Planet Terror (review)

Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror simultaneously occupies a number of generic spaces: a horror film about encroaching zombie hordes; an sf film about an experimental gas that unleashes a biological plague; an over-the-top black comedy; a splatterfest drive-in film; a fetish film; a tragic love story; a film about the creation of a Latino utopia. The way Planet Terror so effortlessly blends these together, however, is not necessarily evidence of Rodriguez's talent as a writer and director. It is not as artistically bold a film as Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (US 2003), where Tarantino gleefully embraces genre even as he skilfully erases the boundaries that mark its distinctions. In Planet Terror we have a film that is not the product of a brilliant director's vision, but of an enthusiastic stylist whose aesthetic sometimes pushes him past the absurdist treatment of his subject and into a kind of frenzied brilliance. Like its injured female protagonist Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan), the film moves jerkily along, at times an exploitive commentary on exploitation films and at others a meditation on social possibilities.

Planet Terror makes up half of the film Grindhouse, a joint venture with Tarantino (who wrote and directed Death Proof, the first half of the feature) that pays tribute to the low-budget exploitation films of the 1970s. Grindhouse attempts to reproduce the experience of watching one of these films by replicating the look of damaged celluloid, intentionally deleting reels and including trailers for fictional future releases. This nostalgic aspect of the film is well done, but the effect is diminished somewhat by Planet Terror and Death Proof being released as independent features on DVD, no doubt an economic decision, especially since Grindhouse underperformed in theatres.

While the imagery in Planet Terror is that of the horror film, the premise is based on a tired science fictional cliché: an experimental gas, codenamed 'Project Terror', is accidently released and transforms everyone exposed to it into zombies. What makes this film unique, however, is its strong cast of original characters. Cherry Darling, the film's protagonist, is a go-go dancer trying to make a new life for herself. Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) - or El Wray, or more properly, El Rey (The King) - runs a wrecker service but was at one time a highly-trained agent for the government. The harsh, but ultimately sympathetic, Sheriff Hauge (Michael Biehn) is joined by a misfit band of deputies (including one played by special-effects guru Tom Savini). The sheriff 's brother, barbecue restaurateur JT (Jeff Fahey), comes to realise that human blood would make the perfect additive to his sauce (a nod to 1970s cannibal-themed films). Abby (Naveen Andrews), the scientist turned terrorist-businessman responsible for the creation of the gas, collects the testicles of his victims. Lt Muldoon (Bruce Willis) led a group of army commandoes who captured Osama Bin Laden. Rounding out the cast are Dr William Block (Josh Brolin), a hard-nosed emergency room doctor with little sympathy for his patients, and his wife Dakota (Marley Shelton), who takes an almost sexual satisfaction from her use of anaesthetic syringes.

The film opens with Cherry leaving her job at a strip club and meeting by chance with Wray at JT's Bone Shack. They have a history and we learn later that Wray intended to ask Cherry to marry him before she walked out on their relationship. The two seem on the verge of rekindling their romance as they drive away together. At the same time, Abby and Lt Muldoon have a confrontation, which results in Abbey releasing the gas that infects the local populace. Attempting to swerve out of the way of zombies on the road, Wray crashes his wrecker and Cherry loses her leg when the zombies attack. Wray takes Cherry to the hospital where he is arrested by the sheriff, but later released when zombies overrun the hospital. Fleeing the carnage, the group takes refuge at the Bone Shack. In a playful nod...