Forbidden Zone (Richard Elfman, 1980)

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Cobalt60 · #1 Post by **Cobalt60** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:33 pm

Surprised there is not a thread for this film already (or I missed it). Anyway, so now its in color w/ a color DVD from Legend Films.

luridedith · #2 Post by **luridedith** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:15 pm

I watched twenty minutes of this and gave up. I'm going to try and get around to watching all of it (I paid $50 for it (!) because as any Australian who hangs around pompous bookstores knows R1 import DVDs are dangerously overpriced here) but not looking forward to it. I love this film's aesthetics and the always incredible Susan Tyrrell but jesus christ its empty and self-conscious attempts at weirdness were grating as hell. So many interesting and creative little moments destroyed by awful "quirky" music and shrill amateur actors who hit you over the head with the fact that they're "in on the joke too"! There's no hilarious social commentary like John Waters and Russ Meyer, who while camp and knowingly so, at least take their films seriously on some level. The "weirdness" just feels shallow and bogus to me. Its the Juno of cult films!

Cold Bishop · #3 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:01 pm

I take it you haven't seen Stephen Sayadian's Dr. Caligari?

luridedith · #4 Post by **luridedith** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:40 pm

Cold Bishop wrote:I take it you haven't seen Stephen Sayadian's Dr. Caligari?

Nope, although I loved Cafe Flesh!

wpqx · #5 Post by **wpqx** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:56 am

I thought the film was a lot of fun but would probably hate it if I paid $50 to see it. Elfman was a strange man and Oingo Boingo was a strange group and this tried in their own way to capture it. I loved it, but can easily see how anyone could think its unwatchable horse shit.

Paul Moran · #6 Post by **Paul Moran** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:14 pm

I'll be sticking with the Fantoma BW edition (bought 2 years ago from Deep Discount for approx $15 delivered).

Dylan · #7 Post by **Dylan** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:00 pm

It's a silly film, with a cool score. It's never been close to being a favorite of mine, but if you're a Danny Elfman fan it's worth checking out (the DVD extras, for me, are more interesting that the actual feature, though). I can see how some would think that lathering the picture with the 'colorization' process may add to the overall tone, but I always felt that part of what made The Forbidden Zone distinctive was that the black and white in this specific case lent an "underground comics" vibe that sort of recalled the era of Robert Crumb and the like, not to mention the old Betty Boop and Felix and Cat cartoons.