Forbidden Zone (1982)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Richard Elfman

Writers:

Matthew Bright (writer)
Richard Elfman (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 March 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Musical

Tagline:

A chaotic musical fantasy.

Plot:

A mysterious door in the basement of the Hercules house leads to the Sixth Dimension by way of a gigantic set of intestine...

Plot Keywords:

King | Midget | Queen | Chicken | Shot To Death

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Hervé Villechaize	...	King Fausto of the Sixth Dimension
Susan Tyrrell	...	Queen Doris of the Sixth Dimension / Ruth Henderson
Gisele Lindley	...	The Princess
Jan Stuart Schwartz	...	Bust Rod, the Servant Frog
Marie-Pascale Elfman	...	Susan B. 'Frenchy' Hercules
Virginia Rose	...	Ma Hercules
Gene Cunningham	...	Huckleberry P. Jones / Pa Hercules (as Ugh-Fudge Bwana)
Phil Gordon	...	Flash Hercules
Hyman Diamond	...	Grampa Hercules
Matthew Bright	...	Squeezit & René Henderson (as Toshiro Boloney)
Danny Elfman	...	Satan
Viva	...	Ex-Queen
Joe Spinell	...	Squeezit's Father
Brian Routh	...	Harry Kipper (as The Kipper Kids)
Martin von Haselberg	...	Harry Kipper (as The Kipper Kids)

Runtime:

73 min | USA:74 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

Hercules Films Ltd.

Trivia:

The strange pair of singers who appear during the Bim Bam Boom number and who sing in gibberish is the performance art duo The Kipper Kids.

Quotes:

Susan B. 'Frenchy' Hercules: Hot damn! Zee Sixth Dimension!

Movie Connections:

References The Skeleton Dance (1929)

Soundtrack:

Some of These Days

The weirdest most nonsensical musical you'll ever see!

"Forbidden Zone" is up there on the list of strangest films of all time. It's a hell of a lot of fun, even though it doesn't make much sense. The film was created by Matthew Bright and Richard Elfman from the 80's rock band Oingo Boingo. They also did the film's music. The story concerns a family who buys a house from a drug dealer. Little do they know that it has a door that leads to the sixth dimension. The film becomes a crazed B&W surreal musical of comical strangeness. Tattoo of "Fantasy Island" plays the king of the sixth dimension. There's a depraved queen, a giant frog, a topless princess, drag queens, gigantic dice props and other things that you have to see to believe. It's as if John Waters and Jodorowsky teamed up to film "the Wizard of Oz" in black and white. The funniest part of the film has to be the guys wearing jockstraps who make musical fart noises while boxing. This is definitely not your average musical!