Planet Terror

Originally the second part of the Grindhouse double-feature along with Tarantino's Death Proof, Planet Terror finally gets an elongated release of its own. A throwback to the B-movie nastiness of the 1970s, the flick centres of a group of survivors, including a mysterious drifter, El Wray (Rodriguez), a solicitous stripper (McGowan) and a doctor desperate to escape her possessive husband (Shelton) - all of whom are immune to a toxic gas that is making the majority of the town hungry for blood and guts. They must fight off the zombies using seemingly every weapon imaginable, to endure the night and get safely to Mexico. Easily the strongest part of the proposed double-feature, Planet Terror is a horror film very much in the vein of earlier Rodriguez cult classic From Dusk Till Dawn - inexplicably entertaining and cheesy at the same time. However, some of the dialogue feels tongue-in-cheek, while other scenes are played arrow-straight and suffer as a consequence. Rodriguez is widely-regarded as one of the most innovative directors working today, and if Planet Terror does nothing else, it proves that point unequivocally. His action set-pieces are enjoyable ocular explosions, offering both heave-inducing gore and visceral pleasure at the same time. It's a difficult balance to strike, but the almost cartoonish step-up for proceedings allows Rodriguez some much needed leeway with the plot, and thin characterisation (this being a one-night set up, we know very little about the multiple protagonists, so just go with the flow). While, like From Dusk Till Dawn, it's deeply flawed in parts, it still offers up more than enough evidence that Rodriguez is a staggeringly-skilled talent behind the camera, as well as a gifted composer, editor and cinematographer. And some people professed that the auteur was dead!