Continuing my teenage obsession with post-apocalyptic movies, a blind purchase was a beaten up, ex-rental copy of Interzone on VHS alongside Land of Doom. This is a hard movie to find these days, however, it was surprisingly easy to find back in the 90’s on VHS despite being a very cheap knock off. However, there is something about Interzone that makes it notable and special!
The Interzone is a 300 square mile area spared from nuclear Armageddon. A vicious marauder plots to steal treasure guarded by a group of telepathic monks that could inadvertently destroy the delicate fabric the Interzone is built from. The Monks send Panasonic to find their saviour, Swan, a nomad they have been having visions of. Swan bumps into a hottie called Tera, instantly falls in love with her, runs through a wildflower meadow and brings her along for the ride.
Interzone is an incredibly unique cash-in on Mad Max. Choosing to have a tongue firmly in cheek throughout, this is the next thing to a spoof of the genre, knowing full well that it is bad movie and relishing it’s position. The film is damn funny! None of the humour feels scripted, everything feels spontaneous, allowing actors to play with clunky dialogue to liven it up and make the audience smile. Abbott, in particular, is on top form. As Tera is the gorgeous Beatrice Ring fresh off Zombi 3, and it is easy to see why Swan is dumbfounded when he first meets her. The impressively buff and beautiful Teagan Clive is the villainous Mantis and her seduction sequence with Swan is hilarious. Abbott and Clive have some fun chemistry onscreen together. The always excellent Franco Diogene has a funny role in the opening of the movie getting things going and his cartoon character sets the tone for exactly what to expect from the movie. Kiro Wehara plays Panasonic and this is only one of two films he performed in, again with Abbott he has some good chemistry. Keep your eyes peeled for Laura Gemser, who pops up in a small role in a flashback.
I am unsure if I had seen Re-Animator at the time I first watched Interzone and aside from his small role in The Last Starfighter I was unaware of who Bruce Abbott was and his performance resonated with me and turned me into a fan. In my opinion, Abbott was on fire at the time, hopping from Re-Animator to Summer Heat, Interzone to Bad Dreams, Out of Time to Trapped and back to Re-Animator for its sequel. All films I plan on revisiting in the near future as there really isn’t a bad film amongst them.
There is a decent amount of action throughout and whilst it is a long way off of The Road Warrior, it’s all works with frequent gags making for a breezy watch. The constant humour really aids the action and doesn’t overrun the film, it’s masterfully balanced. Sure, you can tell that the high speed chases are slower than a granny returning with her shopping on a push bike but it’s all tightly shot and edited to keep the majority of the audience from noticing. Fisticuffs and brawls are quite frequent but not entirely convincing, the shot of the priest pummelling the male dancer in the bar during the opening scenes is far from convincing, but stupidly funny on a few levels.
If I was to make a criticism about the film, it would be the climactic battle between Swan and Mantis’ troop of baddies. It all feels a little lacking relying on some kicky/punchy action between Mantis’ henchman Balzakan and Swan in a small field. Of course, there is a great gag seeing Swan, armed to the teeth and even championing a full sized canon taking on the evil doers only to have them run away. Another issue is the cave dwelling creature Mantis sacrifices people too really falls flat when it’s Swan’s turn. I was expecting a battle like that of the Pit sequence in Army of Darkness, however, it’s all over too soon.
Director Deran Sarafian went on to direct a couple of big movies off the back of this and a couple of other European genre movies. Death Warrant starred Jean Claude Van Damme and Terminal Velocity with Charlie Sheen are his two biggies. By comparison to those two I would gladly pick Interzone any day of the week, not that I have an issue with either of the afore mentioned films. Sarafian also appears in a small role in the opening … poison drinking roulette game. Claudio Fragasso has a go at writing this having written some interesting films in his career like Eleven Days and Eleven Nights, Hell of the Living Dead, Zombi 3 and the notorious Troll 2. Joe D’Amato served as one of the producers, under the pseudonym David Hills.
As obscure as Interzone is today it really is superbly fun and deserves a larger audience. Whilst you can’t describe it as a Naked Gun style spoof of Mad Max, it really is the next best thing and should be sought out by the newly emerging group of fans following Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa. Sure, the story is really silly and the special effects are horrendous but I dug this film when I first watched it and genuinely I love it now, 30+ years later.
The blue Entertainment In Video cover is what I am most familiar with. The posters are quite fun and pretty representative of what the film. Interested audiences should really know what to expect from a late 80’s post apocalyptic direct to video movie.
There is a fan made DVD floating about, I picked one up some time ago. Merely a slightly cleaned up VHS rip, however, the sound quality leads a lot to be desired.
I don’t imagine there will be any demand for this to be cleaned up and released in the future as there are only a small number of fans out there.
