Blood, Satan, the occult, fighting off zombies, social chaos, violence, death— on the surface, these descriptors sound like your average indicators of our favorite horror movies, however, they’re just as representative of horror’s musical cousin equivalent: heavy metal. Just like metal horns and concerts pair so perfectly, these misfit subgenres have been tied together for decades— even coming together as one in the form of “metalsploitation,” (yep, a real term) in which heavy metal music is exploited, satirized, and, most importantly, portrayed lovingly within its own, unique variety of horror films. In honor of the latest heavy metal-horror movie to join the subgenre’s slate, the Alexandra Daddario-starring We Summon the Darkness that’s arriving on VOD this week, we’re looking at each decade of heavy metal’s progression and relationship to the horror genre.
When metal crusaders Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and their bandmates axed their not-so-metal original band names Polka Tulk Blues Band and Earth for the darker, more favorable Black Sabbath after Mario Bava’s 1963 horror anthology of the same name in the late 1960s, heavy metal— and its match made in hell to horror— was born. Rejecting the more mainstream hippie culture of the time and wanting to create the musical parallel to horror films, Black Sabbath took inspiration from horror writer Dennis Wheatley and adopted themes of the occult into its lyrics. Other musicians of the era started walking the same, blackened path, as bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest arose in Sabbath’s horror-inspired, metallic wake, and we were then introduced to our first light wave of heavy metal-horror movies.
By the 1970s, metal was shifting from heavier-sounding bands to the more accessible, melodic glam metal, which was reflected within the earliest batch of metal(-ish) horror films. The sounds and styles of Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister, and KISS were domineering the scene— affectionately parodied in Brian de Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise. A satirical rejection of mainstream music of that era (which, isn’t that exactly what all heavy metal is?) Paradise gave us Alice Cooper-esque stage theatrics, such as faux body dismemberment, as well as one of the earliest versions of cinematic corpse paint. A few years later, Paradise would be followed by KISS’s own campy, B-horror/Sci-fi effort, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park— every bit as bizarre as it sounds. Additionally, although a rather insignificant plot point overall, one of Dario Argento’s first mixes of hard rock-influenced giallo, 1971’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet, follows a musician that gets caught up in a murder mystery. Argento would go on to incorporate prog-rockers Goblin into the scores of his other ‘70s horror classics, Deep Red and Suspiria, before returning to integrate more hard rock/metal into another quintessential film of his in the next decade.
The 1980s saw an overtaking boom in not only heavy metal popularity overall, but particularly the heavy metal-horror subgenre. The crunchier, aggressive sounds of Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax were often opposed by an unrivaled number of mainstream, MTV-era, hair metal bands, including Motley Crue, Poison, and Ratt— which was naturally capitalized in the form of a major flux of campy, silly, cult metal-horror movies that are equally remembered for their of-the-time soundtracks as they are for their low-budget special effects. At this point, heavy metal had become a societal nuisance, as the Reagan administration spread fears of Satanic Panic and warned parents and society about the “corruption of youth” through “Satanic” music and horror movies. Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate, and several others defended their music, as naysayers swore their lyrics contained “subliminal messages” and “influenced” young people to do bad things. Trick or Treat, one of the most beloved heavy-metal horror movies to exist, toys with all of the prudish allegations against heavy metal of the time, as a sweet, bullied, metal-loving teenager plays a heavy metal cassette backwards and inadvertently conjures up his deceased rock star idol, who isn’t exactly as heroic as he had cracked him up to be. With cameos from both Gene Simmons and Ozzy as a hilariously bemoaning heavy metal criticizer, Treat’s love letter to the heavy metal subculture laughed in the faces of those who simply didn’t get it.
Along with Treat, other ‘80s films that commented on the era of which they were set in came in the form of Heavy Metal, the animated genre hybrid whose cartoonish blood spills and decapitated heads fall under the horror umbrella; Paganini Horror, in which a Bon Jovi-sounding band becomes cursed by a piece of music they play; The Gate, the kid-friendly favorite that follows in way of Trick or Treat, as the young protagonists play a metal record backwards and unleash a hellish portal; and Black Roses, in which the new metal band in town corrupts kids by turning them into demons. We Summon the Darkness fits perfectly into this epoch of films, as the characters attend a heavy metal concert in the ‘80s while a “Satanic cult” is murdering people in the area. The Satanic Panic peddlers must’ve been right all along!
So much of the metal-horror subgenre of the ‘80s simultaneously nodded to and riffed on the obsession with rock stardom, as MTV dominated, and its video broadcast shows like Headbangers Ball featured appearances from the most popular heavy metal bands of the time. Hair metal was thriving, and bands were treated like gods, which metal-horror had a blast exploiting the hell out of. Alice Cooper dipped into the subgenre as a rock star-turned-werewolf in Monster Dog, while Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare starred Jon Mikl Thor as a heavy metal musician in the crosshairs of a showdown with Satan. Hard Rock Zombies turned metalheads into heroes as they fought Nazis, while Dreamaniac featured a musician who makes a deal with a succubus to help him become more successful with women. The now-cult favorites Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Maximum Overdrive factored bands like Dokken and AC/DC into their soundtracks. And Argento returned to the subgenre when he ironically (but brilliantly) featured a hard rock score in his 1987 film Opera during critical scenes that took place within an opera house setting.
Metal-horror even experienced its own slasher moment, as a few movies cashed in on the abundance of killer-stalking-victims craze of the decade. In 1980’s Terror on Tour (often cited to be the first unofficial metalsploitation film) a band called The Clowns gets interrogated for nearby murders, while Rocktober Blood contains a lead singer embarking on a killing spree. Finally, the Swedish film Blood Tracks’ roots lie within Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as the band members find themselves targeted by a murderous family.
As hair metal started to wither away in the 1990s, the metal genre, sonically, was all over the place: the grungy, gritty thrash metal of Pantera arose; industrial-style, like Nine Inch Nails, was popularized; newcomers Marilyn Manson, Korn, and Slipknot dominated— the latter of which donned horror-inspired masks that would eventually be designed by special effects legend Tom Savini. As the metal genre shifted, however, the amount of heavy metal-horror films lessened. Of the handful we got in the ‘90s, very few have entered into the coveted cult-favorite territory (but at least the soundtracks ruled.) 1991’s Shock ‘Em Dead was a hanger-on of whatever thread of ‘80s hair metal was still left, while the 1993 B-horror Darkness refreshingly embraced the more grungy metal sounds of the time and maintained the right attitude for a metal-horror movie, as a group of friends return home from a concert and arm themselves with the most metal of weapons— machetes, chainsaws, etc.— to fight off vampires. Death Metal Zombies came and went, and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider went on to star in the underrated Strangeland, as a body-modification sadist who mutilates teenagers he meets online. Meanwhile, both The Crow and Bride of Chucky (while having nothing to do with metal plot-wise) boasted stellar soundtracks from the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Pantera, White Zombie, Type O Negative, and Slayer.
The 2000s metal scene had witnessed leftover favorites from the late ‘90s industrial and/or nu-metal scene, while also introducing the subset of metalcore, instituting more so-called “emotional” lyricism with the musical genre. Like the ‘90s, the aughts brought a whole new batch of metal-commanding soundtracks into non-metal horror films, including: Queen of the Damned (featuring Deftones, Orgy, Disturbed, Linkin Park); Dracula 2000 (Slayer, Pantera, Static X); Resident Evil (Slipknot, Rammstein); and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (Lamb of God, Meshuggah, Hatebreed). Concurrently, Cradle of Filth’s Dani Filth starred in his own stark slasher, the aptly titled Cradle of Fear, while the forgettable Suck contained cameos from Henry Rollins and Alice Cooper. 2001 gave us Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal, in which a Marilyn Manson-lookalike musician is heroized after saving a plane and its passengers from a terrorist attack. The 2000s also marked Rob Zombie’s divisive, horror directorial onslaught with House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, Halloween, and Halloween II.
2009’s adored The Loved Ones is one of the few films of the decade to include (minimally, but it still counts) a popular band from the metalcore scene of the time, as the protagonist listens to a lot of Parkway Drive as a means of escapism from the death of a parent.
Today, interestingly, we are seeing a minor expansion of contemporary heavy metal-horror movies— even if they’re not as blatantly obvious as the in-your-face ones that exploded 40 years ago. And, as modern metal music has become increasingly more empathetic, empowering, and socially conscious than ever, bands like Gojira have gained acclaim for incorporating environmentalism into their lyrics, while others like Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, and Mastodon have thrived on lyrical topics involving hardships, grief, and trauma— and newer metal-horror films are reflecting this vulnerability. In 2014’s under-seen Heavy Metal Horror, a sex worker is harassed by, not only a pimp who’s controlling her life, but a malevolent spirit lurking in her home, right before an encounter with a metal band that changes her life. The film touches on trauma and believing victims in subtle, yet surprising ways. In the standout The Devil’s Candy, a father and daughter bond over their love of metal, as they dodge forces attempting to break their family apart in their new home, while Pyewacket sees a young teenager listening to death metal to cope with her father’s death. The recent Sadistic Intentions integrates romance into the metal-horror subgenre, as a metal musician falls for a woman he’s stuck with in a remote mansion.
Even 2018’s Mandy hits the feels, as its vengeful attitude is equally matched by its painful, tragic look at lost love. (And Johann Johannsson’s doom metal-inspired score also doesn’t hurt.) Last year’s Lords of Chaos’ portrayal of black metal band Mayhem coming up in the 1980s may hit every, single negative metal band stereotype— debauchery, egotism, metal elitism— however, at its core, it’s a harrowing navigation through depression, betrayal, and tragedy within Mayhem’s band members.
But present-day metal-horror hasn’t lost its edge, either. 2015’s horror-comedy Deathgasm ratchets up the virility with its extremely niche, inside jokes that are all-winking to the metal scene, along with ripping mentions of Cattle Decapitation, Trivium, and King Diamond. Throughout, however, the film integrates bullying, friendship, relationships, and a quote that accurately sums up what the scene means to any metal lover: “When life sucks, and you feel alone and empty, just stick on some metal, and life is better- because somebody else knows the pain and the rage that you’re going through.”
And yes, Danzig’s debut Verotika released this year, too, if you want to consider that a metal-horror movie— if barely even a movie, let’s be real.
Who knows if heavy metal-horror fans will classify this week’s We Summon the Darkness into either the memorable or the forgettable category of this cherished subgenre, but we’ll take what we can get. Heavy metal-horror may not be for everyone, but this subgenre of horror is so special to its fans that even all the metal-horror movies in the world could still never be quite enough.
