Funereal Plots: Horror Cinema
reviewed by Marthew M. Bartlett.
Studio 666 (2022)
At first blush, it’s difficult to tell exactly what audience Studio 666 is aiming for. Well, correction: it’s difficult to know why the movie seems to be aimed at such a small audience: whatever overlap exists between Foo Fighters fandom and people who enjoy horror comedies. A very specific target. Thankfully for the filmmakers and musicians, the movie mostly acquits itself. In fact, contrasted with the glut of glum, overwrought, blue-filter abusing horror movies where the antagonist/ghost/supernatural force is not much more than an allegory for personal trauma, this is a hell of a good time.
The band themselves are highly unlikely movie stars. Dave Grohl is amiable and game, but puffy-eyed, puffy-faced, and tired-looking. Pat Smear is amusing—and he looks amused too—especially when he screams, which he does often. The rest of the band look like worn, weathered California musicians in desperate need of a few years off.
But can they act?
Sort of.
The plot is simple enough: the band owes the record company an album, but are facing writer’s block. Seeking inspiration, they move temporarily into a home studio where in the 90s terrible things happened…to some other band. Those terrible things have something to do with a book that looks like the Reader’s Digest condensed version of the Necronomicon. There’s Satanic imagery, mutilated raccoons, a mysterious gardener, and red-eyed, red-mouthed demons that bring to mind the ghostly mariners of Carpenter’s The Fog.
Speaking of the master of cinematic horror, Studio 666 sports a fun cameo or two, though it feels like it ought to have more. I kept expecting Jack Black or Will Ferrell to show up, but got Will Forte and Whitney Cummings instead. And surely there’s a famous friend or two besides—well, let’s keep it a secret for now and not spoil the fun—who could have stopped by to play themselves.
But enough about what isn’t there, let’s take a peek at what is. There’s a satisfying series of clever, over-the-top, slapstick kills for the kid who pored through Fangoria a little too much as a teenager (me). There’s blood and ranch dressing in equal amounts. There’s a little humor. There are catchy metallic riffs and demonic possession and levitation and cannibalism and a wood-chipper. What more do you want?
While the band’s 1997 video for Everlong, with its Evil-Dead-2ish atmosphere, its nightmarish costumes and low budget effects (gotta love those expanding hands), is a much better short horror flick than Studio 666 is a long one, the latter is still a fun, cheerfully gory entertainment that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And it’s streaming on Tubi, which means that it won’t cost you a penny to give it a go.
You don’t have to be a Foo Fighters fan to enjoy the movie—I like them just fine, I guess—but it helps.
