Deathgasm review from Dark Sky Films!
Directed by: Jason Lei Howden
Written by: Jason Lei Howd
Produced by: Hamza Ali, Andrew Beattie, Robyn Grace, Sarah Howden, Craig Jackson, Tim Riley, Morgan Leigh Stewart, Ant Timpson
Music by: Joost Langeveld, Mike Newport, Chris Van de Geer, Gareth Van Niekerk
Cinematography by: Simon Raby
Edited by: Jeff Hurrell, Gareth Van Niekerk
Special Effects by: Sarah Elford, Storm McCracken, Dan Perry, Tim Wells
Cast: Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, Kimberly Crossman, Sam Berkley, Daniel Cresswell, Delaney Tabron
Year: 2015
Country: New Zealand
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 26min
Studio: Metalheads, MPI Media Group, New Zealand FIlm Commission, TImpson FIlms
Distributer: Dark Sky Films
As a complete metal-head the film Deathgasm instantly reeled me in with promises of death metal, Satanism, gore, horror, and comedy. I was not disappointed. I decided to watch the film to see if it compared to Trick or Treat, Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal, Rocktober Blood, and Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, and to tell you the truth, Deathgasm is leagues ahead of any other heavy metal horror I have seen. The film is also a horror comedy which at first I was a bit apprehensive in case it fell flat and it was going to have to compete against masterpieces like Shaun of the Dead, Tucker and Dale Vs Evil, and What We Do in the Shadows. This review is going to explain why Deathgasm is up there with the best of the best horror comedies.
The Director Jason Lei Howden has directed mainly short films but has worked a lot in visual effects, including, Avengers Assemble, The Wolverine, Man of Steel, and The Hobbit Trilogy. His work in visual effects definitely shows in Deathgasm. Everything in the film looks beautiful, from normal life, band practice, and the absolutely gorgeous metal daydream scenes. The film is a love letter to the metal genre, nerd culture, and all the misfits who don’t follow social norms by referencing Dungeons and Dragons, IMMORTAL, Trivium, and Brodie, and also lists off many different types of metal subgenres including; Porno grind, metal core, black metal and screamo.
The film starts off with a loser called Brodie, who is a complete metal head that lives with his very religious Uncle, Aunt, and their popular son who goes around the school bullying Brodie and his nerdy friends who invite Brodie to play Dungeons and Dragons. It is obvious from the start that Brodie has a crush on his cousin’s normal girlfriend Medina.
Then Brodie meets a fellow metal head called Zakk who leads him to an abandoned house where they find Rikki Daggers, a metal star who has a sheet of music called the Black Hymn. They take it and decide to put together a band with his nerdy friends. Meanwhile, we see a cult who have taken Rikki Dagger and execute him in a very gory and hilarious way. Brodie also bumps into Medina and convinces her to hang out, so they go to the park and become closer. He teaches her about all the different genres of metal and gives her some CDs to listen to.
The band eventually gets together and decide to play the Black Hymn. When they do everyone around who hear the sound played extremely loudly gets possessed, including Brodie’s Aunt, Uncle, and his teacher. Later that day Zakk decides to meet Medina and convinces her that Brodie isn’t interested. Usually romantic subplots don’t really excite me in horror films but in this film it is executed perfectly.
The next day the gang go to school and Medina is ignoring Brodie. In class the teacher is acting normal until he starts bleeding from every single orifice. Everyone decides to run out and Brodie figures out that he and his band named “DEATHGASM” caused the possession through their music. Brodie and Zakk have to get back to the garage to get the sheet music because they have to play it backwards to revert the possession.
On their way to the garage they encounter some demon people. This part of the film decides to get extremely gory with some top quality deaths, which includes Zakk’s dad getting a car engine dropped on his head making it explode into pieces. While this is happening Brodie’s friends are at his Uncle’s house and they get attacked by a demented neighbour. The film then decides to do a scene very similar to Shaun of the Dead were vinyl records are thrown but in this film they throw D20s at the neighbour and kill it. Medina shows up and helps the nerdy friends get away. Brodie and Zakk arrive at his Uncle’s house but everyone has gone. They enter the house thus commencing the best scene in the film. While they are in the house they find that his Uncle and Aunt are possessed so they rush to his Uncle’s wardrobe to find a cross or bible, where they find a box called “Bible Box.” Inside the bibles and crosses aren’t there but the box is full of dildos and anal beads. Without any weapons to use to stop his Uncle and Aunt, Brodie and Zakk decide to come bursting out of the room swinging anal beads and using a dildo as a bat. The scene is extremely tense but absolutely hilarious. I was laughing so much that I almost pissed myself.
Next Brodie finds a chainsaw in the garage and uses it on his Aunt but it doesn’t fully work so he has to kill her with two vibrators through her ears. After they are dead Brodie’s dickhead of a cousin comes through the door, not possessed, but he decides to kill him with the chainsaw. After this scene we see the cultists and they are on a mission to stop DEATHGASM from reverting the Black Hymn and to bring out the head demon.
The band gets together at the school with Medina and try to figure out a plan and Medina lets it slip that she hooked up with Zakk. This creates some conflict between Zakk and Brodie, and Zakk storms out but Medina and Brodie make up again. They then fight their way through a town full of demons to get to the local record store where the loudest speakers are, to play the song. Before they get there the cultists stop and kidnap them and destroy the sheet music. Zakk turns up in full black metal makeup and breaks them out, and at the record store they have a fight with the cultists. During the fight the two nerdy friends die. During this scene Brodie has a drill attached to his guitar and creates some more gorgeous looking gore. The Main cultist is the only one alive and uses a spell to make Zakk a super demon and fights Brodie and Medina. Brodie manages to play the song backwards but also has to kill Zakk — in a very emotional scene — and then saves the day.
Deathgasm then jumps to a few months after the events and it focuses on Brodie and Medina who are in a relationship. Medina has turned into a full metal head and has just gotten a tattoo. The film ends with the record that Brodie is listing to getting possessed but it is just a ghost version of Zakk playing a practical joke on him.
The plot of the film is very well structured, the writing is good, and easy enough to follow. The script is fantastic. The jokes hit when they need to but also the emotional parts have an impact. Every actor in this film does a fantastic job, especially Milo Cawthorne, who brings Brodie to life. His performance is hilarious all the way through the film. James Blake, who plays Zakk, plays the role completely deadpan and straight-faced all the way through and it fits perfect with the type of character that Zakk is. He made me believe that he is a metal head that takes the music way too seriously.
The effects department must have worked extremely hard during the production of the film because every single death is original and filled with realistic looking blood, making the film very violent, which adds to the glory of Deathgasm. Sometimes comedy horror films decide to go the comical route with blood, making it look unrealistic, but Deathgasm decided to go lifelike.
Now I have to talk about the soundtrack and music used in the film. Metal isn’t for everybody but its clear right at the beginning that metal will feature throughout the film and basically warns non-metal fans that the film isn’t going to be for them. As a huge metal fan, the soundtrack is absolutely top-notch.
The moment I started watching Deathgasm, I wanted to cover my face with corpse paint which is a good sign that the film is metal as fuck! Everything about it for me is fantastic: the script, the acting, the gore, and the music. I will definitely watch it more than once and will be going on the top of my heavy metal horror list, beating the other films by a country mile. I would be kidding myself if I rated this film anything less and I don’t see any reason at all why this film isn’t a perfect score. So Deathgasm is without a doubt a 5 out of 5.
