AKA: Grindhouse Presents Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror – Runtime: 95 Minutes – Country: USA – A: For Adults Only
This motion picture is focusing on a serious event that is occurring somewhere in a rural town in Texas – Abby (Naveen Andrews) is a black market dealer who has arranged a meeting with Captain Muldoon (Bruce Willis) and some other creepy guys. Their negotiations do not seem to go well, an experimental bio-nerve gas (named DC2, codenamed “Project Terror“) is released – which actually turns everyone who comes into contact into flesh-eating zombies…
Meanwhile go-go dancer Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) decides to quit her job, so she could search for a further meaning in life. After barely getting runned over, she reaches the outlying restaurant The Bone Shack, which is owned by J.T. (Jeff Fahey). And this is exactly when she meets El Wray (Freddy Rodríguez), who actually is her ex-boyfriend… they are getting together again slowly. Unfortunately she is being attacked by the zombies, after El Wray has an accident with his truck. She even looses her right leg ! She is taken to the local hospital, where head Doctor Block (Josh Brolin) is facing many other seriously injured patients – there actually is a real and dangerous zombie invasion looming ahead…
Do not mess with the creepy army-guys and their leader (Bruce Willis)…
Shortly after arriving in the hospital, El Wray is taken into custody by the local police officer, Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn) – one question is occurring: what is more important; blaming El Wray for his past, or to fight for survival… ?
Note that this is a film that is referring to the overall 60’s and 70’s grindhouse cinema culture in america, where two films (mainly b-movies) where shown as a double-feature. The second part of this tribute-project is “Death Proof“, directed by Quentin Tarantino. I will only review the first film here, since I have not seen the second – you might know that they where completely split up for an european release.
I had my problems with an adequate assignment concerning the categories – of course, this film could also be titled as a comedy flick – since it actually is a spoof on all zombie-related films. But for now I decided to sort this into my overall horror-section.
El Wray seems to have many addictions… but what about his true origin ?
The films starts – certainly in no ordinary way. We can see old fashioned logos and sequences, and shortly after that: a trailer for a film called “Machete“, with Danny Trejo in a leading role. Note that this supporting trailer – that was originally made for this film only – got so much response, that they are actually filming it. In order to strengthen the relation to the overall B-Movies and Exploitation films, this film contains further intentional image interferences, false cuts and missing reels – what leads to a very unique look.
Thinking about the script and the plot as stand-alones: call it rubbish – since the whole story can be sum up in no more then 2 or 3 sentences; and can not afford many surprises. But, and to relativize this declaration right away: this is not what the film is about… since the plot is not intentioned to be very innovative at all. It is a homage to the old horror and zombie films, that were often produced with a low budget. The main attention is laid on the characters, and their way of behaving in such a serious imaginary situation. Call it hilarious and elusive – I prefer to go with funny and/or disturbing here…
The survivors are trying to escape… thumbs up for the optical effects
Since the whole thing turns out to be very balanced. Of course, we have that typical sort of brutality, and even harsh splattering; but the film is not build up on that. One experiment: think about the film without the explicit scenes. It would still work, in marked contrast to films that are rather glorifying violence. Altough this film doesn’t really has a serious plot, it is very entertaining and fun to watch. Of course, it is suitable to adults only, and even then: nothing for highly sensitive people.
The technical part is just amazing – the overall dirty and antiquated look; for example the image artifacts, the missing reels – are fitting perfectly. Such as the camera handling, the overall acoustic part – and especially: the actors, who are all doing a great job here. In this case this is almost a must, since the main attention of this film is laid on the unique characters and their portraits – so I am glad that the cast was chosen very wisely.
I guess that this possible future would not look too bright…
I would not like to spoil here (although there wouldn’t be anything to spoil at all) – I can only advise to watch this film. At best with a few friends, or if you like the overall zombie-genre (whether the true films or the related spoofs) anyhow. To state it, I do not love this film – but I certainly like it. 8.9/10.
The Dvd on Amazon.com – The Trailer (choose your desired version)
