It’s October. Time to talk horror. This year I’m reviewing a different horror movie each day of the month.
Teenage metalhead Brodie moves in with his aunt and uncle after his mother is jailed for meth problems. His cousin is an obnoxious jock, who enjoys beating the snot out of outsiders like Brodie, and Brodie’s only two friends are a couple of tabletop roleplayers. When Brodie is caught pining over a beautiful classmate, his new friends tell him to dream on: chicks like that, they say, only go for assholes like Brodie’s moronic cousin.
Sound cliché? Yeah, but I’m doing a bad job of selling it. Deathgasm is aware that most of this stuff is familiar ground. Considering how often it steps outside the boundaries of “normal” tastes, it’s probably a good thing it has these tropes to keep it anchored. Even at its most predictable, it’s somehow fresh. And when it goes full speed insane, it’s at its best.
Brodie’s only refuge is the local record shop where he meets Zakk, an older metalhead who’s been expelled from school. After bonding over metal albums, they make a blood pact, napalm the schoolyard, and start a band called Deathgasm. During this time, Brodie almost manages to swoon the girl, who discovers a love for heavy metal she never knew she had.
The earlier portions feel a bit too much like Detention, which was an enjoyable if not scatterbrained movie that diluted its horror elements with a lot of… well, “spoilery” stuff I won’t mention here. Then Brodie and Zakk discover an ancient score which literally raises hell when played on their guitars. That’s when the movie becomes unabashed horror, tossing Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson references left and right.
There are two kinds of a horror-comedies. Those which make fun of horror and those that have fun with horror. The second is what Deathgasm is—and it’s one of the best examples in a very long time. Some of the jokes are too obvious, but most of the time I was either smiling or outright laughing at the mayhem. Look, beating people to death with sex toys is old hat now, but it’s the look on the characters’ faces that sells it.
Deathgasm has some great actors, memorable characters, and bitchin’ filmmakers who will go on to bigger movies. Let’s just hope they retain what was awesome about them when they inevitably end up in Hollywood. Great horror, great comedy, great fantasy. Fuck yes.
Come back at midnight Central Time for the next movie.
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