Forbidden Zone (1980)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

If you're new to Forbidden Zone, without spoilers, let me prep you.Don't look for plot. Or studio production values. If talent and originality matter, you can't do better. Why I love it? Years before Forbidden Zone, when they were still the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (a door Squeezit enters in his quest to free Frenchie, Rick's real -- at that time – wife), the Knights did street theater in Venice, with huge painted backdrops, costumes (an 8-foot dinosaur, a rocket strapped around Rick's waist, tie-dyed blouses for the girls), and instruments from around the world, like the ballophone, a xylophone with gourds under the slats. Danny wrote songs and played half a dozen instruments (piano, guitar, violin, drums, tuba, ballophone...) I lived nearby & filmed this in 8 mm and stills.Some called them racist. They're not. Zone spoofs everyone in the neighborhood -- dopers, dealers, dropouts, welfare queens, gays, orthodox Jews, gang members, whites, blacks, you name it. All peeps they lived with and knew. Don't like 'em? Blame DNA! They didn't make the world. Just live in it. And in Zone, they report what they saw! Exaggerated for comic effect. And morphed through Rick's obsession with body functions and instant gratification. Once you accept that, dig the music. And art! Like Van Gogh who, forever broke, started painting what he saw in his room -- his shoes, bed, self-portraits, flowers in a vase. Subject didn't matter. What mattered was his passion. How he made colors and brush strokes speak. In ways they never had.Zone's the same. Creates a new art it alone occupies. Take it or leave it. An IMDb review says... I'll take more, please! (I'll have what he's having!)

This black and white cult classic is genuinely amusing. It's so bizarre and stupid throughout, and one can assume that's all Richard Elfman could be going for.This is obviously low budget, but it looks great anyways. The sets look great, even though most of them are obviously cheap backdrops and made of paper. The cheapness in all the sets is not what Elfman was going for, however if one didn't know this was shot on such a small budget, you wouldn't notice. The acting is hilariously over the top, making this hilarious in a purposely bad way. The music, by Danny Elfman, is really great. Many of the songs are catchy, and the instrumentals written for them are very original, which can also be seen in Danny Elfman's later music.The negatives in the film, are how stupid it is throughout. The plot is so dumb, as are many of the pointless characters, and it's hard to sit and watch these characters for the mere time of 73 minutes. But if you can stand nonstop morbidity and stupidity, you will like this. For me, this was a usually amusing mixed bag.My rating: ** 1/2 out of ****. 73 mins. R for language, violence, nudity and sexual humor.

I'm not going to bother describing the plot for the Forbidden Zone (I am assuming that if you are reading this review that you are familiar with this movie on some level), but if you are not familiar with the plot, just read a few of the first paragraphs of the synopsis at Wikipedia and you'll get the idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_ZoneMany of the films that came from the "Midnight Movies" camp of the '70s to early '80s are often close to unwatchable. But Forbidden Zone is actually pretty decent, especially in comparison. The film is really helped by the soundtrack (if you are a big fan of Oingo Boingo, you should have reason enough to see this film right there), creative art direction, and the nice and crisp black and white cinematography.Where the film does lose points with me is that it really is a film that is strange for the sake of being strange (and while there is nothing wrong with making something strange--if you make something that is strange for the sake of being strange, the results are rarely favorable). That being said, there really isn't that much substance behind the weirdness in the movie, and I can think of dozens of "strange" and "weird" movies that I would recommend before Forbidden Zone; but still, all in all, Forbidden Zone is a short movie and I was never bored (but then again, I was never enthralled either).The bottom line is that this is not a great film, it is a decent film. The Oingo Boingo soundtrack is the best thing going for it, but the art direction and cinematography come in a close second. If you were interested in a "strange" or "weird" musical cult-film, I would recommend something like the Talking Head's movie True Stories (1986) or The Billy Nayer Show's movie The American Astronaut (2001) before this film.NOTE: When the film was originally released it was panned for being seemingly racist. Honestly, the racist imagery used in the film is presented in a post-ironic manner (and I doubt that Danny Elfman or Richard Elfman are actually racist against Jewish and black people). But if racist imagery bothers you and you don't even begin to care about post-irony, then you might just want to skip this movie.

Imagine if 50 of your closest Hollywood friends, all aspiring or has-been actors agree to be in your ultra-low budget thriller / musical and an equal number of craft people agree to do all the behind the scenes work for free, including cardboard sets so thin that just walking by them makes them quiver. Now imagine that since you never expect anyone to ever see this epic effort you toss out everything anyone ever taught you in film or acting school and toss in every Yiddish cliché, elementary school poo reference and simulated sex with amphibians, add choreographed dance numbers lip-synced to marginally classic recordings long since in the public domain, that is what you will see in Forbidden Zone.I loved it! I don't think that I have ever been so captivated and appalled by any movie, ever. This is a classic that must be seen by all USC film students in Cinema 101. It is Judy and Mickey doing a show in her father's barn on steroids. I apologize for the has-been reference above because every actor in every scene was right on mark and brilliant. Everyone exhibited extreme courage by showing their worst side in almost every scene. Actors really don't like to do that as a rule and takes a high level of confidence to do so. To all the actors I stand, applaud and solute you.