Deathgasm

Deathgasm is a splatter comedy about a metal band that plays a riff that turns people into demons. Being a metalhead myself, I found that the people who made the film don't really understand the subculture and rely heavily on stereotypes. Considering this is just campy fun and not too be taken too seriously, it did'nt bother me much. Plus , most metal fans that I know are horror fans too and this film is very influenced by The Evil Dead series as well as Peter Jackson gore classics Dead Alive and Bad Taste. I would not put this in the same class as the aforementioned classics, but I did enjoy it and delivers huge on gore with extreme metal as a backdrop. Deathgasm is a fun little horror flick with its tongue firmly planted in cheek and is good entertainment.

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.

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.

I've waited for this movie since it was announced. Then I saw the trailer which looked like movie is gonna be gory flick that doesn't take itself too seriously, while metal music plays in background... and movie is exactly that.

"Deathgasm" while not taking itself too seriously, it still hits all the marks of what made other horror-comedies like Evil Dead 2 and Braindead great. It has style, it has life, and enough gore to satisfy even hardcore horror fans. Story follows group of metalhead losers who accidentally play some "devil's music" which in fact is a summoning tune to some Arch Demon, and as rest of the people in town are turning into demons, it's up to our "losers" to save the world.

The Demons resemble Deadites from Evil Dead 2, which this movie clearly pays homage to among other several horror movies (most notable, Braindead). There's also a lot of dark humor and while some scenes do go crazy with gore, it never really gets over-the-top. It's all in good fun.

Screenplay itself pokes fun at metalhead stereotypes, with characters reacting to certain events with lines like "Brutal!" or "Metal!" (little nod to Metalocalypse). Production is rather good, much better then you would expect from this type of movie, and overall it looks lot more expensive then it's budget.

Some minor problems here and there (climax could have been a bit better), but nothing too troubling.

One of the best horror-comedies in a while, and if you love your metal and your horror, check it out.

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.