Studio 666 ★★½
IF YOU love the Foo Fighters but don’t like horror films, Studio 666 will present a dilemma.
The American band and their charismatic front-man Dave Grohl aren’t just bit players in this comedy horror; they play themselves and feature throughout. In fact Grohl not only plays the lead but also wrote the story upon which the script is based.
The film opens with a woman being bludgeoned to death with a hammer and the perpetrator hanging himself so from the outset you realise Grohl and director B.J. McDonnell won’t be holding back on the blood, gore and nastiness.
That gruesome prologue is from 1993 and the story then jumps to 2019 with the Foo Fighters told by their financially struggling manager to get out there and make me some money.
The band is shown an old abandoned mansion as a potential atmospheric setting for the recording of their 10th studio album and Dave in particular falls in love with the idea. But the home is also where the lead member of another band, Dream Widow, went mad and killed everyone.
Dave also slowly comes under the spell of a mysterious and evil entity that drives his creativity while also driving a wedge with fellow band members Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee.
Eventually Dave turns on his friends and causing all manner of gory deaths while they are forced to fight back and try to exorcise the demon.
It’s all ridiculous of course and, apart from Grohl, as actors the rest of the Foo Fighters make good musicians. Having said that, drummer Taylor Hawkins actually has a few decent lines because he refused to learn the script and just ad-libbed based on what was happening around him.
Grohl of course was the organiser of this venture and apparently the rest of the band thought they were just making an extended video for a new song until the filming just kept on going for months.
As far as films involving real bands go, it’s far from the worst I have seen.