Forbidden Zone

The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo were formed in late 1972 by Richard Elfman, as a musical theatre troupe.[3] As Richard's interest shifted to filmmaking, he passed leadership of the band to younger brother Danny Elfman. Danny, who had begun to lose interest in musical theatre, had gained interest in other musical styles such as ska, and had become "sick of lugging around so much stuff with the theatre troupe. Towards the end", he remembers, "it was a big production... there was, like a semi full of stuff. And that was becoming burdensome. So, for me, the idea of being a band that can fit all their gear into a van and set up in a club, and an hour later be playing, became a goal."[3] Production began during a transitional period when the group was moving from its cabaret style towards a more pop/rock format; by the time the film was completed, the band had shortened its name to Oingo Boingo.[3]

The film was originally conceived as The Hercules Family, a 16mm musical that consisted of twelve musical numbers and a story loosely constructed around them. But as the project grew to 35mm and the storyline evolved, Richard Elfman found himself re-shooting many of the original scenes to fit the new film.[9] Two sequences from the original 16mm footage were featured on the 2004 DVD release: one of Danny Elfman, as Satan, performing "Minnie the Moocher" (later reshot with visual elements borrowed from the original 16mm sequence and alternate lyrics), and another of Marie-Pascale Elfman, singing "Johnny". The sequence with Elfman as Satan, and members of the Oingo Boingo as his minions, came from live shows, in which the band would perform Cab Calloway tunes like "St. James Infirmary Blues" in the same costumes.[3]

Marie-Pascale Elfman, at the time of shooting, was married to director Richard Elfman. She designed the film's expressionistic sets and starred in the film. Actor and former Mystic Knight Gene Cunningham helped fund the film. When Cunningham and Elfman ran out of money during production, Richard and Marie-Pascale Elfman helped finance by selling houses, before Carl Borack put money into the production in order for Elfman to complete the film.[3] According to Elfman, he had originally intended the film to be screened in color, stating that the original plan was to ship the film to China, where each frame would be hand-tinted, but that this plan was not practical within the production costs.[10] Elfman ultimately went bankrupt during the production of Forbidden Zone and had to assign the rights away in order to finish the film; in 2015, Elfman regained the full rights to Forbidden Zone.[11]

Actor Hervé Villechaize was a former roommate of co-writer and co-star Matthew Bright;[4][9] Villechaize had previously dated co-star Susan Tyrrell.[2] The Elfmans' grandfather, Herman Bernstein, also appeared in the film, and Richard Elfman's accountant appeared under the name "Hyman Diamond" because Elfman had no idea whether or not he wanted to be credited.[9] Others who worked on the film include The Kipper Kids (Brian Routh and Martin von Haselberg), Joe Spinell, and former Warhol superstar Viva.

Forbidden Zone featured Bright's first work on film, and his only work as an actor (under the name "Toshiro Baloney"). A founding member of the Mystic Knights, Bright later became a screenwriter and director in his own right. Bright's credits include Freeway, Ted Bundy, and Tiptoes. Bright and director Richard Elfman's only dispute during the screenwriting process was over a scene in which his character, Squeezit, was originally to have been beaten up for eight minutes and having the walls wiped with his blood.[3] Another scene cut from the script would have had Squeezit being castrated.[9] According to Bright, "I didn't have any sense of limits or balance then, at the time, I... you know, I was just, didn't know what I was doing. I needed reining in."[3] During filming, Bright was sitting on the set in costume when a lighting stand fell onto his head, cracking his skull, and he had to be rushed to the hospital. When Bright returned to work the next day, he had a mild concussion and whiplash, but he continued with filming.[9]

Richard Elfman had never gone to film school when production started, and "I didn't know what I was getting into."[3] The production, from its original 16mm roots to its finish, took three years. Cast and crew members would sleep on the film's stage, wearing spare gorilla suits to stay warm.[3] Among the film's artistic influences included 1940s big band and jazz music and Max Fleischer cartoons of the 1930s (such as Betty Boop).[3] Some of the film's cast was made up of non-professionals cast off the street. In one scene, Richard Elfman brought in a young man to mouth the words of "Bim Bam Boom", but when he was put in front of the camera, he stood there as the scene was shot. Elfman left the scene in the film by editing in Bright's lips over the actor's face.[9] Another scene featured homeless men.[9]

The film's animation was created by then-unknown animator John Muto. Because of the film's low budget, Muto created all of the film's animation sequences himself.[3] Muto made frequent use of airbrush techniques to establish for himself a distinctive style.[3] For sequences in which live-action and animation were combined, the actors were photographed in tight head-on and profile shots, and the photos were cut out and pasted into the animation in a style recalling Terry Gilliam's work on Monty Python's Flying Circus.[3] Muto also credits the Fleischer Brothers as another inspiration.[3]

Forbidden Zone was the first film scored by Danny Elfman, who would eventually score, among other films, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The song Witch's Egg was written by Georg Michalski and Tyrrell.[9] In some scenes, characters lip synch to old records, including recordings by Cab Calloway, Josephine Baker, and others.

The alphabet song performed in a classroom scene was inspired by the "Swinging the Alphabet" song from The Three Stooges short Violent Is the Word for Curly.[9]

For the "Yiddishe Charleston" scene, Richard Elfman had shot the sequence with him lip-syncing to an old recording of the song, but was later unable to acquire the rights to the recording, and had to record a new version of the song while attempting to sync the new recording with the footage.[9]

The film's soundtrack has also become popular, and its theme song was eventually reused by Danny Elfman, who rearranged it as The Dilbert Zone for use as the theme for the television series Dilbert.

It was digitally restored and released on Region 1 DVD by Fantoma in 2004, receiving a Region 2 release by Arrow Film Distributors Ltd. in 2006.[12] In 2008, with Elfman's blessing and input, a colorized version of Forbidden Zone was issued on DVD by Legend Films, and was later screened in exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2010.[5][15] Arrow released a Blu-Ray edition in the UK in 2012, followed by an "Ultimate Edition" North American Blu-Ray release by MVD Entertainment Group in 2015; both releases contained both the black-and-white and color versions.[16][17]

Upon its original release, Forbidden Zone was singled out for criticism for its use of broadly-drawn racist, homophobic, antisemitic and anti-Christian visuals and characters.[9][18] Elfman, himself of Jewish heritage, has disputed many of these accusations, noting that elements seen as homophobic were inspired by his time as a director and occasional performer in the San Francisco avant-garde drag troupe The Cockettes, while the character of "Mr. Bernstein", accused of being an exaggerated Jewish stereotype, was played by Elfman's Jewish grandfather Herman Bernstein, of whom Elfman wryly asserted "wasn't acting".[9][18]

In particular, Forbidden Zone has been criticized for its brief use of surreal blackface. In 2020, Elfman digitally removed the blackface images and replaced them with "clown-face". In an interview with Dread Central, he explained "Going back to our very first test screening in 1980, there were a few things that really bugged me. The film is an absurdist fever-dream with hundreds of crazy, cartoonish images. I regretted the few seconds of Max Fleischer-era black-face and wanted to change it to 'clown-face'. But the film had – literally – bankrupted me, I had lost control and couldn't complete it exactly the way I wanted. Well, forty years later, I fucking can!". Elfman's director's cut was released in early 2021.[19]

In June 2009, it was revealed through an entry on IMDb that Elfman had been developing a sequel to Forbidden Zone entitled Forbidden Zone 2: The Forbidden Galaxy.[20] The prospective project was more formally detailed in March 2014 when Elfman launched a successful crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo to raise part of the film's financing. As of the campaign's most recent update in May 2023, Elfman confirmed the project is "still alive" and noting that he "will not give up on FZ2", describing Forbidden Zone 2 as "number one on his bucket list." "As long as I am breathing, I will do Forbidden Zone 2!"[7]

In 2010, Forbidden Zone was performed as a live stage show with the support of Richard Elfman. It is a production of the Sacred Fools Theater Company, and premiered there in Los Angeles on Friday, May 21, 2010.[21]

Richard Elfman entered into a licensing deal with the creative resource company, PANGEA, to provide licensees with the opportunity to create merchandise based on the cult film. According to articles that appeared in the media on May 3, 2016, the arrangement calls for content to be created that will include a Storyboard Book of the original film, featuring commentary and anecdotal notes from director. Shot glasses and sculpted pieces were among the list of immediate items that would be released. A fantasy novella series was also noted as being under development.[22]

Rocky Horror "shadow cast" companies have begun performing screenings of the film. Elfman sometimes participates in these live performances. He enters in a clown suit and beats a big bass drum that is accompanied by a Brazilian percussion ensemble—reminiscent of his former group, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.[23][24]

The Syfy Channel has run a teaser piece musical number,[25] "Princess Polly" from Forbidden Zone 2: The Forbidden Galaxy on its show Monster Man, starring Cleve Hall.[26] Elfman opens the Forbidden Zone shadow cast shows (after the march in) with Erin Holt singing Princess Polly live in front of her screened “monster” image on stage.[27]