Post by stefancrosscoe on Sept 19, 2020 14:57:23 GMT
Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare (1987) by John Fasano
"Let's tune our weapons!"
A popular heavy metal act who goes by the name of the Tritonz, have decided to take five weeks off from their rather hectic touring schedule, and ends up heading into the countryside in hopes of managing to maybe end up with 10 minutes of brand new material.
Sadly for the party gang, they will soon come to realize that the former house owners had a rather nasty invasion of some bad demons, and all of a sudden, evil is once again unleashed, but this time it may have finally meet its match, as the mighty Thor and his gang will not go down without a fight.
Another Synapse Films "classic" DVD, which I found last week, just lying around collecting dust, and where I knew I had seen it before, but was kind of interested in at least giving another go, as sometimes movies you did not quite enjoy or "get" the first time, might somehow be more fitting a second time. And I did remember this film, at least for some rather ridiculous scenes, and also that I did not watch it during the night, but day time. And some movies surely benefit from being watched at night, as it kind of set off a more fitting "mood", if you will.
Anyway, this movie is quite "something", that is for sure. The "character" that is Thor (Jon-Mikl Thor) along with his very own "epic masterpiece" Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare aka The Edge of Hell, turned out to be, well, a bit more enjoyable than during my first meeting with it, back in 2013.
From earlier, I really did not have much to go on. About who Thor really was, but after a bit of reading (the booklet was pretty informative) of Thor and his long and very passionate music and business legacy, he surely seems to be a very hard working guy, who loves his loyal fanbase, and while never got the huge breakthrough in the 70s or 80s, he just kept doing his own thing.
Back in the 80s, specially around 1986-87, I guess it was kind of natural, that during the heyday of the whole "hair-glam metal" scene, and of course where pretty much "everybody" along with a video camera and some kind of a "budget" and some helpful friends or "actors", might try their luck, by stepping into the movie business. And somehow, a lot of these rather enjoyable and charming trashy VHS b-movies must have felt like paradise for horror and cult-movie fans who appreciated that kind of entertainment.
In this supernatural horror film, as mentioned earlier, we do catch up with Thor and his band, who have booked a rather big studio that is built inside an old barn, and where we soon get to learn that big stars like Rod Stewart and Alice Cooper have hanged out before. However, none of them ever bothered to mentioned that the place is possessed by demons from hell.
Thor is surely a creative guy, who is not only the main lead, but also the producer and have even written the whole script, and with that much work, I guess it was rather logical that he gave some other guy the job of being director, which I have to say, might have been the best idea.
As beside all the cheesy, campy and laughable stuff that happens along the way, the director here, does quite a solid job with what he is offered, and this is not some amateur who must have stumbled upon a video camera and pressed "PLAY". No, we actually get some very decent and cool shots here, and at times it looks kind of "artsy", if one can call a dozen different shots and angles of the same house, barn and the Triton van huge "art". However, it is also possible the director soon realized somewhere along the way, the absolute ridiculous plot would never go beyond 25-30 minutes of time, so they had to improvise, a lot.
Which means, lots of "random" T&As scenes (some I gotta say, I could surely be without) and some great (yes, I really dug a few of the musical scenes) music videoes/performances, and other stuff which takes place during the bands stay at this haunted farmhouse.
Speaking of filling out the "dead parts", I guess Coca-Cola Classic must have "paid" a lot of money, as we are treated with some hilarious and unshameful advertising.
I laughed out several times, especially when Thor almost smashes a Coke can right into the table, and he seems to be very clear about that Thor only drinks Coca-Cola, as he often will turn the can around, so that the camera would be able of capturing that this was in fact a Coke-Classic, and surely not some other soda name.
The acting and script is pretty much, well, it is by far "horrible", and there is many funny and memorable characters in this band, where of course Thor is the main star, but you also have the sleazy band manager and producer, who suddenly "disappear", only to show up again later on, and the sterotypical british punk/rocker, who seems to reach a whole new height with his hilarious accent.
Another reason to sit through, if not for the "great" acting, you are treated with lots of fine and very sexy ladies, where I early on favorized the babe behind the keyboard.
About the script, there are some incredible stuff going on here, where I just had to skip backwards and then press play, as I was not sure if heard correct, and when I realized I did, it just got even more funny.
As in one scene, where the bands manager becomes the first victim, a while after some mini-demon have thrown up some nasty stuff in his drink, and all of a sudden he is down in the basement, and well, a huge scream goes through the whole place, the whole gang rushes downstairs to see what have happened, and then you end up with pure poetry like:
Randy: "Let's go check upstairs."
John Triton: "Well, it sounded like the scream came from down here... Right, let's look upstairs."
The special effects, if one can call them that, is pretty much rubber-monsters and handpuppets, which looks like something that were made by a drunken school class, and still, they just add to the whole b-movie charm.
As here we get "impressive" rubber-starsfishes, that looks like someone (probably the camera guy) just throws them straight at Thor, who then reacts like a pro, and delivers one hell of a performance, surely worthy an Oscar nomination, and is such fun that, it just has to be seen, to be believed.
The obvious highlight, is during the last 15-20 minutes, as Thor turns himself into some kind of a alter-ego/superhero, and takes it upon himself to fight evil with his own hands, where we end up with an hilarious "fight" scene, and where what I guess is meant to be the devil himself, is getting his ass beaten by the hero, and, yeah, I will have to stop there.
This is absolutely nowwhere near a "good" movie (I seem to repeat myself) but along with some good drinks, pizza and maybe a few friends or people who appreciates this kind of entertainment, you just might have a pretty fun time.
