That in the movie Studio 666 quite a few grotesque massacres occur and the blood sometimes spraying against the walls is hardly a ‘sare called poles. The first feature film by the American rock band Foo Fighters is a slasherhorror comedy, they announced in November 2021. Frontman Dave Grohl wrote the script, BJ McDonnell directed. We know what we’re getting into.
The timing of the European premiere is wry: a week after the tragic death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, on March 25 in his hotel room in Colombia.
Early in the film we see the six Foo Fighters sitting in the office of their manager, who furiously demands a new album from them. Not all attendees will make it to the end of the film, you don’t need to be a fortune teller for that prediction, but the knowledge that the blond drummer is really dead by now is macabre.
The story is simple. The band has to deliver a new album, but is stuck and is therefore sent to a hopefully inspiring environment: a studio in an empty house ‘with a past’. The band Dream Widow came to an end there. Since then, things have been messy.
What follows is both a slashermovie as a parody of it. That typifies the ‘Foos’: a humorous rock band with a history full of cinematic corniness. It once started with a witty parody of Mentos commercials in the video clip at Big Me (1996) and last year delivered an album of Bee Gees covers under the band name Dee Gees†
Is Studio 666 a good movie? Well no. Members of rock bands are not professional actors. When the band shows collective approval or disapproval, they busily shout ‘yes, yes!’ or ‘no!’ and remind them of the school children from The Seven Leap† They put it on top of it. But those looking for Foo Fighters cult spectacle will have a great time.
Settlement and apotheosis? Something about possession, demons, a sacrificed raccoon in the cellar and a book of human flesh from which a spell is to be read. Well, it doesn’t matter, it’s about the sinister craziness and the hilarious details. Kerry King (Slayer) and Lionel Richie supporting roles, what more could you want? A metal soundtrack, of course. The lost album of the fictional Dream Widow the Foo Fighters just made themselves.
Back to cold reality: Studio 666 is the last we’ll see or hear from the Foo Fighters for a while. During the credits, the realization quickly returns: everything was deliciously fake, but the recent news about Taylor Hawkins sadly wasn’t.