STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: FILM - “Planet Terror”
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: infected people invading a small town. Yeah, I thought so.
Planet Terror is the first half of Grindhouse, the name of a double feature that was released in theaters with a three hour run time.
Directed and written (among other roles) by Robert Rodriguez, the film is about a small Texas town where a toxic gas is released by accident, resulting the townsfolk turning into ravenous monsters. A ragtag group of people, including lawmen, a nurse, a mysterious fighter, and a former gogo dancer, spend the night fighting back, as well as finding out why the toxic gas exists in the first place.
On the surface, the film sounds and looks like a typical zombie movie. What can make a zombie movie good to the point where it’s timeless are the characters and the allegorical use of zombies. Planet Terror… has the former.
This makes sense since the film is supposed to be a throwback to 1970s exploitation films. In the case of zombie movies, it’s all about the violence against the zombies and victims. The film even has the same look old exploitation movies as well, with all the grainy, scratchy film stock, even though the movie was filmed on digital.
The zombies themselves aren’t really zombies at all. Sure, they eat people, but they are not “dead” and they are not brought back from the dead. In fact, some of them retain their mannerisms before they’re infected. To be honest, the film never explains the extent of what happens when one gets infected, but it’s not that important.
I wanted to bring up Planet Terror because it is my favorite film from my favorite director Robert Rodriguez. In fact, I appreciate this film as much as I do with my other favorite film, Up in the Air, but for technical reasons.
According to Rodriguez, he had to shoot the film so there would be enough money for the other half of Grindhouse, Death Proof, written/directed by Quentin Tarantino. That meant everything had to be carefully planned out, meaning no improvisation, as well as a clear idea of how all the scenes would be framed.
Not counting any of the special and visual effects, the way Rodriguez filmed Planet Terror, as well as his early films, is so simplistic and clever that I adopted them with my filmmaking tactics. In fact, anyone who wants to learn film/video production should learn how he does it. Luckily, Rodriguez has plenty of “10-minute film school” videos that you can find online.
Account YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCrkURaQYt5qVS1AROLaRww
As for Planet Terror itself, it’s an enjoyable zombie flick with engaging characters, scary visuals, and over-the-top action. Sure, it isn’t the greatest zombie movie, or movie in general, but it’s one that inspired me as a filmmaker.
Go check it out, and… please watch your backside in the night if you’re walking alone.
