INTERZONE (1987)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

There's so little dialogue in the first hour of INTERZONE that next to this post-apoc serving, MAD MAX comes off like a Woody Allen talkfest. Did director Deran Serafian lose his sound equipment during part of the shoot?

Regardless, the basic conflict has practically been xeroxed from Apocalypse Moviemaking 101. Once again there's one society of vicious savages (though for once they're all on foot, with no exotic vehicles) and another society of peaceniks (though for once the society's leaders can defend themselves fairly well). This is shown in an early scene when the raiders of muscle-bound leader Mantis (Teagan Clive) attack the peaceniks with heavy gunfire, and the peaceniks just sneer at the bad guys from behind a psychic shield.

Nevertheless, the peaceniks need the help of a macho dude, one Swan (Bruce Abbott), to help them acquire a legendary treasure in the forbidden terrain of the Interzone. The raiders want it too, because they think the treasure is some great weapon from the era before nuclear destruction. I'm going to flagrantly spoil what is one of the worst "reveals" in the history of movies, because the "treasure" is a recording that-- tells the characters how the war happened. In other words, the "big reveal" is the sort of thing almost every post-apoc flick reveals to the viewers in an opening monologue.

Bruce Abbott brings a breezy charm to his tough-guy role despite the fact that Swan is a nothing character, much like his bland love interest, a slave girl employed by the peaceniks, but who barely has anything to do. Only Teagan Clive's scenes provide some spark, as Mantis first seduces Swan and then forces him to fight an underground monster. The climax includes a hand-to-hand fight between Swan and Mantis, and Swan gets the worst of it until the villainess, after nearly knocking Swan's block off, obligingly walks away from the fight to do something else, allowing the hero to blow her away. I must admit that this one scene makes INTERZONE a bit more memorable than a lot of humdrum apoca-flicks, but not until 1990 would director Serafian produce a decent action-movie in the Van Damme vehicle DEATH WARRANT. Amusingly, INTERZONE's other two writers were the terminally awful team of Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi, who would also have one great cinematic moment scripting the "so bad it's awesome" TROLL 2, also in 1990.