Deathgasm

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.

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.

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.

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.

This hilariously disgusting, twisted, insane little gem from New Zealand is a must for fans of Evil Dead 2, Braindead and similarly gory low-budget horror comedies. If you're into those kinds of films AND you're into Metal, don't miss out on this one: it's a blast. And it was obviously made by very talented people; especially the camera work is fantastic. The gore effects are good, most of the jokes are funny (depending on your sense of humor), and the actors may not win any Oscars any time soon but they seem perfectly well suited for their parts.

Writer/director Jason Lei Howden has a background in effects work and it shows: despite the low budget, the production values are much higher than what you'd normally expect in this kind of film. The direction is wildly inventive and reminded me a lot of the early Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson (mark my words: Howden is a director to watch in the future). A warning, though: even a film like Braindead looks almost sophisticated and tame compared to Deathgasm; a lot of the humor in this film is very, very (did I mention: VERY!!!) rude or downright sick. Do NOT watch this if, say, you have a problem watching genital (and rectal) mutilations in graphic detail.

My verdict: This is a splat-fest of the first order for gore-hounds with a twisted sense of humor, a love for Metal and a very high tolerance for some really cringe inducing nastiness. It's a very well made film - especially for a first-time-director - and I absolutely adored every minute of it. 7 stars out of 10.

Favorite films: http://www.IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-Known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/