The weirdest most nonsensical musical you'll ever see!

a definitive 'take it or leave it' flick.  I'll take more, please!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! Why was the movie made?

Aeryk Egan, Darris Love, and Bo Sharon in Shrunken Heads (1994)

Divine, David Lochary, Cookie Mueller, and Mink Stole in Multiple Maniacs (1970)

Rupert Everett, Anna Falchi, and François Hadji-Lazaro in Cemetery Man (1994)

John Cusack and Tim Robbins in Tapeheads (1988)

Teri Garr, John Lithgow, and Randy Quaid in Out Cold (1989)

Danny Elfman, Jan Stuart Schwartz, and Susan Tyrrell in Forbidden Zone (1980)

You know the chickens are always ready to help you any way we can. But as you know...

Danny Elfman, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Susan Tyrrell, Hervé Villechaize, and Martin von Haselberg in Forbidden Zone (1980)

Danny Elfman, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Susan Tyrrell, and Hervé Villechaize in Forbidden Zone (1980)

Joe Spinell and Susan Tyrrell in Forbidden Zone (1980)

Herman Bernstein, Hyman Diamond, and Phil Gordon in Forbidden Zone (1980)

Brian Routh, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Susan Tyrrell, Hervé Villechaize, and Martin von Haselberg in Forbidden Zone (1980)

Gene Cunningham

Marie-Pascale Elfman

Virginia Rose

Richard Elfman

Matthew Bright

Martin Nicholson

The bizarre and musical tale of a woman who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family&apos;s basement.

Forbidden Zone

a definitive &apos;take it or leave it&apos; flick.  I&apos;ll take more, please!

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson once said, &quot;It never got weird enough for me.&quot; With all respect and love to that late-great Gonzo God, I wonder if he would eat those words following a viewing of this. This is truly one of the weirdest movies ever conceived, shot, executed, whatever-ed. But it&apos;s brilliance is in the fact that amid its chaos and delirious mayhem is that it&apos;s not really all that incoherent. It may not be any more or less crazy a piece of avant-garde experimentation than a super-obscure picture like Pussbucket. 

The difference, I think, lies in professionalism. In a small way I&apos;m reminded of Russ Meyer; Richard Elfman is a very careful director with his camera, never making a shot unintentionally out of focus or deranged in masturbatory terms, and with his production designer (if maybe it was just him and his wife who also financed the picture) create madness that can&apos;t exactly be called shoddy in production value. Like it or not, and I can imagine people definitely NOT liking this, there&apos;s some art going on here.

It&apos;s also the kind of movie you can&apos;t peg down. I was laughing mad throughout, almost convulsively at one other step after another in the &apos;plot&apos; (and yes, there is one, once checked into the &apos;Zone&apos; and the 6th dimension and the annals of the Queen and the family going through the zone), but is it entirely a comedy? Actually - yes, it is. But what kind of comedy? There&apos;s a sensibility that borrows heavily at times from those delightfully insane cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s (Un Iwerks&apos; obscurer shorts come to mind), but only at times like bits in that classroom singing old songs.

There&apos;s also characters in black-face (yes, black-face), obvious caricatures of black people and Jews, a little person (the actor from Man with the Golden Gun), a guy with a giant frog head and a suit, and Satan. Did I mention it&apos;s a musical shot in black and white and that it&apos;s also like if Rocky Horror Picture Show wasn&apos;t likable for its badness but was genuinely f***ed-up as a true cult hit? 

Enough trying to explain it- this is cult in the sense of Eraserhead or Ichi the Killer, or even one of the real old-school guards of the avant-garde like Jack SMith. You really do have to see it to believe it, and understand how much of a mix of forms and styles work its way into it, of the obvious and joyfully exaggerated &quot;characters&quot; (just between that one Queen with the hair and the little guy it could be enough, but then what about the little guy&apos;s new French mistress?), of the sudden title-cards, of the animations from time to time with most prominent example a travel down an intestine.

Not to mention the music, which is some of the purest genius in the picture (this and Blues Brothers, both good for a double feature not too oddly enough considering one specific song I need not mention here, are great wacky musicals of 1980). There&apos;s two facets: the usage of old blues and show-tunes of the 30s, almost like speakeasy songs, and then the songs of Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman&apos;s equally weird band he had before becoming a composer. Needless to say he composes his first time here, and it&apos;s a great training ground for the likes of other great scores in Tim Burton&apos;s pictures; his one appearance as Satan is a howler, though overall he matches up to what his brother has to offer as a filmmaker of verve and daring.

How much you might respond positively to the daring of Forbidden Zone will depend on how seriously you take it. I don&apos;t think I got any profound life lessons, but if you can tap into the vibe of the picture then you got it made. It doesn&apos;t get much weirder than this, and I love it for it on whatever terms it makes as imaginative low-budget gonzo comedy.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTU1Mzg1YzgtYThkYS00MWQ3LWE1NDgtMGUzYmZkYjMwZmViXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_.jpg

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson once said, "It never got weird enough for me." With all respect and love to that late-great Gonzo God, I wonder if he would eat those words following a viewing of this. This is truly one of the weirdest movies ever conceived, shot, executed, whatever-ed. But it's brilliance is in the fact that amid its chaos and delirious mayhem is that it's not really all that incoherent. It may not be any more or less crazy a piece of avant-garde experimentation than a super-obscure picture like Pussbucket. 

The difference, I think, lies in professionalism. In a small way I'm reminded of Russ Meyer; Richard Elfman is a very careful director with his camera, never making a shot unintentionally out of focus or deranged in masturbatory terms, and with his production designer (if maybe it was just him and his wife who also financed the picture) create madness that can't exactly be called shoddy in production value. Like it or not, and I can imagine people definitely NOT liking this, there's some art going on here.

It's also the kind of movie you can't peg down. I was laughing mad throughout, almost convulsively at one other step after another in the 'plot' (and yes, there is one, once checked into the 'Zone' and the 6th dimension and the annals of the Queen and the family going through the zone), but is it entirely a comedy? Actually - yes, it is. But what kind of comedy? There's a sensibility that borrows heavily at times from those delightfully insane cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s (Un Iwerks' obscurer shorts come to mind), but only at times like bits in that classroom singing old songs.

There's also characters in black-face (yes, black-face), obvious caricatures of black people and Jews, a little person (the actor from Man with the Golden Gun), a guy with a giant frog head and a suit, and Satan. Did I mention it's a musical shot in black and white and that it's also like if Rocky Horror Picture Show wasn't likable for its badness but was genuinely f***ed-up as a true cult hit? 

Enough trying to explain it- this is cult in the sense of Eraserhead or Ichi the Killer, or even one of the real old-school guards of the avant-garde like Jack SMith. You really do have to see it to believe it, and understand how much of a mix of forms and styles work its way into it, of the obvious and joyfully exaggerated "characters" (just between that one Queen with the hair and the little guy it could be enough, but then what about the little guy's new French mistress?), of the sudden title-cards, of the animations from time to time with most prominent example a travel down an intestine.

Not to mention the music, which is some of the purest genius in the picture (this and Blues Brothers, both good for a double feature not too oddly enough considering one specific song I need not mention here, are great wacky musicals of 1980). There's two facets: the usage of old blues and show-tunes of the 30s, almost like speakeasy songs, and then the songs of Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman's equally weird band he had before becoming a composer. Needless to say he composes his first time here, and it's a great training ground for the likes of other great scores in Tim Burton's pictures; his one appearance as Satan is a howler, though overall he matches up to what his brother has to offer as a filmmaker of verve and daring.

How much you might respond positively to the daring of Forbidden Zone will depend on how seriously you take it. I don't think I got any profound life lessons, but if you can tap into the vibe of the picture then you got it made. It doesn't get much weirder than this, and I love it for it on whatever terms it makes as imaginative low-budget gonzo comedy.

The bizarre and musical tale of a woman who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family's basement.

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