew Bright, in psychotic dual roles, gets to play a warped masochistic transexual and a nerdy, much-abused chicken-boy. Susan Tyrell is particularly memorable, shouting tearing up the scenery so much that she doesn't even react when her breasts fall out of her dress. Marie Pascale-Elfman is adorable and hilarious. And Danny Elfman steals the show and gleefully devours it in a spectacular number set to "Minnie the Moocher" (based off of the cabaret shows of his band/troupe, "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo", later just "Oingo Boingo". In fact, the entire film began as an attempt to translate these shows to film.) His cameo alone is enough reason to see the movie.

Since it's release, the film became something of a cult hit, the only sort of fate it could really have. Director Richard Elfman has been gently using this to its full advantage, sponsoring a stage version, parading up and down California with a drum to advertise it and even re-releasing the film in color, apparently the way he originally meant it to be seen. Although Forbidden Zone benefits enormously from its soft-focus black and white, the colorized version seems to keep the same period feel, if only because so many films from that era underwent a similar process.
As I said earlier, there really isn't much middle ground with a movie like this. I'd like to think that even the people who hate it can appreciate its unique aesthetic and infectious energy.

But the biggest reason to see it? Well, according to IMDB, Forbidden Zone 2: The Forbidden Galaxy is set for a 2010 release date, and you wouldn't want to be left out. Or maybe you would.

Review by Andy Hughes