Rock and roll music and horror make for a great combination, like chocolate and peanut butter. So it's no surprise that Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Foo Fighters would use horror to tell a story about their band. The horror-comedy movie Studio 666 offers an enjoyable and bloody look at what might happen if the Foo Fighters tried to summon demons from Hell while working on their 10th album. Although the movie occasionally wanders off track, the excess gore and exciting characters make it worth checking out.
The Foo Fighters are indebted to their manager, Jeremy Shill, for a new album. However, Dave Grohl, the band's lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, needs to recharge his creativity to get started. So Shill arranges for the band to stay at an upscale home in Encino as a way to jump Read more...
Rock and roll music and horror make for a great combination, like chocolate and peanut butter. So it's no surprise that Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Foo Fighters would use horror to tell a story about their band. The horror-comedy movie Studio 666 offers an enjoyable and bloody look at what might happen if the Foo Fighters tried to summon demons from Hell while working on their 10th album. Although the movie occasionally wanders off track, the excess gore and exciting characters make it worth checking out.
The Foo Fighters are indebted to their manager, Jeremy Shill, for a new album. However, Dave Grohl, the band's lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, needs to recharge his creativity to get started. So Shill arranges for the band to stay at an upscale home in Encino as a way to jump-start the album's production. Unfortunately, the estate was also the scene of a tragedy when a band's leader resorted to dark forces and killed his bandmates. The estate is again connected to death and darkness when Grohl finds an unsettling basement on the property. The Foo Fighters are soon facing their demons, both figuratively and literally.
The film starts with excitement, then transitions into showing the normalcy of life for the band. The characters' personalities shape the feel of the movie's first half, making it an enjoyable watch for fans of the Foo Fighters. In addition, it's refreshing that the focus is on the band members rather than a greatest hits music video. Except for a few familiar guitar riffs used for humor, Studio 666 doesn't have any previous hits.
It's the hexed music driving the band forward. The score by Roy Mayorga and an original theme song by John Carpenter provide a sound suited for a demonic horror movie.
BJ McDonnell is a very experienced director with gore, and he brings that expertise to this film. With Tony Gardner's special makeup effects, McDonnell uses a lot of blood, and one particularly memorable scene involves death by chainsaw. The horror in this movie is not too graphic, making it suitable for a wider audience. However, the death scenes are spread out and not particularly gruesome. This gives the second half of the movie uneven pacing.
The possessed are so obsessed with the demonic hymn that it becomes a running gag. Also, the movie gets stuck with multiple endings, which makes the plot drag out too long.
Even though Studio 666 wraps up weaker than it begins, the overall experience is still enjoyable because of the band members' gore, humor, and heartwarming moments. The movie is based on a true story by Dave Grohl, which has been adapted into a screenplay by Jeff Buhler and Rebecca Hughes. The plot revolves around a struggling musician who starts to worry about being washed up, leading to a hilarious string of horror-themed events. The Foo Fighters' sense of humor makes for an enjoyable, if inconsistent, a time full of entertaining horror moments, cameo appearances, and a new appreciation for the band.
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56%
6.2
