Only a Boingo

Here's a weird one: Forbidden Zone (1982), a Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo production. Before they were a rock band, the Mystic Knights were a theater troupe, directed by Richard Elfman with music by his brother Danny. When the whole thing got too cumbersome to stage, they decided to make it a movie.

It starts with a pimp and dope dealer played by Ugh-Fudge Bwana (yep), depicted in the dark as a pair og\f big white cartoon eyes and big red lips. Not at all offensive, right? He discovers a portal to the Sixth Dimension in the basement, and promptly gets out and sells the house to the Hercules family - a hillbilly dad, Edith Bunker wife, a French daughter (played by Richard Elfman's wife Marie-Pascale) and a greying, bandaged Boy Scout. Their other transsexual daughter is lost in the Sixth Dimension. 

The siblings head to school and meet their gay submissive classmate played by Toshiro Baloney (yep), stuffed in the garbage can. He tells them he saw their transsexual sister in the Sixth Dimension, but declines to help them find her - he's too chicken. The class is total anarchy, except that the flashy dressing black kids have a quiet dice game going. 

Eventually, we get to the Sixth Dimension, and find that it is run by King Herve Villachaize, his sexy queen Susan Tyrell and the Princess, Giselle Lindley, who never wears more than long line panties (and maybe a whip). There's a frog butler, some torturers and perverts, and eventually Danny Elfman as Satan.

This is all scored with old jazz, such as Cab Calloway, or new Oingo Boingo compositions that sound like Cab Calloway. The production is very expressionistic (lots of cardboard backdrops). There's also a pervasive sexual perversity - anytime the Hercules boy and his gramps (who look about the same age) see a woman, they grab her and start humping. It is most bizarre.

But is it fun? Kind of - although there are some disgusting moments. Also the offensivity is off the charts. The gay or trans characters are sick sluts, the black characters are pimps and dealers, women (and girls) are sex objects, short people... The music is fun, though, and the low-budget art direction. And we get to hear Danny Elfman's early days as a film composer. So I'm glad we watched it, and can cross it off the list.