Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Marc Meyers
Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Amy Forsyth, Maddie Hasson, Keean Johnson, Johnny Knoxville
From: Several international companies
Featuring Pabst Blue Ribbon, cocaine, and... T'Pau?!
Before I talk about the film itself, I'll steal a line from a mutual here: without having seen last year's Satanic Panic, that and this movie should have switched titles. I am closer to 40 than I'd like to admit and there are memories of the satanic panic that occurred in the 80's. It happened in many guises... people in general were scared that there were many cults out there, an unbelievable amount of mass hysteria-some of which was stirred up by religious figures-was connected to cases where satanic rituals were done at DAYCARES (of course that was all poppycock) and Lord knows heavy metal music received a lot of bad attention... Ozzy's Suicide Solution song was accused of inspiring people to take their own lives and poor old Judas Priest had to go to court because they were sued after two troubled teens shot themselves-one of them succeeded-and blamed one of their songs for having “backmasking”. No, I don't know either how backwards subliminal messages that are heard backwards can cause someone to do anything. Priest won the case but had to spend a lot of money to do so and the entire thing was a farce.
All that said above can be explored on Google if you so desire. It was mainly discussed to illustrate that a horror movie set in the 80's concerning Satanists and heavy metal music seems rather logical to me. The music did interest me more than this starring several pretty women, although that aspect was never lost on me. Also, note that the above was written BEFORE watching the movie. Anyway, time to crank up the Quiet Riot & Ratt and have a good old time! The plot: it is 1988 Indiana and three young ladies are attending a heavy metal concert, where they meet up with a trio of dudes in a sweet late 70's van. They hang out after the show, and... what happens won't be revealed by me, except that at least once it does take a turn.
It is understandable to me why not everyone likes the movie... in fact there are plenty of negative opinions. Me, there are nitpicks which could be made but a big asset was not just the 80's nostalgia and a score which was mostly of the electronic variety... it was also characters I never grew tired of. They were six young adults so it was well within the realm of possibility that one or more could have been utterly intolerable. Thank heavens that was not the case. The males were all fine in their roles but the females did stand out... those three carried this. This was actually my first Alexandra Daddario joint; there are no shortage of fans due to her physical appearance... she was the true highlight in terms of performance. Johnny Knoxville as a pastor was cute stunt casting; Jackass is not something I've ever enjoyed yet there are no complaints concerning his contributions to the movie.
There are also some creative moments which did make me chuckle. It is also not wall to wall 80's nostalgia; whether that is a positive or negative or you're personally tired of 80's nostalgia-that's up to you. Therefore, even with its uneven nature, “fine” is what I will classify this as. At least it does represent something from a past era that seems rather farcical with modern eyes.
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