Forbidden Zone (Elfman, 1982): Rio Cinema, 11.30pm
This is the latest in the excellent midnight movies slot at the Rio. More details here.
SFX website review:
Sometimes, as a reviewer, when you read back your notes, it’s almost a
shame to chisel them down into coherent sentences. In fact… why bother?
“Big bam boom”. Vomit in lap. Honking noses. Bald men, musical
grunts. Naked woman on a spit. League Of Gentlemen nostrils. Schoolkid
pimp shoot-out. Terry Gilliam intestines. Unnecessary boobage. Human
chandelier. Wobbling buttocks. Yiddish cabaret. Random gorilla. Geekboy
pathos. Talking chickens. Jokeshop beards. Dog-humping oblivious women.
Electrocution by vibrator. Singing zombies. Frog-headed man kicked in
the nads.
Get the idea? Shot in black and white, this nutzoid musical freak-out
was directed by Richard Elfman and scored by his brother Danny – now
Tim Burton’s favoured composer. At the time, both were members of a
performance troupe called The Mystic Knights Of Oingo Boingo.
Transposing their sensibilities to celluloid with no thought of market
or profit, they birthed this hysterical cult oddity.
The story? Okay… a family of freaks has a portal to the sixth
dimension in their basement. The daughter goes through and meets the
vertically-challenged King Fausto (Fantasy Island star Hervé
Villechaize), who decides to make her a concubine. The jealous Queen
captures and tortures the girl, but… oh, fuggedaboutit. Plot, schmot.
It’s all about the insane spectacle.
You could toss definitions at this thing all day and never hit the
bullseye. It’s Frank Zappa doing music hall. It’s a funhouse in a funny
farm. It’s an MGM musical shot by depraved junkies. It’s Tiswas directed by the unquiet spirit of Ed Wood. It’s a punk rock Wizard Of Oz.
Mixing ‘30s jazz with German Expressionism and the Three Stooges with
performance art, it’s camp, low-rent, crass and… utterly irresistible,
actually.
Ian Berriman
Here is the famous Witch's Egg scene.
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