Contains
mild spoilers.
I went into this
film with no expectations; I knew nothing about it other than the tagline
'action sci-fi horror' so if anything I thought it was an action sci-fi shooter
set in space; marines or space misfits pitted against a zombie threat. I really
couldn't have been more wrong.
What I didn't expect
was a highly stylised Tarantino-esque un-pigeon-hole-able twisted dark action horror-thriller with
fucking Bruce Willis. Yes, fucking Bruce Willis. Robert Rodriguez's Planet
Terror I discover is the first in a Grindhouse double tribute, the second being
Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof; Grindhouse referring to particularly low
budget, low value exploitation films from the 70s. For Planet Terror this
exploitation is the overuse of excessive violence and the ridiculous amounts of
blood and guts to shocks and provoke the audience. In all honesty, us zombie
film aficionados are quite used to films that instil these ideals whether we'd
ever thought about it under these terms or not.
It's Texas. Go-go dancer (not stripper she
insists) Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) which I'm sure is her birth name, has quit her job and whether deliberately or, not, has bumped into her ex
boyfriend El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). At the same time and unknown to them, an
altercation at the nearby US military base between Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis) and chemical
engineer Abby (Naveen Andrews) has lead to great quantities of a deadly
biochemical agent, codename "Project Terror" being released into the
atmosphere.
Project Terror is
gaseous, green and like what was released from power plant in The Return of the Living Dead causes a particularly nasty set of symptoms. As the first cases of exposure start
appearing at the hospital with increasingly extreme sores, mutations and
chemical burns it's clear the small town is in trouble. I won't be spoiling the
film if I tell you all this is really just a first stage in everyone's
problems...
So are they zombies?
Kind of. The biochemical agent certainly turns people into brain eating
homicidal monsters but it also horribly mutates and disfigures them and doesn't
demand that the victim actually dies. It's all quite ambiguous though as there
is an instance early at the hospital where three declared dead bodies rise up
and leave the morgue and there's certainly an emphasis on head shots, though
this doesn't seem strictly necessary. If I had to call it? Probably not if I'm
honest and we'll have to chalk another film up as infected.
As the trouble ramps
up and the infected start to take over the town the fight back headed by El Ray
and the Sheriff becomes increasingly violent and fast paced. It's all lavishly
over the top with oodles of brilliant highly choreographed mayhem and carnage
all accompanied by a stonkingly strong sound track that perfectly captures the
Southern American vibe. The main characters are all very strong; there are no
clichés or two dimensions and they possess great back-story and secrets.
Rodriguez managed to assemble a fabulous array of talent, possibly the
strongest I've yet seen in a film I've reviewed, to play them and all the
performances are of the highest calibre despite the often ridiculous over the
top story line.
Planet Terror is a
big budget spectacular with a very strong script and cast. The story may be a
bit formulaic and hackneyed but it's never slow or boring and never, ever stops
to take breath. Rodriguez obviously had a clear vision as to what he wanted and
pulled it off at a canter. I've not yet mentioned the over lay of lines and
static to further cement the idea that this is a film on a tape from the 70s or
the fantastic unrelated Grindhouse action trailer before the film or the
missing reel gaff half way through which all add to the atmosphere. I really
did enjoy this film and there's not a lot to criticise, maybe it's a tad
misogynist but it all kind of fits with the theme of the film; is it still
sexism when you're deliberately poking fun and paying homage to a time when
everything was sexist? I'll leave that debate for another day. It would also
appear the general public was not really interested in reliving this kind of
film with lacklustre box office receipts despite generally good reviews. It's a
non-zombie zombie film more people should watch 8/10.
Steven@WTD.
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