Forbidden Zone

"Forbidden Zone" is an utterly certifiable fantasy-musical that unsurprisingly has picked up a cult following in the 40 plus years since its release. It deals with a young woman, "Frenchy" (Marie-Pascale Elfman), who disappears into the title dimension through a door in her houses' basement. Her brother Flash (Phil Gordon) and grandfather (Hyman Diamond) embark on a quest to rescue her. Presiding over this dimension are diminutive king Fausto (Herve Villechaize) and his tyrannical queen (Susan Tyrrell).

The talented Richard Elfman co-wrote this with Martin Nicholson, Nicholas James, and another under-appreciated talent, Matthew Bright (who also appears on screen as Squeezit and Rene), and Richards' younger brother, pop star turned film composer Danny Elfman, wrote the tuneful soundtrack. Elfman, too, acts in front of the camera as Satan, and Marie-Pascale, to whom Richard was married at the time, served as production designer.

They clearly put a fair amount of effort into this genuinely strange feature that is packed to the brim with assorted, inspired bits of random weirdness (like a butler with a frogs' head named Bust Rod). The whole look of the film, in fact, has a really appreciable visual tackiness about it. This viewer saw the black & white theatrical version, and it's rich the way that it combines its outre sets with animation. All the performances tend towards the utterly flamboyant, but they definitely fit this material. Appearing in cameos are Warhol Factory veteran Viva (as the former queen) and the great character actor Joe Spinell (as a lusty sailor).

All in all, "Forbidden Zone" is truly like nothing else that this viewer has seen before. It actually outdoes films like "Phantom of the Paradise" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in terms of utter zaniness (however low-budget it may be).

Six out of 10.

I was so excited that this finally came out on DVD. My dad took us to see it ages ago when it first came out in theaters and it became an instant family favorite. That might sound weird since it's a bit on the racy side, but most of the sexuality is done in a very silly and, I think, innocent way, so it never made me feel awkward showing it to anyone.

I think it's the best musical ever and the low budget production works perfectly into the surreal plot. The actors are brilliant, a crazy cast that makes me laugh until it hurts.

Rent it! Buy it! Give a copy to a friend and blow their mind!

No live-action movie has ever captured the anarchic feel of the rubbery Max Fleischer cartoons of the 1930s better than "Forbidden Zone." It's an LSD-fueled Betty Boop picture mixed with "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Inferno," all filtered through David Lynch's kaleidoscope (or run through R. Crumb's Cuisinart).

The story, such as it is, deals with the adventures of Frenchy Hercules, who lives over a doorway to the "Sixth Dimension," which is ruled by King Fausto (Herve Villechaize) and Queen Doris (Susan Tyrrell) with sadomasochistic glee. The whole flick really fits the Betty Boop formula perfectly--a shapely heroine (who loves to rumba) falls from her own bizarre "reality" into an even stranger one. Much mayhem and cool swing music ensue, as Frenchy's brother and grandfather (playing the roles of Bimbo and Koko the Clown from the old Fleischer cartoons) try to rescue the unfortunate girl.

This strange mix of animation and live action really has to be seen to be believed--all very low budget and very imaginative (a quality sorely lacking in movies lately). Fans of Oingo Boingo won't want to miss this one (especially group leader Danny Elfman's Cab Calloway-like turn as Satan in the flick's best scene). There are racial and ethnic stereotypes galore, but since this movie seems to exist in an entirely different universe, it doesn't come across as offensive.

Not for everyone--but a "can't miss" for some. Worth seeing just for the musical numbers alone.

I used to own a VHS copy of this movie but didn't own a VHS player. When I finally watched it, I couldn't imagine why anyone would make a movie like this. And, maybe more importantly, who would watch it? It's like the dreams you might have with a 104 degree fever while taking shrooms. If John Waters and David Lynch made a live action cartoon with Max Fleischer, it might look something like this. And yet, as weird as it is, it's watchable and has an interesting score by Danny Elfman. I could only give a 6 because so much of this made no sense that I wasn't quite sure what I was reviewing.

Danny Elfman's outlandish 1980 film "Forbidden Zone" has to be seen to be believed, and if you are not at least slightly demented you should probably pass on the seeing part. Imagine a cross between "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", with lots of animation in the style Monty Python's Flying Circus and the rubbery Max Fleischer cartoons of the 1930's (which probably inspired much of the original Monty Python stuff anyway). Also deserving mention is the fact that this relatively low budget black and white film is a musical.

There are a lot of characters and the story is somewhat hard to follow so here is what I hope is a helpful summary. The Hercules family (father, mother, son, daughter, and grandfather) live in a house with a door to the Sixth Dimension a/k/a The Forbidden Zone (think Wonderland). Their daughter Frenchy (think Alice) and son Flash (who looks like third stooge Joe Besser in a cub scout uniform) go to school one day. When a gunfight erupts in the classroom Frenchy runs home.

Tripping on a roller skate she tumbles through the door into a large intestine and ends up in the sixth dimension, which is ruled by a King and Queen of dice-used instead of wonderland's playing cards. There are a lot of half-dressed wonderland type characters down there although only the Frog Footman looks the same. There is a shapely princess who runs around topless, a living chandelier that eventually decays into just a skeleton, a devil (Elfman) who is like Cab Calloway playing the Cheshire Cat, and a rival queen.

Frenchy's family and one of her classmates go into the Forbidden Zone to attempt a rescue. The film is a mix of live action and animation. The editor deserves a lot of credit because the whole thing is sequenced quite well and even has a strange unity. There are racist stereotypes (generally too silly to be offensive), lively swing music, and sets that look to have been painted and constructed by a third grade art class.

If this whole wacky concept sounds interesting you should check it out.