Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare

I can't believe stuff like this gets made, but I am so glad they did it.

Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare is a delicious piece of mid-80s drive-in fodder. The thing that makes these kinds of films so unique and fun to watch is the seriousness with which the major players seem to take their part in them. It is their obliviousness to the low-quality of the product that is this grade-Z film's most fascinating aspect.

It is appallingly poorly acted. It is written by total amateurs. It is directed enthusiastically and even artistically in places, and is thankfully short in duration, for although it has moments of professionalism, they are more than outnumbered and greedily overshadowed by some of the silliest scenes ever to make it to the VCR.

It's the Muppet Show meets Spinal Tap meets Friday the 13th meets total crap, and total crap wins the day! Hooray!

this is by far the best of the worst. thor's wardrobe is that of 80s hair metal fame. the character stig's accent magically disappears near the "conclusion" of the film. the showdown between thor and stan is classic to say the least. easy to find so go rent or buy it now!!!

John Triton (Jon Mikl Thor, who also scripted) and his band Triton rent a secluded farm house that has a 24 track recording studio built in the barn so the group can prepare for a tour and get down ten minutes of new material. What they don't know is that this place just happens to be a portal to hell and soon folks are getting offed faster that Eddie Van Halen's fingers on the guitar. BLACK ROSES director John Fasano proved himself heavy metal horror ready with this debut feature. Well, he proved he could make a film in focus and throw a few monsters around. This starts out as a standard horror yarn but takes a decidedly odd twist at the end. The film is pretty rough around the edges (I had to listen to the audio commentary to figure out what the final two scenes were about), but if you have an itch for big hair and Beelzebub, it will fit the bill. The film appears to have some sort of cult following, most likely due to hipsters digging the totally 80s look and the toned Thor, who really is the poster boy for 80s muscle bound metal.

Whatever the makers of this film were taking, its most certainly strong! A rock band, led by metal muscleman John Mikl Thor, go to an old farmhouse/recording studio to record their next album away from any distractions (So why'd they take their girlfriends?). The farmhouse was the scene of some grisly murders a year ago, and the evil has awoken (Probably by the bad rock music!). It begins to pick them off one by one, until the final confrontation between Thor and the Devil himself.

This is a severly daft movie, featuring some really bad actors, some ludicrous monsters (Rubber starfish, penis monsters?), loads of sex and terribly hilarious rock music. Well worth checking out, if only to see Thor belting the snot out of a huge rubber Devil.

Ignore my numerical vote--this is a bad movie but only in the best possible way!! I am a bad movie fan, but not all bad films. Some bad films are dreadfully boring and I hate them (such as "The Conqueror" or "Cracking Up"). However, a small group of film are bad but hilariously bad--so bad, so silly, so unbelievably stupid that you can't help but like them. I love films like "The Apple" and "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare" because they don't take themselves seriously--and they revel in their badness! Now this isn't to say the film is all bad--the music, for 80s hair band tunes, is great stuff and made a wonderful soundtrack to an apocalyptically bad film.

This film is basically like taking "Halloween" or "Friday the 13th" and injecting them with great tunes--along with taking about about 98% of their budget! It's hard to imagine, but the film was made in only seven days and cost a paltry $53,000 to produce. This budget, adjusted to inflation, makes it even cheaper to make than Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space"! The film begins with the slaughter of some family. Then, many years later, a rock band goes on a retreat in the middle of no where (Canada) to work on their music and cut their next album. However, the place is infested with demonic hand puppets who wipe out the cast one by one until their is a final climactic battle between a large-breasted guy and a giant Satan puppet that throws evil starfish at him! You really have to see it to believe how bad it is--but also how incredibly funny it is.

By all means watch the film--it's horrible and funny. But be prepared--like so many slasher films of the day, there is LOTS of nudity. But, considering that the movie is all about Satan and his hand puppets butchering rock stars, you wouldn't think to show this to kids or your mother! So amazingly bad AND cool at the same time, you just have to see it. And, if you can't stand the film (because it is dumb), just listen to the songs--they really are awfully good.