Deathgasm

There is no doubt that this will strike more of a chord (see what I did there?) with metalheads, though anyone faintly aware of its existence will be able to enjoy this non-stop gore-fest. Put simply, a group of friends find some old music on tattered paper. Its title is in Latin. When they play it, it sounds like a classic Black Sabbath doom song, only darker. The song is so heavy that everyone who hears it begins to leak blood from every orifice as they turn into demons.

The rest of the movie features these four friends decapitating and castrating demons. And here, anything goes and no one is safe. Can't find a weapon? Use a dildo, or some anal beads. The humour is great as there are many funny moments within the carnage, and only a few are 'inside-jokes' for metal fans.

The makers of this film must have spent half their budget on the special effects, as some of the kills are brutal and leave the victims in a state that David Cronenberg would be proud of. I'm not usually a fan of slasher flicks but there were some pretty gruesome moments once the foursome go on their rampage.

It's obvious the filmmakers had a blast making this, so watch it now and have a blast yourself!!

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In the intro we are told that all the gruesome stuff metal bands sing about is actually true.

Some geeky metalhead named Brodie ends up living with his uncle who is Christian. His cousin is a bully and gives him a hard time. He's good at drawing gruesome stuff. One day at a record store he runs into an older and truer metalhead, the kind that chain smokes, chain drinks and doesn't care. This guy, Zakk, plays bass, Brodie plays guitar and he gets two other geeky friends to play keyboard (?) and drums. They end up calling the band Deathgasm.

One day Zakk takes Brodie along and they break into a house. Turns out it's the home of some metal legend of decades ago. They find the guy clutching some album. Suddenly some guy in a suit arrives and attacks them. The metal legend throws to album to the kids who escape. It's a crappy album but also inside the cover are a bunch of papers in Latin with some musical tabs.

Brodie translates the stuff, which reads something like 'summoning such and such a demon to get power and fortune.' They start playing the tune and everyone in the small town turns into demons without eyes who go after them.

Brodie also met the most gorgeous girl in school, Medina, who likes him even though she's his cousin's girlfriend. But Zakk is a backstabbing jerk and through deception hooks up with her.

Now the kids sort of join forces to defeat the demons and to find out how to reverse the situation. We also learn that some rich evil guy wants to take hold of the pages in Latin so he can control this demon.

Extreme metal and horror movies make a good pair, not that Hollywood would understand or care. So it's up to low budget independent producers to work on this, and the guys from Brain Damage have released some movies. Now comes Deathgasm from New Zealand, a very gory movie, although some of the gore is repetitive. But because Deathgasm also aims to be a teen comedy it's unnecessarily juvenile and gross. There is some nudity but not enough. While it has the horror part covered, and it could have gone even darker had it focused more on the occult stuff and the evil cabal, it surprisingly fails when it comes to metal. They get the band posters right, the CDs right, the occasional metal-related dialogue is right, Brodie's guitar, a BC Rich Warlock, is right, but the music is off. A movie called "Deathgasm" should have settled for straightforward death metal, instead we get some really lousy stuff. The music the band plays is terrible and so is most of the soundtrack.

As most movies from New Zealand this one too maintains some of the charming Kiwi innocence. You do empathize a bit with our heroes but not enough. Zakk is well cast and goodness is Kimberley Crossman gorgeous, but our lead is missing something. It appears they were going more for looks, someone to remind us of Death's Chuck Schuldiner. Overall a good effort in a much neglected potential subgenre.

Four teenage boys unwittingly summon an ancient evil entity known as The Blind One by delving into black magic while trying to escape their mundane lives.

One part "Dead Alive", one part "Evil Dead 2", and a heaping scoop of "Todd and the Book of Pure Evil"... you have "Deathgasm", a movie that is both dark and hilarious, with over-the-top gore and some questionable sexual references (but never offensive, just uproarious).

New Zealand has really taken off as far as their film industry goes. I don't know if Peter Jackson injected them somehow or just got more people to notice the great things happening there... but whichever, there are some films from the last few years that are among the best in the horror genre.

Even more than zombies or maniacal killers, it's DEMONS that provide crazy horror directors with the most opportunities to go tremendously over-the-top in the gore and splatter department! Lamberto Bava knew it when he made "Demons" in 1985, Sam Raimi knew it when he accomplished his legendary "The Evil Dead" movies and apparently some pleasantly deranged New Zealander by the name of Jason Lei Howden knows it too, judging by the humongous gore- factor in his flick "Deathgasm". This recommendable little flick offers nothing new or even remotely original to the genre, but it definitely qualifies as pure and undemanding horror entertainment containing all the essential ingredients such as fast pacing, tongue-in-cheek dialogs, cute references towards movie/music classics and literally gallons of blood & pus! The basic plot concept cleverly plays with the ancient cliché that metal heads are Satan-worshipers and that the lyrics of their songs are aimed at summoning demons and other nasty creatures. In the sleepy little town of Greypoint, the social outcast Brodie coincidentally gets his geeky metal hands on music and lyrics called "the black hymn". When he and his amateur band called Deathgasm rehearse it in his uncle's garage, the universe's most evil force descends to earth and turns all villagers into bloodthirsty demons. Among all victims, Satan is scouting for the most evil human soul to possess and this just might be Brodie's metal buddy Zakk. "Deathgasm" is a fun movie, but certainly nothing more than that, and I wouldn't go as far as some of my fellow reviewers around here that label it as one of the best genre outing of the last years. The gore and make-up effects are well-handled but often too absurd and especially too tasteless for my liking. The best example to illustrate this is an extended sequence in which a supposedly normal middle-class and religious couple are beaten to death by the the sex-toys (like a gigantic black dildo and anal beads…) that are hidden in their bedroom. The funniest thing about New Zealand movies is that pretty much all cast and crew members previously worked on most of the Lord of the Ring movies, either as extras or as visual effects people. There are also a couple of cute references and tributes towards Peter Jackson's earliest splatter movies "Bad Taste" and "Braindead". Ideal stuff to watch late at night with a bunch of friends or – like I did – at a festival in the company of 200 gore-crazed horror freaks.

This is what I like when it's about gore. It has to be funny, otherwise just watch a horror movie instead. I would not call this horror but just gory comedy. The best movie in that genre still remains Braindead, and of course the Evil Dead movies, but this one I will remember as well. The exaggeration in the gory details is what makes it funny. The amount of slashed body parts and the inventive ways they use to do it is just hilarious. The script might not be the best ever but that's not what it is about with a movie like Deathgasm. It's just a bit fun. Fun for people like me that get that kind of humor. Some others will probably hate that movie and that's okay. If you like metal music and gore then you will for sure love this movie. I did and I will watch this one again in a few years.