The (alleged) relationship between heavy metal and pure, unadulterated evil has given rise to some great horror movies down through the decades, and the best of these have been able to marry a sense of humour with their often fairly grisly content. When it comes to this humour, it’s also important that the film laughs with the audience – because you can bet that a large proportion of the audience will be metal fans themselves – rather than at them; the film has to be on our side, never peering disapprovingly in from the outside. Films like the standard-setting Trick or Treat (1986), Black Roses (1988) – shut up, it’s fun – and of course Deathgasm in 2015 have helped to form up a small, but solid subgenre all about the Satanic Panic which still gets linked to rock and roll.
These aren’t words I ever really expected to link to a horror film review, but, well, step forward, Dave Grohl, for it was the Nicest Man in Rock who came up with the initial idea for Studio 666 – a worthy new entrant into the aforementioned subgenre. Based on his idea, directed by BJ McDonnell (equally well-versed in metal videos/documentaries and horror, given his work on Hatchet III) it’s a film which feels like what could have happened had the audio recordings in Evil Dead II come with some good guitar hooks. From that, you can probably guess a lot about the plot. Grohl came up with the idea for the film based on his own experiences of recording the tenth Foo Fighters album in a strange, remote mansion house. Ergo, Studio 666 places the Foo Fighters back in that strange, remote mansion house and this time loads it with mysteriously abandoned recording equipment – equipment linked to an up-and-coming metal band in the 90s, who sadly had to abandon their killer album on account of being suddenly dead.
The Foo Fighter management suggests that the band should cut themselves off from the outside world to really hunker down and get their new record done, and so they agree, heading to the abandoned Encino mansion -but they still struggle for inspiration. Grohl, in character, decides to explore the house’s basement (of course) where he finds said abandoned equipment and listens to the tape: it’s amazing (and it actually is really, really good). It cuts sharply through his writer’s block and helps the band to get going on their next album, but at what cost? (That was a rhetorical device, but go on – guess.)
This is an absolutely unpretentious film, and it’s a lot of fun. A few things are clear – one of which is that, however successful the Foo Fighters are as a band, they ain’t actors, but somehow their clear shifts from script to improv, and a certain level of looking even less like actors up against the genuine actors working alongside them, more than works out. I think it’s because whatever else is going on in terms of their performances, they’re very comfortable in each other’s company and it seems like they’re really having fun (something which comes into especially sad focus, given that drummer Taylor Hawkins has passed away since this project happened). I’m not sure in what order the scenes were filmed, but it looks as though the band warms to their roles as the storyline progresses; either that, or you just kind of get used to the film’s style and how they each come across; what’s important is that it works on its own terms.
You could choose to see a Real World point in here about the unholy cabal of record executives always pushing for the next album, and certainly there’s an argument to be made for that reading of the film, but it won’t be made here, because the occult elements are far more entertaining seen as a means to some ingeniously gory set pieces; they just happen to be set pieces which come about via occult plotlines, given that there’s a demonic presence pushing for the completion of the ultimate heavy metal album track (and band members quibbling about how unfeasibly long the track is clearly haven’t been keeping up with Bell Witch’s career arc). Practical effects are blended with CGI very well, and there’s a lot to be said for seeing ex-Germs guitarist and FF musician Pat Smear (who now comes across as a kindly uncle figure) screaming his lungs out as malign entities try to tear him apart. Pretty much everyone in the film, by the by, gets put through their paces, with each getting their moment in the grisly spotlight. Fans of the Hatchet franchise, and similar, will love the knowing homage to horror classics, and it’s entertaining picking out the potential nods to pre-existing films (I would put a… okay, a tiny amount of money down on there being a reference to The Sentinel (1977) at one point).
Studio 666 doesn’t set out to change the face of horror, but it has a sense of where it fits in, it clearly showcases a love of the genre as well as a love of the music so often closely associated with it, and it’s a great Saturday night film – with the right balance of jokes and SFX. There are some great cameos, too. (The only truly unbelievable plot point is that Dave Grohl, in any condition, wouldn’t graciously take the demo from the food delivery guy, but you can’t have everything.)
Studio 666 is available on VOD now.