PLANET TERROR

US, 2007, 90 minutes, Colour.
Rose Mc Gowan, Freddie Rodriguez, Bruce Willis, Marley Shelton, Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, Naveen Andrews, Josh Brolin, Quentin Tarantino.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Planet Terror was the second half of the special production that harked back to the B grade movies at the US drive-ins of the 1970s. However, it did not succeed as expected at the box-office and each of the films making the double program were released separately. There were also some very entertaing trailers devised for the program's intermission, tongut-in-cheek and over the top. The directors were Edgar Wright, Eli Roth and Rob Zombie. They are worth catching.

The first film was Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, a fairly mindless tribute to the road movies of those times, starring Kurt Russell. The better half was Planet Terror, though also an over the top tribute to zombie and alien films. It had a stronger cast than Death Proof. Tarantino and Rodriguez had collaborated on a number of films including Desperado and From Dusk till Dawn.

1.The impact of the film in itself? As a parody of zombie horror films? As part of the combination Grindhouse program? Comparisons with Death Proof? The links with the previews of coming attractions? Advertisements?

2.The work of Robert Rodriguez? Small budget? Genre films? Exaggerating the conventions? His interest in horror?

3.The title, the town itself, the roads, the diner? The house in which the people took refuge? The countryside? A realistic atmosphere for this story? The musical score by Robert Rodriguez?

4.The opening, the premise, the nerve gases, the military investigation, the scientist, his business sense, selling of the drugs? The need for an antidote? The confrontation between the military officer and Abby? The release of the drugs? The monstrous effect, zombie-like creatures? The impact of the makeup?

5.The background story of Cherry Darling, the credits sequence and her go-go dancing? The other women? The owner? The introduction of Wray? Cherry and her leaving, her encounter with Wray? Their past history?

6.J.T. and his diner? The food, the clientele? The sheriff, his role, the deputies?

7.Cherry and the accident, the injury to her leg? Its being taken off?

8.The hospital, the doctor, her relationship with her husband, with her son Tony? Her decision to leave? The work at the hospital, her clash with her father? The emergencies?

9.The living dead, people being affected, turning monstrous? Their faces and features? In the hospital, the threat?

10.The group and the escape, Wray and his leadership, background of martial arts? Cherry and her going with him? The suspicions of the sheriff, his discovering the truth about Wray? Their going to the diner, joining forces with J.T. after thinking he was dead? The group from the hospital, the bikies?

11.The chase, the escapes, the gunfight? The killing of the zombies?

12.The confrontation with the colonel, finding Abby? The explanations of what had happened? The survivors providing an antidote? Their being taken into custody? The underground laboratories?

13.Quentin Tarantino as the sick guard, his language, story, sexual attack and Cherry and her destroying him?

14.Cherry, with her peg-leg, its being broken? Wray and the machine gun, making it a substitute leg? The effect of her mowing down people with this gun-leg?

15.The final confrontation, people dying, the sheriff, J.T? The survivors?

16.The variation on the Night of the Living Dead theme? Creative? Derivative? Exploitative?

17.The nature of the four previews and the parody, the play on sex and violence? Just short enough to be effective? Danny Trejo as Machete? The humour of the exaggerated exploits of Machete? Rob Zombie and his Werewolf Woman of the SS, the parody of the Nazis, Hitler? Udo Keir as the scientist? Edgar Wright and his parody of the horror and scary films: Don't? The different situations in which people would be destroyed? Don't? The use of his friends in the trailer, like Simon Pegg? Eli Roth and his trailer of Thanksgiving, the extended trailer, the range of actors in the trailer? The parody of Thanksgiving and horror and massacre at Thanksgiving?