Full Disclaimer: Before I present you all with this review as a horror fan and metalhead, I wanted to speak to you all as a human first. Despite how much I enjoyed this film, I walked away feeling very disturbed because of something that happened in this film that was slightly similarly imitated in real life recently. The entire arc of the mad priest murdering metalheads during a metal festival was entertaining and brutal as a horror fan, but it just hit way too close to the heart with what happened recently at the Travis Scott Astroworld show. This film was made in 2019 and it just got put out at an unfortunate time, so no hate at all to the people who worked hard on this film, they can’t predict the future. I am still absolutely gutted and sad for what happened at Astroworld. I’ve been an avid concert goer for 15 years now and it broke my heart to see an artist and his people react so carelessly to what was going on around them. To those people who lost their life during that tragedy and to the people who walked away from it with trauma that we could never fathom, we love you, we are thinking of you, and we honor you. Nevertheless, let’s escape reality for a bit and see what it would be like to take Demon Hunter lyrics seriously.
Growing up in the south as a metal head I used to get so much grief from holy rollers and Bible Belt southern Baptists about the music I loved. Despite most of those bands actually being Christian bands, I couldn’t go to youth group without being called an atheist for wearing a band tee from Hot Topic. But as time went by, I grew up, I started going to shows and was very open about my faith and the godless metalheads hated it and would bully the mess out of me for living the moshworshipmosh lifestyle(and rightfully so). Fast forward to now, I’m 29 years old and have different views on all that, and that made this film so fun to me because it was making fun of two different phases of my life and man oh man was I here for it!
Death To Metal, brought to us by Director Tim Connery by way of Wild Eye Releasing, is a bloody fun nostalgic trip back to the good times of campy low budget 80’s slasher films. This film stars Dan Flannery (Father Brennan), Andrew Jessop (Father Milton Kilborn), Ben Johnson (Mutated Kilborn), Charlie Lind (Ryan Rammer), Grace Melon (Mariah), and Alex Stein (Zane).
The basis of this film is set around Father Milton Kilborn who is a very militant hellfire and brimstone Catholic priest who has a lot of anger toward metal heads because he was literally bullied by a group of metalheads who also took a huge piss on his Bible when he was a kid. During his sermons he speaks very favorably of violently ridding the world of sinners, which brings the church to wanting him to take time off, so the leader of the church, Father Brennan, breaks the news to Milton. Milton takes it hard, turning to extreme prayer and thrashing his home and some booze (lol at the accuracy of militant Catholic priest being shown here) and comes out believing that he was betrayed by man so God has called him to do something radical.
Meanwhile, Zane is a member of Milton’s church, but he’s not there as a believer, he’s there only because of upbringing and being put through Catholic school his whole life. Outside of church, Zane is a sensitive down to earth metalhead who fronts a local death metal band who gets everything taken away from him in a flash when he goes to band practice only to find out that his band decided to kick him out without telling him. Matters were made worse when he went to his girlfriend's house (said girlfriend was wearing a Spitalfield shirt. The accuracy here of emo girls dating death metal boys was on point!) to get comfort but was met with bad news, she was dumping him. Zane turned to his best friend, Mariah, who hated metal but took him to the music store anyway to buy him a cd and lets him convince her to go with him to a metal festival that his band was opening, with the headliner being his favorite band. Mariah was such a good friend and their chemistry was so good and very accurate to a relationship between a metalhead boy and an indie rock girl. Alex Stein really nailed the whole “shy sensitive boy who isn’t actually sinister until he’s on stage” thing and that was super admirable.
While preparing for this epic metal fest put on by local metalhead Ryan Rammer and his son, Zane brings Mariah some clothes and cds of the bands playing so she can fit in, that was very adorable to see because you knew these 2 were going to be lovers by the end of this film. But as all of that was happening, Milton was having a breakdown. He broke into his church and got caught by the custodian who was a metalhead, and was Milton's first victim. Milton then gets behind the wheel and drives off the road only to be thrown from his car and lands on top of some toxic chemical that mutates him to become this toxic beast who wields a giant wooden cross as his murder weapon likes he’s an Else-World version of Bible Man. Milton makes his way to a household occupied by redneck stoner metalheads and makes them his endgame victims. And that’s when he discovers tickets to the metal fest that’s happening in his city, and his mission was clear: DEATH TO METALHEADS!!!!
At this said festival Zane gets to play the show because the singer who his band kicked him out for ditched. So he got to live his dream. But their set was led with bad news when Mariah witnesses Mutated Milton murdering the singer who ditched and tells Zane. So yes, we get a series of brutal murders at this festival and it was so fun to watch. Milton goes after festival booker Ryan Rammer but that goes south, I’ll get to that later. Milton manages to murder every band member and attender except Zane and Mariah, who gets him to chase them to the church he was cast out from. He gets his two cents in to Father Brennan but is met with defeat when Zane and Mariah take him out with his own murder weapon. And finally, Zane gets to kiss the girl but is interrupted by Milton who lives but Milton is stopped by Ryan Rammer driving one of the band's vans who lived through getting a fan stuck in his back. Ryan keeps running over Milton until the cops show up. And Zane and Mariah get to go off happily ever after.
This film was so much fun. I adored how much it made fun of metalheads who don’t take themselves too seriously. It was so accurate to how metalheads really do see themselves inside the pit and outside the pit. And I really loved how accurate they made Milton to be, the hellfire and brimstone kid who hates everything that is sinful to him. It’s always great to sit back and laugh at yourself and your past phases and this film brought that. It also brought some gory kills and an awesome metal soundtrack. The only issue I did have with this film was the sound and volume ratio. It was very hard at times to hear the actors speaking because the music levels were way too loud and it drowned out a lot of the dialogue at times. But polish that up and you have a slasher metal horror film that will be played for years to come.
Rorschach Rating:
Mental Health Moment: The mental health moment in this film will be grabbed from both Milton and Zane’s arcs, because they both kind of got betrayed by their people and their belief systems. They had the things they loved the most stripped from them. The only difference is, Milton took the path of anger and lost himself and eventually ended up losing his life at the end. Zane turned to the music and put the people behind him and let the one person who he trusted bring him back to his feet. Zane showed in this film that community is what we need to get through the tough times. Isolation is fine at times but in the end, we need each other because doing life alone sucks. So no matter if you’re atheist, into satanism, a judgmental Christian, or a metalhead, we are all still human and all bleed the same colored blood. So let’s all be one group collectively and love one another.
If you or someone you know is reading this right now and struggling with suicide, depression, addiction, or self-harm - please reach out. Comment, message, or tweet at us. Go to victimsandvillains.net/hope for more resources. Call the suicide lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Text "HELP" to 741-741. There is hope & you DO have so much value and worth!
Victims and Villains is written (and produced) by Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey and others, and edited by Cam Smith. Music by Mallory Johnson and others. Death to Metal is property of Wild Eye Releasing. We do not own nor claim any rights.
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