9

FRIDAY

Deep within the darkest recesses of Danny Elfman’s dressing chambers, hidden behind the unsold copies of Oingo Boingo’s Skeletons in the Closet, lies the most shameful of all family secrets. Long before Hollywood’s most celebrated composer scored Spider-Man 2, his first music gig was a song-and-dance number in brother Richard’s black-and-white 1980 B-movie Forbidden Zone. Destined from the beginning for cult status, the Elfman-clan musical—starring Richard, Danny, and sister Marie-Pascale as Frenchy, the not-quite-lovable scamp held captive by the Sixth Dimension’s sex-crazed, Rocky Horror–reject inhabitants—can be held responsible for, among other crimes, the creation of the Devo-inspired Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (originally assembled to write the soundtrack). Yet to his credit, Danny’s performance—as none other than Our Dark Lord Satan himself—manages to eclipse his only other noteworthy film appearance: as lead singer for the family band in Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School. Who could ask for more, indeed. Leave your body (and soul) at the door when Forbidden Zone screens at midnight (see Showtimes for other dates) at Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. $6.75. (202) 452-7672. (Matthew Borlik)