Review: Studio 666

The Foo Fighters star as themselves as they struggle to create their latest album, with record exec Jeff Garlin losing patience. They’re booked into a mansion to help them find their sound, and boy do they. The mansion is cursed due to an incident in the 90s where another band was killed in a Satanic ritual. Now lead singer Dave Grohl has become possessed and obsessed, and that’s when the weirdness and bloodshed begin. Whitney Cummings plays a kooky neighbour who won’t leave the guys alone.

 

I was mildly curious to see what a horror movie starring rockers The Foo Fighters might look like, despite not being a massive fan of their fairly generic Top 40 rock music. Yeah, ‘Everlong’ is undeniably great and the rest of their stuff is inoffensive and competent enough. However, I’m a much bigger fan of Dave Grohl’s other band where he didn’t sing lead. Still, I figured I might be in for some comedic Sam Raimi-esque horror fun and certainly some tolerable music. That’s the impression I had in my head at least. Sadly, this 2022 film from director B.J. McDonnell (a veteran camera operator who directed a few Slayer videos as well) is about as lame and clichéd as every other rock/metal themed horror film you’ve seen. Sad to say that the just-OK “Trick or Treat” still reigns supreme.

 

Frontman Dave Grohl (who wrote the story the screenplay is based on) is comfortable in front of the camera and has a smidge of acting ability, and Jeff Garlin is well-cast as the angry record exec, but the other Foos are all lost at sea here. I did like that the film’s chosen font for the opening titles is the same as for John Carpenter’s films, that was a nice touch with Carpenter and Daniel Davies composing the theme song (and getting cameos too). Scripted by Jeff Buhler (the remakes of “Pet Sematary” and “Jacob’s Ladder”, the underrated “Midnight Meat Train”) and Rebecca Hughes (mostly a TV writer), this is your standard lame ‘rocker becomes possessed recording in a cursed house and kills everybody in the process’ story. Nothing new, and frankly really tedious. It’s a step up from “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park”, but what isn’t? It’s not scary, it’s not overly funny, and there’s not a whole heck of a lot to it. So if you’re not stoned or drunk, you’ll be twiddling your thumbs or turning it off.

 

As for the gore, there’s plenty of it comes off like a low-budget Troma film – one of the more forgettable, dull ones. The only memorable bit involves a cymbal and by then I was already emotionally checked out. This film’s idea of horror is gore and ‘jump’ scares, nothing terribly creative or legitimately terrifying. As for the comedy, I did enjoy Whitney Cummings’ terrible singing and a hilarious cameo by a foul-mouthed Lionel Ritchie (who apparently ad-libbed the profanity), but that’s about it. Carpenter’s cameo is a total waste, you might not even notice him.

 

The Foo Fighters seem like really nice guys (RIP Taylor Hawkins), but is this all they wanted their first film to be? It seems like if Kevin Smith and Tenacious D smoked a lot of weed and wrote a film, you’d get this, but with the Foo Fighters starring in it. That might sound like fun to you if you’re  a stoner, but I’m not and I got nothing much out of this. Lame stuff, not even saved by a fair bit of gore. Dave Grohl doesn’t look lost in front of the camera, I will say that. If you’re a drinker or a toker, or a really big Foo Fighters fan you might want to bump the grade up a point. But just a point, I don’t think even fans are gonna love this, especially when it runs more than 100 tedious minutes!

 

Rating: D+

 

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