Studio 666 (R, 107 minutes) 3 stars
One of the (many) running gags of the great film This is Spinal Tap is about the expendability and thick-headedness of drummers. The band goes through more than a handful of them in the funny fictional documentary.
Breaking this hilarious invented urban myth about drummers is Dave Grohl, one-time drummer for a little band called Nirvana whose career, surprisingly, has only gone from strength to strength since the unfortunate end of Nirvana and the formation of his next band, The Foo Fighters.
Since forming in 1994, the Foo Fighters line-up has evolved across albums, for many years consisting of Grohl, Chris Shiflett, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Rami Jaffee and Pat Smear.
They form a fascinating group who sometimes play under the pseudonym Dee Gees, releasing an album of Bee Gees covers under that name for Record Store Day in 2021.
They've enjoyed critical and commercial success and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.
You'd almost wonder what they have left to achieve, and the film Studio 666 is the answer - the band now intends to conquer the world of horror cinema.
Bands appearing in films is no new thing. There's been a trend in recent years for immersive 3D concert films - Miley Cyrus, BTS, One Direction - interspersed with backstage documentary footage in the style of Madonna's Truth or Dare.
In the 60s and 70s, teen heart-throb bands and performers did double time on stage and on the cinema screen - The Beatles playing fictionalised versions of themselves in A Hard Days Night, or Elvis's endless Hollywood flicks.
Here, the Foo Fighters play fictionalised versions of themselves. The band are recording their 10th studio album but lead man Dave Grohl (Dave Grohl) is experiencing a version of writer's block.
Their creative solution is to move in together to a notoriously handled house, the "Encino Murder House", and hope the environment stirs the creative juices.
It stirs something all right, and before long the band get offed in increasingly gruesome ways until the identity of their killer is uncovered.
The band actually did record an album in the real-life house the film is shot in.
The gore and effects are next-level, which would be why the film has earned itself an R rating.
I don't know if this is a horror film so much as a chance for a bunch of creative goofy guys to play big kids with other people's money. It is, however, enjoyably stupid. In one scene, Grohl shares that he has found a new musical note, L sharp.
There is a screenplay, penned by Rebecca Hughes and Jeff Buhler of the 2019 Pet Sematary reboot, though it feels more like a series of set pieces, particularly to profile the brilliant make-up and effects work of Tony Gardner, who has worked with the band on an earlier music video.
The gore and effects are next-level, which would be why the film has earned itself an R rating.
The band has made dozens of music videos together over the past almost three decades, and so they have a natural onscreen chemistry, even if some are more naturally at ease in front of the camera than others.
There's a supporting cast of comedy names that do their best to keep it professional, including Will Forte and Whitney Cummings, and even the great Lionel Ritchie gets in on the act. Actually, Ritchie scores the film's biggest laugh.
This goofy film is probably a lot more fun if you're already a fan of the band, though with that R rating, it's certainly not for everybody.
Horror fans will appreciate the level of invention in the dispatching of the cast.
