Planet Terror

“Now I’m going to need your balls”

Zombie movies are back! And who better to get our balls rolling than master filmmaker Robert ‘The Ripper’ Rodriguez. Part one of the original ‘Grindhouse’ double feature, Planet Terror takes pleasure in ripping the guts out of the traditional modern zombie flick. Now, intentionally taking us back to the low-budget b-movie era, we will finally get the chance to take an uncut tour of the cool older-generation horror movie period (all be it on our flashy new generation flat screens)

There’s always much to be said about the exploitation films of the 1960’s and onward. This was the time when shock value was pretty much key. If you could shock an audience and show them something that they definitely would not see everyday then you were on to a winner.

People would roll in to these open movie theatres in their cars, pay for a ticket, pretend to yawn with the real intention of letting your arm fall around the shoulder of your passenger and then relax and watch two or three movies, all for the price of one.

And this is what the Grindhouse experience is all about, slick characters with big guns running from deformed undead monsters that can devour their brains… what more do you need. The narrative of Planet Terror is as easy as brain pie; a military experiment gone wrong leads to the release of a deadly gas, which has the unfortunate effect of turning its victims into zombies.

The rest is just out right fun. When we first meet our heroine Cherry Darling (Rose McGowen), she’s leaving her life as a go-go dancer and pursuing a dream as a stand up comic. Stopping off at local BBQ pit The Bone Shack on her way out, she runs into ex-boyfriend Wray (Freddie Rodriguez).

As law enforcement, including a serious sheriff (Michael Biehn) and his idiot deputies (Tom Savini, Carlos Gallardo) battle the zombies, the doctors on call at the hospital (Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton) are seeing an increase in infected individuals. Eventually, it’s survivors vs. soldiers to determine who will live, and who will become part of this unending nightmare.

A word should be spared for the joke trailers too. It's rarely a compliment to say the trailers are as good as the feature, but in this case, they are just as brilliant as the film. Don’t miss them.


Exciting, sexy, gory – in a good way - and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, Rodriguez's zombie exploitation flick is the most fun you'll have in the cinema all year.


The other half of the intended Grindhouse double bill with Tarantino's Death Proof, Robert Rodriguez's zombie exploitation flick is prefaced by a trailer for an ultra-violent (and non-existent) thriller called Machete (starring Danny Trejo, some naked women and lots of guns), in order to add a bit of drive-in flavour before the zombie action starts. After a glorious title sequence featuring Rose McGowan's pole-dancing act, the plot kicks off with a chemical weapon accidentally being unleashed and turning several people into flesh-hungry zombies.

In no time at all, almost the entire town is infected, leaving pole-dancer Cherry Darling (McGowan), her ex-boyfriend Wray (Freddy Rodriguez), military scientist Abby (Naveen Andrews) and Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn) to defend themselves as best they can. Meanwhile, sinister married doctors Dakota and Bill (Marley Shelton and Josh Brolin) put their marital problems aside when their hospital becomes overrun with zombies.


Planet Terror is terrific fun from beginning to end. Rodriguez's script gleefully exploits all the exploitation conventions, layering in sex, nudity, explosions, motorbikes, bonkers stunts and terrific special effects work.

The cast are fantastic too, particularly the super-sexy McGowan, who becomes the film's iconic image when she somehow ends up with a machine-gun for a leg. Marley Shelton is equally good as the homicidal doctor planning to leave her husband to run off with another woman (early zombie victim Stacey Ferguson, aka Fergie) and there's also a fabulous cameo by Bruce Willis.


In addition, the characters all get really interesting back stories and the dialogue is frequently laugh-out-loud funny. Also, the gore effects are brilliantly used and the script even manages to pull off a spot of political subtext in amongst the mayhem.


Planet Terror is a hugely entertaining zombie exploitation thriller that delivers laughs, gore, terrific characters and more zombie ass-kicking than you could possibly hope for. As such, it's one of the best films of the year. A masterpiece

Rose McGowan ... Cherry
Freddy Rodríguez ... Wray (as Freddy Rodriguez)
Josh Brolin ... Block
Marley Shelton ... Dakota
Jeff Fahey ... J.T.
Michael Biehn ... Sheriff Hague
Rebel Rodriguez ... Tony
Bruce Willis ... Muldoon
Naveen Andrews ... Abby
Julio Oscar Mechoso ... Romy
Stacy Ferguson ... Tammy
Nicky Katt ... Joe
Hung Nguyen ... Dr. Crane
Cecilia Conti ... Paramedic #1
Tommy Nix ... Paramedic #2