Planet Terror
2007 · Directed by Robert Rodriguez
Original language: English
- horror
- action
- thriller
The story
Two doctors find their graveyard shift inundated with townspeople ravaged by sores. Among the wounded is Cherry Darling, a dancer whose leg was ripped from her body. As the invalids quickly become enraged aggressors, Cherry and her ex-boyfriend El Wray lead a team of accidental warriors into the night.
What it’s like
Scratched, jittery 35mm grain over saturated colour, with deliberate reel-change jumps, missing frames and faded splice marks that make the whole thing feel pulled from a dusty drive-in print. The palette runs on sickly greens, bruised purples and blood-red neon, with fog-choked Texas nights, flickering fluorescents in a cramped hospital and a dusty military compound lit by harsh spotlights. Camera work is loose and kinetic, with fast zooms, whip pans and wide shots of explosions, while the score is a pulsing synth-and-guitar swagger that fills every gap. It's a loud, goofy, gleefully gross night out rather than a quiet one: gore is constant and cartoonishly excessive, with exploding heads, chainsaw limbs and a gunfight-filled third act, and the sexual humour is bawdy throughout. Its pace is breathless and its tone is tongue-in-cheek, with a flirtatious, wounded-hero romance running underneath the carnage. Made for grindhouse-loving horror fans, midnight-movie crowds and anyone who wants a campy, blood-soaked spectacle to laugh along with, not something gentle.
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