DEATHGASM is that heavy metal, coming of age, Edgar Wright horror movie we’ve all been wanting. Director Jason Lei Howden just walked into the house that Sam Raimi built and put up a Cannibal Corpse poster, grabbed a hammer, smashed a face and fucking nailed it. This is one hell of a ride especially if you’re into metal, comedy, demons, toilet humor, heaps of blood and gore and boobs.
When a young metalhead named Brodie is forced to move in with his shitty, uber-Christian relatives, he attempts to live normally in a small New Zealand town that hates anything weird. After taking abuse from his asshole cousin, Brodie manages to befriend a few other outcasts and they decide to form a metal band. Zakk, Brodie’s bassist and main partner in crime, gets him to break into the house of a famous metal frontman and the two immediately wind up in the middle of an evil plot to resurrect a demon called Aeloth the Blind One.
The level of humor and dry wit in this film is exceptional. Jason Lei Howden takes a ton of influence from horror movies like Demons, Evil Dead and Bad Taste and blends it all with the kind of genius satire of heavy metal that you find in Metalocalypse. The jokes all hit home splendidly if you are a fan of metal music and have had to deal with people giving you shit for any number of reasons from being a dork to playing D&D in the lunchroom cafeteria. And that’s not even touching on how dark the black comedy of the whole picture actually is.
When Brodie and Zakk’s garage band DEATHGASM play the sheet music they found during their breaking and entry, they unwittingly unleash a horde of demons that proceed to possess nearly the entire town. The music is the catalyst that brings about a demonic apocalypse so that the king of the demons can ascend to earth. When the two are told this, they immediately go into hunter mode and start mowing down every possessed body in their path. What makes it so good is that most of the people who are now practically deadites, were the people who treated our main characters like shit for being into metal and rebellion.
The plot is a lot of fun if you take the ride, but the best elements of the film are its love for everything metal and practical horror. The pace is high speed and comedy is razor sharp. The film rarely loses momentum and when the blood starts spraying all over the place, thats when things are at there most fun. Aside from a demon creature that I wish had been a bit larger in scale, this one delivers on every level. This is a movie that has to be seen with hardcore friends. Only a dildo would miss DEATHGASM while it’s playing in theaters. Death to false metal!
Hawkins’ Rating: 
Out of a Possible 5 Stars
