Being Film #15 for Hooptober 2024
I wish Grindhouse didn’t fail as bad as it did at the box office. I remember seeing the entire experience in theaters and it was incredible. For every pale imitation (Hobo With a Shotgun, Rodriguez’s own Machete) it spawned, it also remains a singular experience, both taken as a whole and divided into their individual components. Planet Terror, the Rodriguez segment, plays like exploitation through a kid’s eyes, and I think on this watch that’s entirely intentional. It’s way more goofy fun that I remembered, and his stacked cast makes a meal out of every moment. If it doesn’t exactly match the grimy vibe of those films, it definitely matches the sense of fun folks get watching them for pleasure now.
THE QUICK SUMMARY: A deadly biochemical agent is loosed upon the denizens of Austin Texas, and it’s up to the local sheriff, a stripper (sorry, I mean go-go dancer), a barbecue cook, some babysitting twins and the mysterious El Wray to find their way out of the mess. There’s just a few small problems: the military was also exposed and needs that gas – and the survivors – to live until they can find a cure. There’s also there fact that this DC-2 gas is turning everyone not immune into glory, gooey zombies who splatter with the wettest of special effects. Oh, and did I mention that Josh Brolin is insane and is going to kill his wife…and that was BEFORE he became infected? Yeah…a whole lot going on, and we didn’t even mention the main draw of this film upon release, which is Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg. Shit’s about to get grindy, you know what I mean?
So unlike Death Proof (which we’ll get to in the next review), I’m not sure the extended standalone version of Planet Terror matches the shorter, more punchy version that was in the Grindhouse double feature. It’s just…more, if that makes sense. Rodriguez does his usual multiple duty as writer, director, editor, DP, and music composer and it really does all come together, especially the music which is fantastic and really sells a lot of the tension. Oh, he’s also listed as visual effects supervisor, working with KNB to deliver some of the squishiest, splattery blood effect of the 21st century, and if nothing else the movie is a win just for not kowtowing to terrible digital blood. There are digital effects to be sure, but they work in tandem with the spirit of the film to make it feel pulsing and alive, just like the synchronized pops, crackles, and burns o the “film” itself.
But the real joy of Planet Terror lies not in its effects, or even its fairly rote plot. It’s in the performances, a veritable who’s who of character actors and starts willing to get as nasty and freaky as Rodriguez needs to make the film work. And best of all is Rose McGowan, who is honestly a revelation in this. I’ve always enjoyed her work, but here she’s forced to play so many moods and moments that whiplash and she is frankly amazing. Just watch her face in the early scene at the barbecue joint when she talks to Freddie Rodriguez’s El Wray – there’s an entire relationship in the quiver of her mouth, her darting eyes and the crack of her voice. Yes, the first thing you’ll notice is how gorgeous she is (credit to Rodriguez and those opening credits…DAMN), but right after you’ll see just how damn good she is.
A last thought as I move on to Tarantino’s entry. Most folks come away with the machine gun leg, or the great scene of the helicopter chopping down zombies. Maybe it’s even the ghastly Tarantino cameo, his rotting genitalia falling as he prepares to rape McGowan’s Cherry Darling (he doesn’t; fear not if you haven’t seen this film). For me what sticks the most is perhaps the most shocking moment Rodriguez pulls out of the film: Marley Shelton’s young son (played by Rodriguez’s own son), handed a gun to protect himself as Shelton’s on the run doctor leaves the car for a moment…and the single gunshot in the car a moment later.
Goddamn…now THAT’S a sequence.
Cinema Dual 
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