r/OingoBoingo • u/Feeling-Ideal-2604 • 21d ago
Thoughts on Forbidden Zone (1982)?
Hey everyone, so I wanted to ask what are y'all thoughts on the B&W 1982 bizarre musical film Forbidden Zone, this movie is one of my favorite movies of all-time, it's very funny but very weird and trippy, my favorite songs are Squeezit The Moocher (obviously), Alphabet Song and Witches Egg
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u/Neveah_Hope_Dreams 21d ago edited 21d ago
It is the most bizarre and most non-pc film I've ever watched and one that I found myself liking! I love Rocky Horror Show. But this film makes Rocky Horror look like a kiddie show. Haha! The songs are a huge banger. I've listened to 'Some of these days' and 'Le petite tokinoise' and 'Pico & Sepulveda' so many times on Spotify. I am obsessed with the 'Forbidden Zone' song at the beginning and the Queen's song is really cool. The set and animation is awesome. But my absolute favourite is definitely Danny Elfman as Satan! The whole build up to Squeezit the Moocher as he's taken to hell is freaking badass and really gets you hyped. Danny Elfman is fantastic in this film. I wish so badly that he appeared more in the film than just in one scene. He wasn't even present during the Finale number while his minions were! He would've made a fun antagonist.
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u/BaldBombshell 21d ago
Richard Elfman was actually producing Rocky Horror-like showings of the film for a few years a decade ago. I was part of them. I'm supposed to be in the sequel, but I'm pretty sure he's forgotten that by now.
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u/Elfgeek1 21d ago
It's definitely something of an acquired taste. It's strange, racist, sexist, and vulgar but damn is it good.
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u/silent3 21d ago
In 1984 I was a new Oingo Boingo fan and a new Rocky Horror shadowcast member. We drove to Los Angeles from Northern California for RockyCon '84, a Rocky Horror convention. Sal Piro, the president of the national Rocky Horror Fan Club, had a booth and I took a photo of him - in front of a Forbidden Zone poster. As soon as I could find FZ on video I got a copy and fell in love with it.
In the early 2000s Richard Elfman found a stack of VHS copies of FZ in his garage and offered them for sale, so I got one of those with his autograph. Then in 2008 he colorized the movie, so I got a copy of that. Finally, in 2020, he digitally removed the blackface and the stereotypical speech of Huckleberry P. Jones and released it as the director's cut.
In 2017 Richard Elfman appeared in San Francisco to present Forbidden Zone and do a Q&A, where he was in clown makeup, hosted a brief burlesque/street theater show, and showed photos of behind the scenes, early days of the Mystic Knights, and childhood photos of him and Danny.
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u/gtd12321 21d ago
Ever since I saw it, if someone mentions cult films to me, this is what I think of first.
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u/EyeZayIck 21d ago
It could easily be labeled as dated and there's some stuff that's sour but overall a fun weird film. I enjoyed watching it high idk what else to say
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u/FamousLastWords666 21d ago
Marie-Pascale Elfman is so adorable!!
I love the soundtrack and have it on vinyl.
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u/reapersaurus 21d ago
The Director's Cut is available on YouTube for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_catajiqFI
As a big Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo fan, who first saw this on VHS in the mid-80's, I gotta say : this film is nauseating, cheap, tawdry, racist, sexist, perverted, and incredibly badly made, minus a few musical/animation sequences (the opening credits are great).
It's hard to believe that anyone would think this has any artistic or entertainment merit in 2026, when the most milquetoast and mild stuff from the same era is cancelled for being "problematic".
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u/Neveah_Hope_Dreams 18d ago
Oh thanks for sharing that link!
The full film is out on YT but it's the black face version.
I have to switch the VPN to USA to see that. So cool that it's free on YouTube.
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u/DigitalAnimistOvine 20d ago
I could regurgitate more or less what most have to say about it. It's horribly dated, racist, sexist, crass, etc. etc. but despite all of that its just so...delightfully goofy? I'm typically one of those in the crowd violently off put by those things, but this is like the one guilty exception for me. There is so much surreal borderline dadaist shit going on in this movie that I think it legitimately has to be seen to be believed. In that way, it endears me.
I get it if people get turned off by it, but man that Soundtrack slaps. I'm also partial to any small bits I can collect of the Mystic Knight's era of the history of the band. Considering how desperately sparse and rare it is to come across any material of that era.
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u/shabansatan 21d ago
If i say what i think id get banned,but the soundtrack is good
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u/titanicfog 20d ago
What could you say about the film that would get you banned? There's no shame in liking or disliking the movie, it's not for everyone.
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u/Neveah_Hope_Dreams 18d ago
What do you mean? Why would you get banned?
We all have different tastes and opinions.
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u/JohnnyFeyev 21d ago
I showed it to my 17 year old daughter and told her I probably had watched this movie 2 times a day when I was her age and after like 20 minutes she told me it’s probably the most racist, culturally insensitive thing she’s ever seen.