Band go to abandoned house to finish album. Experience creative differences. Time drags on. Singer becomes possessed, murders band, goes solo. It’s the oldest myth in the rock ‘n’ roll playbook, right? Well, sorta. Foo Fighters play for laughs and gore in Studio 666, a neat fusion of low budget horror and band movies – think: The Beatles, KISS, The Monkees – but with some knowing winks to the audience along the way.
Filmed in the same Californian mansion used to record the last Foo Fighters album, the film’s strengths lay in a neat script that allows the band’s personalities to come to the fore. From their ‘Pearl Jam high fives’ to Dave Grohl’s supposed grilling abilities – an in-joke with dark consequences – Studio 666 is a lot stronger than simply injecting a well-known rock band into a horror movie.
With nods to The Shining and the Evil Dead – and Romero levels of splatter – Studio 666 sits in that 21st century run of knowing horror pastiches. The references are subtle, with quotation marks inserted around anything too obvious – a book made from human skin, for example.
That being said, Studio 666 does frequently feel very original. Managing to get the right balance between laughs and gore, the film’s crisp pacing keeps you interested right to the final twist, while the dialogue – at one point an exasperated Dave Grohl screams at his band mate “fuck meditation in the ass!” – crackles with electricity.
There’s also an intriguing Easter Egg within the film, as Foo Fighters attempt to complete a song left behind by the ill-fated custodians of the mansion. A 44 minute thrash metal hymn – appropriately, Slayer’s Kerry King makes a scene-stealing guest appearance – permeates the film, with an official release seemingly not too far away.
With the pandemic having freed up a lot of spare time, we can think of few better activities Foo Fighters could have stumbled across than locking themselves away with a barbecue, a chainsaw, Whitney Cummings, and unbelievable amounts of fake blood. A thriller.
8/10
Words: Robin Murray
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