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Planet Terror

March 24th, 2008 · Posted by Skuds in Life · 2 Comments · Life

The other night we sat down to watch Planet Terror.   Jayne rented it as a surprise and a treat for me because she knows that I really like Zombie films and Robert Rodriguez films so a Zombie film directed by Rodriguez was a no-brainer. ((That phrase still makes me laugh.  Anyone who has seen the film will know what I’m talking about))  It turned out to be possibly  the goriest film  I have seen.That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy it of course.  The violence was almost cartoon violence as the whole film is a pastiche of the ‘grindhouse’ movies of the 60s and was made as half of a grindhouse double-feature, with Tarantino directing the other half.  It is supposed to hark back to those days, with a hilariously funny trailer for a ‘mexploitation’ film starring Danny Trejo, the picture distressed to look like an old print, colours fading like they do on old film stock, and an enormous gap in the plot where a reel is missing.

It has some similarities to From Dusk Til Dawn, apart from some cast members like Tarantino and Tom Savini cropping up: its funny, its over-the-top,  its blood-thirsty, but the humour takes the edge off the gore.  You can’t really take a film too seriously when one character wanders round with a jar containing the testicles of his enemies, another has a machine-gun/grenade launcher as a false leg, and another rides into battle against the zombie hordes on a mini motorbike.

But for all that, the worst violence was the most low-key and ordinary bit – where someone broke their wrist trying to open a car door.

Although the film is supposed the be like a 60s exploitation film, the quality of the effects is far better.  Technology has moved on so much that things can be done on a small budget now that would have been impossible on even the biggest film back then, and Rodriguez is the master of making a film look bigger than its budget anyway, and has been ever since El Mariachi.   The machine-gun leg is a case in point; I can’t see how that could have been done without modern digital processing.

To add to the mood there is the music, largely composed by Rodriguez.  The main Grindhouse theme is absolutely brilliant.  I had to download it straight away and burn it to CD for the car.  Some of the incidental music has a very John Carpenter feel to it, which adds to the low-budget horror atmosphere.  I already have three of RR’s soundtrack albums and I think I’m going to end up with a fourth.

The DVD extras include the usual maker’s commentary and interviews and Rodriguez’s now-legendary Ten-Minute Film School, but there is also the film with an optional ‘audience reaction’ soundtrack.  We didn’t bother.  I imagine it was very like our own reaction which involved a lot of shouting out things like “Eeurgghh”, “NO!”, “I can’t watch that”, and similar. One extra not there was the ten-minute cookery school showing how to cook perfect Texas barbecue ribs just like JT in the film.

I found the whole thing just brilliant, but I will not be buying it.  I’m waiting until its possible to buy the complete Grindhouse double-bill so I can watch it all as it was meant to be  – two films with all the fake trailers – without having to juggle two lots of discs.  I might even watch it with the audience reaction track turned on.

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2 Comments so far ↓

  • skud's sister

    I don’t really do horror/zombie films but I loved from Dusk til Dawn. The trailer with the whole leg/gun thing is tempting me to watch this one though… My boss is a big zombie/horror fan so if he gets it I will have a lend!

  • MP3 Download Dude

    You just reminded me that i have to netflix that up! Robert Rodriguez is a revolutionary film maker. Sin City was brilliant and so much fun to watch.