FORBIDDEN ZONE

Fancy a mind-fuck? Well look no further. Forbidden Zone is a kitschy surreal and psychotic musical film that's almost impossible to describe. Its like the original Pee-wee's Playhouse, Pink Flamingos, David Lynch and Andy Warhol all got together and bred. The back story is that director Richard Elfman and his brother (famous movie composer) Danny Elfman were in an 80s rock-pop band called Oingo Boingo (Weird Science was a single). But before that they were a music theatre troupe called The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo. They played in dingy underground playhouses with a bizarre set designs, costumes and concepts. Almost like a psychedelic voodoo ceremony on acid. And so Forbidden Zone is their attempt to capture that mayhem on film. Its a film I can't help but love. The absurdity and stupidity of it is mesmerising. The imagery is creepy and infantile and the music is a combination of original songs and sampled ones. Richard Elfman filmed it in black and white with the intention of sending it overseas to be colour graded. He wanted the post production colorisation to add a deeper level of surrealism. Unfortunately the colour never happened and the movie was released in B&W. Cut to 20 years later and with renewed interest from fans the dvd release is presented as originally envisioned. In glorious surreal colour. I won't bother explaining the story because it doesn't make any sense but if you love obscure cult cinema then Forbidden Zone needs to be on your list of 'must see' movies. Apparently a sequel is being written by the Elfmans.
 — with Richard Elfman.

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