Planet Terror (NR, 2007)

PLANET TERROR is set in Texas, where a group of military men under the command of Bruce Willis try to steal some kind of gas bio-weapon, which is released into the air. People all over town wind up infected and crowded into a hospital, where they mutate into pus-oozing, cannibalistic, zombie-like psychopaths, while a number of untainted civilians come to fore as the main characters -- chiefly a tow-truck driver named Wray (Freddy Rodriguez), who's actually some sort of legendary commando-gunfighter living under an alias; his foulmouthed, estranged lover Cherry (Rose McGowan); Dr. Bill Block (Josh Brolin), the hospital's nasty chief surgeon; and his medic-wife Dakota (Marley Shelton).

Planet Terror originally visited theaters in a two-part concoction called Grindhouse that was an attempt by directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to re-create a double-bill of the shabby exploitation movies of bygone days. Planet Terror is Rodriguez's contribution, a campy tribute to zombie-horror gorefests of the 1970s and early 1980s. Though shot digitally, Planet Terror re-creates the look of ultra-cheap, mismatched, faded film stock; emulsion scratches; bad splices; and missing footage.

Rodriguez puts his typical high energy into the exercise, as well as indulging in what makes grindhouse movies so fascinating to their adherents. Lots of people die in excruciating and tasteless fashion. Pets die. Children die. (In his DVD commentary, Rodriguez states that exploitation filmmakers would do anything to get a reaction from their audience, chucking out all sense of right and wrong in the process.)