Two talented brothers were behind this movie. Director Richard Elfman and his little brother Danny started in Los Angeles but moved to France and while living there in the early 1970's, formed a strange musical theatrical troupe called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Bizarre surrealist costumes were combined with the wilder elements of early 1930's jazz to create a combination of nostalgia and cutting-edge weirdness. By the mid-70's the siblings, with Richard's French wife Marie-Pascale in tow, brought their troupe back to Los Angeles, spawning a small but powerful cult audience.
Ultimately Richard decided to turn the act into a movie as he and Danny strung together their obscure musical finds with some new songs and music by Danny and built a loose plot around it. Shot very much on the cheap whenever Richard could get cast and crew together, Forbidden Zone became a musical about the Hercules Family who live above a portal to the Sixth Dimension. Sliding through this portal by means of animation, they arrive at the land of King Fausto (Hervé Villechaize) whose Queen, Doris (Susan Tyrrell) fights a losing battle to keep her little king's lust in check. The backdrops were painted, the makeup was dinner-theater obvious, the humor often crossed the line into offensiveness, but Forbidden Zone became a cult hit during those halcyon days of the midnight cult movie.
By the time the movie was released, Hervé Villechaize had become an unlikely star playing "Tattoo" on ABC-TV's Fantasy Island while brother Danny turned the Mystic Knights into the new-wave rock band Oingo Boingo, having such hits as "Dead Man's Party" and "Weird Science." Danny, however, had not forgotten his experience composing the soundtrack for his brother's movie, but did not get a chance to practice that art until he joined with another beginning feature-filmmaker, Tim Burton, to write the score for Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985). Oingo Boingo were soon left behind as Danny became one of the hottest soundtrack composers in Hollywood, nominated for Academy Awards for Men in Black (1997), Good Will Hunting (1997) and Big Fish (2003) and writing the main theme music for the TV series The Simpsons.
With the new Forbidden Zone DVD, Danny Elfman fans can hear how good his musical talents were at the beginning of his career and even sample his acting as a Cab Calloway-ish devil. Unlike the grainy videotape versions of the past, this print of Forbidden Zone is razor sharp, presented in widescreen with a newly remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. In the extras Richard Elfman conducts interviews with Danny, some of the performers, and a ribald and hilarious interview with Queen Doris herself, Susan Tyrrell.
Since the film features nudity and racist humor, the easily offended may want to send Forbidden Zone back to the Sixth Dimension but those with a taste for the odd and a love of good music will certainly want to dive in head first.
For more information about Forbidden Zone, visit Fantoma Films. To order Forbidden Zone, go to TCM Shopping.
by Brian Cady
