Idolator
Recently, a friend invited me over to watch a movie I'd heard a little about but had never seen: The Forbidden Zone (1980), a movie starring Hervé Villechaize and made by the Elfman family. Richard directed and wrote, Marie-Pascale plays Susan B. "Frenchy" Hercules (that's what IMDB says), and Danny portrays Satan and provides music with his group, then known as the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. As an early Danny Elfman soundtrack, the movie would be fascinating enough, but The Forbidden Zone is an eerie attempt to recreate an especially outré Max Fleischer cartoon, albeit one featuring an actress whose entire performance is done wearing only big white grandma underwear. It is one of the most consistently omg-wtf-lol things you will ever see in your life. After the jump, some YouTubed evidence (which, as the above description should let on, is not necessarily safe for work):
For example, try "The Alphabet Song":
Educational! Of course, no one in this movie really learned how to act, though that hardly gets in the way most of the time. How could it, when you have things like this batshit version of "Minnie the Moocher":
Sadly, the film's most magical moment—a stirring tribute in song to the La Brea Tar Pits—is not currently on YouTube. As my friend said after returning from the john and her guests insisted upon rewinding the sequence so she could see it, "I went to the bathroom during THIS??!?"
Comments
I have been lax in seeing this, clearly. (Like you I've heard about it forever and a day now.)
Special YouTube bonus -- The Mystic Nights of the Oingo Boingo on the Gong Show, 1976.
Knights, rather. You get the idea.
Funny thing is that I watched and tripped out to this movie last weekend. It's like a Max Fleschier cartoon that meets David Lynch with a whole lotta LSD-25. Danny Elfman's soundtrack is awesome - my favorites are "Some of These Days" and "Bing Bam Boom." It's almost like a lost Mr. Bungle album. Danny's performance as Satan has some of the most evil facial expressions caught on film. An incredible amount of imagination went into the movie, despite Richard Elfman's lack of film school training. Check out this clip of Oingo Boingo on the "Gong Show." The hottie with the accordian is the same one who played Frenchie.
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After I added this to my NetFlix queue (and moved it to the top), the little pop-up window also recommended Ed Wood and Repo Man to me. Seeing as how I can't really watch these clips at work, this is the best indicator to the film's quality I can think of.
@Cam/ron: Check out this clip of Oingo Boingo on the "Gong Show."
Well, yes.
Wow...cocaine's a hell of a drug.
Is this where Van Halen got the inspiration for "Hot for Teacher"?
"bim bam boom bim bam boom"
One of my all-time favorites . . . the DVD has more behind the scenes footage than anyone could ever want, like Danny breathing fire and stories about Matthew "Squeezit" Bright's creepy crush on Gisele "Princess" Lindley. Who a friend of mine prank called a while back.
Trivia question! What short-lived animated series did Danny recycle the excellent Forbidden Zone theme song?
Docnoodle - "The Dilbert Show."
@DocNoodle: Oh, yeah - Dilbert.
WHat a great movie this is.
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The Tar-Pit segment is too on youtube! :P
This is an amazingly bizarre movie.
The thing that struck me about The Forbidden Zone, is its parallels, stylistically, to The Blues Brothers. It goes a good bit beyond the inclusion of "Minnie the Moocher."
There are two sunglassed men in the school room scene who give a very stoic performance reminiscent of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in their most charming cool. And the dancing frog was absolutely a rip off of Cab Calloway ... hell, Cab might have played the frog (which now haunts my friend Jessi's dreams every night).
The interesting thing is that The Forbidden Zone came out on March 21, 1980, three months before the release of The Blues Brothers.
Maybe it was a Zeitgeist thing.
Also, this film has one of the best topless performances ever. Even Twiggy wouldn't have looked as good.
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