If there was one theatrical event a 13-year-old Brendan was giddy for, it was Grindhouse. The thought that the guy who directed one of my favorite movies growing up, Spy Kids, was now making an action-packed zombie film, AND it was a double feature with a Tarantino movie? Sign me UP! Planet Terror quickly became one of my go-to movies to watch. Its mixture of gorgeous practical effects with writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s excellent digital enhancement usage makes this film a visually goopy great time. Now, there is a huge elephant in the room here. Yes, this is a Weinstein production and stars Rose McGowan. It’s unfortunate, but take solace in knowing I purchased the Grindhouse double-feature Blu-ray way before any of that came out. So, no more money went from my pocket to theirs.
Cherry Darling’s Fight for Survival
Planet Terror is an ensemble film that follows the denizens of a rural Texas town but ultimately centers around Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan). Cherry has aspirations of leaving her job as a go-go, not cry-cry, dancer, the night she decides to leave town is the night that the world changes. After losing her leg in a car accident, Cherry must escape the unbridled madness descending upon her town…with a table leg for a prosthetic. With prolific ex-boyfriends, tasty-looking barbeque, and tons of bullets, Planet Terror takes the idea of a zombie film and cranks it up to an 11.
There are two camps of zombie fans: those who need to learn the origin of the virus and those who don’t. Both camps make solid points for why their stance is better, but I could really go either way. Dr. John Abbington (Naveen Andrews) has been mass-producing a chemical known as DC2. When his deal with Lieutenant Muldoon (Bruce Willis) goes south, tons of DC2 is released into the atmosphere, thus causing the townsfolk to become infected.
Planet Terror From Boils to Bone
What’s interesting about the DC2 infection is how it doesn’t turn the host body into your typical zombie. At the first sign of infection, pus-filled boils start to sprout over your body. (Or upon getting bit, the boils form around the bite zone.) Then the boils multiply until your skin slowly falls off your bones like perfectly smoked meat. The zombies still have some level of self-preservation. Upon the first real sign of pushback, the zombies start to retreat in order to stay alive. This is perfectly exemplified in the film’s visually appealing helicopter scene.
Gore-wise, you can’t get much more schlocky and fun than this. Large red spurts of syrupy blood only partially give way to the reddish-yellow pus exploding from the zombie’s boils. The action ramps up fairly quickly, but once the blood starts, it doesn’t stop. Robert Rodriguez crafts one of the most fun zombie flicks you can throw on with a group of friends on a Friday night. Unsurprisingly, the practicals look incredible with Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero, of K.N.B. EFX in charge. Berger and Nicotero run wild with their slimy and goopy designs, creating some of the most memorable practical effects of any Aughts film.
