The Danny Elfman haters among you can just move along. Go on. Scat. Go.

Ok, now for the rest of you. I watched Forbidden Zone last night. It came out in 1980, and was directed by Richard Elfman (Danny’s brother) — and it features Danny Elfman’s first movie score. The movie is really 12 musical numbers (most of which were written by Richard) strung together with something that has only the vaguest resemblance to a plot.

The real purpose of the movie (according to the DVD’s director’s commentary) was to capture on film the kind of thing the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo were doing — the Mystic Knights etc. was a musical theater group founded by Richard. At the end of the 1970s, the group fell apart and Danny E. formed Oingo Boingo out of its remains.

The movie is very odd, deeply racist and incredibly anti-woman. It’s not really worth watching as a movie. But as a peek into what the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo were like, it is interesting. The documentary that accompanies the movie is even better — it includes home movies of the group doing its thing, at its prime, and features interviews with “stars” of the movie, including Danny Elfman who talks a bit about scoring the movie. I enjoyed the documentary much more than the movie.