By contributor Brendan Barlow
Two teenage boys unwittingly summon an ancient evil entity known as The Blind One by delving into black magic while trying to escape their mundane lives.
In the spirit of movies like Evil Dead and Dead Alive, this fabulous little gorefest delivers everything that I want in a movie. My hopes weren’t exactly high at first, the title feels a little bit film-studenty and felt like it might be one of THOSE movies (ahem…Dude Bro Party…). I was delighted to find that it was closer to movies that I actually enjoy.
First stop, the cast. I could have sworn in the beginning of this one that two of the guys from the band Axis of Awesome were in this, and spent most of the movie being pretty sure of that fact. Upon review I realized I was wrong, and they were Australian. So, shame on me for that one. Anyways, the crew we follow through this movie are fun and delightful. Milo Cawthorne is great as Brodie, he embodies that awkward, teenage metal-head really well and is really fun to watch. We also have some great first(ish) timers, and Kimberly Crossman rounding out this cast. Everyone is really likable and funny, and they really do feel very real as these outcast characters.
The story is pretty straight-forward, and reminded me a bit of last year’s Knights of Badassdom (which I recommend by the way). Swap out cosplay for metal music, and crank up the gore by about 100 per cent and you’ve got Deathgasm. I mean that about the gore by the way, this movie is all the way over the top in its gore effects, and they are awesome. One of the scenes that I’m sure people will be talking about is an extended fight scene that employs sex toys as a means of stopping the “possessed” (who really are just zombies with no eyes, but that’s neither here nor there).
Director Jason Lei Howden comes from a visual effects background, and has worked on some pretty massive movies. He worked visual effects on The Hobbit films, Prometheus, and The Avengers. It appears that he is a rotoscoper, and really does have a lot of experience. It’s amazing to see him apply these skills to a substantially smaller movie, and bring his directorial style to it as well. It’s also clear from his writing that he’s not out to make fun of or disparage metal, metal-heads or anything like that; on the contrary, it’s clear that he has both love of the genre, and also realizes how silly and absurd metal can be.
Honestly, this movie is a blast from start to finish. If you want something that will make you laugh and cringe, you really can’t go wrong here. If you’re like me, it’ll probably make you want to put on the most brutal, blackest, heaviest metal album you have, or at least remind you that it’s been awhile since you saw Dead Alive. Give this one a watch, just be ready for all kinds of blood, guts, and eyeless monsters.
