Forbidden Zone (Director's Cut) Blu-ray Review

By Paul Rudoff on Jun. 25, 2022 at 12:00 PM in Home Video

MVD Visual recently released Forbidden Zone (Director's Cut) (1980) on Blu-ray. Read on to find out more about it...

[ SYNOPSIS ]

Sexy Frenchy (Marie-Pascale Elfman) falls into an insane underworld ruled by a horny little king (Hervé Villechaize) and his jealous queen (Susan Tyrell). Chicken-boy comes to the rescue, only to have his head cut off by a soul-singing Satan (Danny Elfman), along with The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Frog butlers, topless princesses and rioting school kids all sing and dance in unforgettable musical numbers performed by Danny Elfman, Cab Calloway, Josephine Baker and more in this timeless cult classic comedy-musical-fantasy of epic proportions!

[ SPECIFICATIONS ]

This DIRECTOR'S CUT of the movie has been COLORIZED (in 2008 by Legend Films at the request of director Richard Elfman) and is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:14:10. (The black & white theatrical version is not included.) For the 1982 limited theatrical distribution through The Samuel Goldwyn Company, the movie was rated R. Currently, it is listed as "Not Rated", though it does contain nudity and adult content. Audio languages include English (LPCM 2.0 Stereo). Subtitle languages include English SDH.

[ SPECIAL FEATURES ]

All of the content listed below can be found on the Blu-ray disc.

Audio Commentary - with director Richard Elfman and writer-actor Matthew Bright. I believe that this commentary was recorded in 2004 for the Fantomas DVD. The guys mention things from the Theatrical Cut that are different in the Director's Cut, such as the blackface scenes (the comments make no sense now that it's clownface), and the deletion of Rene's song before the Queen tortures Frenchy (the song was reinserted into the Director's Cut).
A Look into the Forbidden Zone (37:17) - A behind the scenes documentary hosted by director Richard Elfman, which was produced in 2004. Features lots of archival footage, including scenes from Elfman's lost film The Hercules Family, and interviews with Danny Elfman, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Matthew Bright, John Muto, and Susan Tyrell. All movie footage used is from the original black & white version.
Richard Elfman Beats Danny Elfman Forbidden Zone Theme (2:16) - Richard Elfman and a bunch of people (credited as "Raunchy Rose and the Radioactive Chicken Heads" on Elfman's YouTube channel) dressed in various wacky outfits perform Danny Elfman's Forbidden Zone theme... I think. It ends with a card that reads, "Stay Tuned! www.ForbiddenZone2.com". Filmed in 2015, as it ties in with the 2015 Director's Intro. (Watch it on Richard Elfman's YouTube channel)
Deleted Scenes (4:47) - Presented in the original black & white, includes these five scenes:
1. A flashback of Huckleberry P. Jones selling the house to the Hercules family. This features the original blackface version of the character.
2. The King orders Frenchy to Cell 63.
3. Flash and Gramps meet a priest upon entering the Forbidden Zone.
4. Flash and Gramps ask the Queen and King if they can join the Royal Army.
5. Rene sings before the Queen tortures Frenchy. (This was reinserted into the Director's Cut.)
Outtakes (11:18) - Presented in the original black & white, these are raw dailies of deleted scenes, as best as I can tell. Some of the scenes have silent audio.
Scenes From The Hercules Family (5:40) - I believe that these are scenes from Richard Elfman's lost film The Hercules Family, which is presented in black & white in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a "silent" soundtrack (the only audio heard are cracks and pops from a record). Clips from some of the music numbers are shown in the Japan Promo, but with the audio intact, which makes me wonder, if the audio was truly missing, of if it was replaced with crackles to avoid paying music licensing fees.
Japan Promo (4:02) - Richard Elfman on a stage set telling an audience at Tokyo Japan's Baus Theater about the film they are about to see. This seems to be a pre-tape that was shown before the movie at select showings. It's presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but there is no information given about when it was made.
2015 Director Intro (3:46) - Richard Elfman goofing around Hollywood, dressed as a Shriner (as he was in the "Beats Danny" video) with the same Afro-haired woman (his wife Anastasia Elfman, I believe) from that video making a cameo appearance. Ends with an animated clip from Forbidden Zone 2, with a card advertising the www.ForbiddenZone.com website.
2022 Director Intro (4:57) - Richard Elfman drives around Los Angeles dressed as a clown, then he talks about the colorization of the Director's Cut. Ends with the same animated clip from Forbidden Zone 2 that the 2015 intro did.
Director's Cut Trailer (0:46) - Presented in living color with a 2008 copyright date.
Original B&W Trailer (0:47) - The same trailer, only presented in dead black & white, with a 1980 copyright date.

[ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ]

Included inside the one-disc clear Blu-ray case is a singled-sided folded 9.5"x11.25" mini-poster featuring the same artwork seen on the front of the case. The case artwork is reversible, featuring the original poster artwork on one side and newly-commissioned artwork on the other. The first print run includes a slipcover.

[ NOTES ]

My history with Forbidden Zone goes back about 25 years, not long after I met my closest friends, Doreen and Nora. They made me a VHS copy of the film, in its original black and white format, because it stars Susan Tyrell (as Queen Doris), who voiced Achira in the two-part premiere episode of Extreme Ghostbusters. Back in the late 1990s when I watched that poor quality VHS copy, I didn't know what to make of the film. All these years later, seeing it in high definition on Blu-ray, and in color, no less, and I still don't know what to make of it. It's like an absurd fever dream on an acid trip.

Director Richard Elfman describes this "Director's Cut" as such: "Forbidden Zone is an absurdist fever-dream with hundreds of crazy, cartoonish images that spewed volcano-like from my crazy clown-brain. Going back to the first test screening in 1980, there are a few images I wished to change, but had lost control of the film by then. Well, with technology and some cool special FX friends, I'm finally able to fix things the way I wanted... forty years later." The only detailed information I could find about the differences between the different cuts of the film, aside from the obvious colorization, is this note at IMDB: "The premiere long version runs 76 minutes, 38 seconds. The theatrical version runs 73 minutes, 11 seconds. The colorized version (authorized by director Richard Elfman in 2008) runs 74 minutes, 14 seconds, and restores René Henderson's verse in 'Queen's Revenge', which previously only appeared as a 'deleted scene' in the special features section of the Fantomas DVD edition." Furthermore, interviews with Den of Geek and Dread Central tell us that Richard Elfman changed the Huckleberry P. Jones blackface to "clownface" in two scenes of the Director's Cut (the opening scene, and Huckleberry sleeping with Ma Hercules at 46:00).

MVD Visual previously released Forbidden Zone on Blu-ray in 2015 as an "Ultimate Edition" with a soundtrack CD. I do not have that release, but a quick bit of research tells me that it included both black & white and colorized versions of the movie. I don't know if both versions were the Theatrical Cut (with the blackface scene), or if the colorized version was the Director's Cut (with the clownface). I have a feeling that the colorized version on that disc is the Theatrical Cut with the blackface in it, but I have no definitive proof of that. I do know that that Blu-ray release included a few things that have not been included with this new Director's Cut Blu-ray, such as an Isolated Score track for the film, an insert booklet with an essay by Richard Elfman featuring a lot of pictures from his archives, and of course, the soundtrack CD. This new Blu-ray does add a 2022 Director's Intro and a colorized Trailer.

Forbidden Zone will most definitely not be everyone's cup of tea, and as such, I can't recommend it as a blind buy. If you've never seen it before, you really need to rent it first to see if it suits your tastes before committing to a purchase. For those who are willing to simply go along for the ride, the Director's Cut Blu-ray from MVD is RECOMMENDED (also available on DVD), unless you can find a copy of the "Ultimate Edition" Blu-ray, which includes the black & white Theatrical Cut and a few extra things. The film's soundtrack album was released by Varese Sarabande on Vinyl, CD, MP3, and Cassette. Unfortunately, the original vinyl release is the only one that has all 22 tracks on it. The 1990 CD release, and newer releases, only contain 20 tracks; the tracks "Pico and Sepulveda" and "La Petite Tonkinoise" were removed.

Director's Cut Trailer

Now that the review part of this article is over, I thought I'd point out a few of the Los Angeles, California filming locations from the two Director's Introductions included as special features. The 2015 Intro opens with the Hollywood sign overlooking an apartment building at 2649 North Beechwood Drive (corner of Glen Oak Street).

Richard runs down North Beechwood Drive.

As Richard continues running down the street, he - literally - runs into an Afro-haired woman's car. He's now on Cheremoya Avenue, with the garage of the residence at 2422 Cheremoya Avenue behind him. That's quite a bit away from the previous location. I guess Richard is preparing for a marathon.

The car hits him in front of the driveway for 2421 Cheremoya Avenue, the residence that Richard wanders into. Thank goodness the residents weren't home :-)

The 2022 Director Intro features a lot more locations, as Richard drives his clown car around the town. I'm not going to bother trying to identify all of it, but I can point you to the ending. Richard parks his clown car outside the College Hotel at 4620 Santa Monica Boulevard.