DEATHGASM (2015)

Studio:       Dark Sky Films
Director:    Jason Lei Howden
Writer:       Jason Lei Howden
Producer:  Sarah Wensley, Todd Wieneke, Morgan Leigh Stewart, Andrew Beattie
Stars:     Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, Kimberley Crossman, Sam Berkley, Daniel Cresswell, Stephen Ure, Colin Moy, Nick Hoskins-Smith, Aaron McGregor, Andrew Laing, Delaney Tabron, Cameron Rhodes

Review Score:

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Summary:

Teenage misfits form a garage metal band and inadvertently summon a destructive demon with cursed music.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

After his mother is institutionalized, teenager Brodie is sent to live with his Christian uncle Albert, aunt Mary, and cousin David in Greypoint. Brodie befriends nerdy classmates Dion and Giles. At school, David and his toadie Terry bully Brodie and Dion. Brodie develops a crush on David’s girlfriend Medina.

While browsing albums at Alien Records, Brodie befriends fellow metalhead Zakk. Along with Dion and Giles, Brodie and Zakk form a garage metal band called DEATHGASM.

Brodie and Zakk break into the rumored home of reclusive metal music legend Rikki Daggers from the band Haxan Sword. Brodie and Zakk’s unexpected encounter with Rikki is interrupted by the arrival of an occultist named Vadin. Rikki gives the boys a rare Haxan Sword album for safekeeping. After the two teens leave, Vadin enters and kills Rikki.

Back home, Brodie and Zakk find old sheet music hidden inside the album sleeve. The song’s title is “Vocavitque Rex Daemonia Virtutem Fortuna Hymnus Nigrum,” and is known in the occult community as “The Black Hymn.”

Vadin reports his failure in recovering the music to cult leader Aeon. Aeon has two cult members decapitate Vadin twice.

After his band records a music video for their own song “Intestinal Bungy Jump,” Brodie runs into Medina and the two of them have an impromptu ice cream date. Later, DEATHGASM plays the sheet music for the first time and people throughout Greypoint start becoming possessed until Brodie stops playing and ends the song prematurely.

Brodie uses a Latin dictionary to translate the song’s title and learns that it means, “summoning the king of demons – a black hymn for gaining power and fortune.” After David and Terry beat him up and trash his bedroom, Brodie decides to use the music to make himself powerful.

Medina gives Zakk a message to pass to Brodie instructing Brodie to meet her in the park that night. Zakk throws away the note and goes in Brodie’s place, telling Medina that Brodie isn’t interested before seducing her.

DEATHGASM plays the song again and area residents become fully possessed by evil. Terry and teacher Mr. Capenhurst show signs of possession at school. Brodie and Zakk are forced to kill Zakk’s father when he attacks the boys. Realizing they summoned demons and the town is in chaos, Brodie brings Zakk to Alien Records to consult with resident psychic Abigail.

Medina rescues Dion and Giles as the chaos continues. They leave a note on Brodie’s front door to tell him they are going to the school for safety.

Abigail tells Zakk and Brodie that they summoned the demon Aeloth, also known as “The Blind One.” Abigail warns that Aeloth will arrive at 3am, but she is killed before she can tell the boys how to reverse the summoning.

Acting as a possessed demon emissary, Terry meets with Aeon and instructs him to find and destroy the sheet music so that Aeloth cannot be stopped. In return, Aeon asks that Aeloth use his body as the demon’s human vessel. Terry specifies that Aeloth will only possess the blackest soul in the area upon arrival. Aeon’s acolyte Shanna suddenly kills Aeon and assumes power over the cult. Terry tells Shanna to find Brodie since he is the key threat to undoing Aeloth’s ascension.

After arguing with Zakk, Brodie returns home to recover his guitar and the sheet music. Zakk finds the note on the door and hides it from Brodie. Uncle Albert and Aunt Mary attack the boys while possessed. Brodie and Zakk are able to kill them using the couple’s hidden sex toys. David comes home to the carnage and Brodie kills him, even though he isn’t possessed.

Brodie and Zakk slay possessed people and recover the sheet music pages as the blow in the wind all over town. The final page leads them to the school where they reunite with Medina, Dion, and Giles. Brodie sees Medina with Zakk’s jacket and discovers his friend’s betrayal. Brodie and Zakk fight. Afterward, Zakk abandons the group and drives off alone.

Reasoning that they can stop the evil by playing the music backwards, and that they must play loud enough for the entire town to hear, Brodie and the others go to Rikki Daggers’ house to use Rikki’s amplifiers. There, Shanna and the cult confront the teens. Shanna takes Medina hostage, forcing Brodie to turn over the music pages in an exchange. Shanna tears up the sheets and takes everyone prisoner.

As Rikki’s corpse reanimates to attack the captives, Zakk returns and rescues his friends. While everyone battles demons and cultists and tries setting up music equipment, Dion’s head and Giles’ arms are torn off. Both boys die.

At 3am, Aeloth seemingly begins possessing Shanna, but suddenly kills her and possesses Zakk instead. Unable to play The Black Hymn from memory, Brodie plays a guitar riff that allows Zakk to return to human form as he fights against the possession. Zakk tells Brodie to kill him. Brodie slits his friend’s throat in order to send Aeloth back to Hell.

Two Months Later – Brodie converts Medina into a metalhead as the couple continues their romantic relationship. As a spirit in the afterlife, Zakk plays a prank on Brodie to make it look like the demonic evil is returning, but the two friends end up talking to each other with Zakk speaking through the record player.

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Review:

Milo Cawthorne, the Kiwi Lukas Haas, is music-obsessed misfit Brodie.  Sent to live with his conservative Christian uncle after mom is institutionalized, Brodie has a hard time acclimating to the stifling small town of Greypoint.  His only friends are two D&D-playing bully targets while the object of his affection, Medina (Kimberley Crossman), is locked on the arm of insufferable cousin David.

Things take an upswing when Brodie meets Zakk (James Blake), the only other metalhead teen within 50 kilometers and the seemingly cool rocker Brodie wishes he could be.  Brodie’s two nerdy buddies soon drop their 20-sided dice and pick up guitars as the newly-formed foursome becomes DEATHGASM (“all spelt in capitals, lowercase is for p*ssies”).  Their band name cemented, musical priority #2 is outfitting everyone in King Diamond-inspired face paint, except for poor portly drummer Giles, who sadly sports a Peter Criss Cat-Man makeup instead.

Zakk brings Brodie to a break-in at reclusive rock legend Rikki Daggers’ house and the boys come away with yellowed sheet music hidden in an album sleeve behind a Rick Astley record.  Hell literally breaks loose when DEATHGASM plays the pages.  While Satanic sounds pour from the garage, possessed townspeople take over the streets.  As if managing a budding romance with Medina, ongoing assaults from David, and a secretive cult’s attempts to recover the pages were not enough, Brodie and Zakk’s newfound friendship is now put to the test to prevent an ancient demon’s impending arrival.

It’s a desperate fight against overwhelming evil, too.  As the only items within reach, Brodie and Zakk at one point resort to wielding dildos and anal beads as devil-slaying weapons.  And yet, even though horror-comedy “Deathgasm” often employs this slightly “South Park” style of juvenile appeal, there is maturity in the filmmaking preventing such humor from coming off as exceedingly lowbrow.

First-time feature filmmaker Jason Lei Howden and company execute visual gags to maximum effect.  The camera maintains a “right place, right time” positioning throughout the film, whether it is allowing a joke to pop properly into frame (Zakk and his ski mask) or knowing the precise instant to cut to a wide shot (Zakk siphoning fuel).  It isn’t an action such as smacking a demon in its face with a jiggling phallus that is funny.  What turns half-hearted ha-has into full-bellied laughs is the clever way “Deathgasm” presents itself so that hilarity comes from the whole movie and not just from the moment.  Actor expressions, well-timed editing, and camera effects like slowed-down speeds and animated text combine to ensure each scene is layered with heart as well as humor.

That passion to put so much onscreen occasionally gets in the script’s way.  Even at only 86 minutes, “Deathgasm” has more material than it needs.  Installing the cult as a villainous presence reads almost as an afterthought, with its central antagonist switching out twice at the cost of any one of them gelling into a formidable foe.  The school bully doesn’t need a sidekick either, and if the band wasn’t a quartet, at least one of the friends could be excised from the story.  “Deathgasm” is a great showcase for Howden as a solo writer and director, though a screwdriver to his screenplay would really tighten the tedium.

Those hiccups are not too high a hurdle.  “Deathgasm” is reverential with its satirical winks and so slyly smart about sophomoric silliness that it cannot help but be charming.  In addition to making the most of its music motif, “Deathgasm” aims to please as many gorehounds as it does metalheads, featuring enough blood to make giddy the ghost of twentysomething Peter Jackson.

Whatever x-factor element is swimming in the drinking water of New Zealand horror-comedy filmmakers ought to be identified, bottled, and exported for international consumption.  Because no other country has a better current track record for uniting splatter and snark with such consistently enjoyable results.

Beyond being frightfully funny, New Zealand ho-cos like “What We Do in the Shadows” (review here) and “Housebound” (review here) are original concepts to boot, not just genre parodies or farcical throwbacks.  And with his feature film debut, Jason Lei Howden can proudly notch heavy metal howler “Deathgasm” on that same bedpost of first-rate fearful fun.

NOTE: There is a post-credits scene.

Review Score:  80

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