metal trip movie

Why Heavy Trip is the funniest metal movie since This Is Spinal Tap

Director Juuso Laatio reveals the challenges of making a film featuring grave robbers and a band called Impaled Rektum

“The scene where they’re all digging up the corpse in the middle of the night was actually shot on the longest day of the year – Midsummer’s Eve. Poor choice of scheduling that day!” 

We’re speaking with Juuso Laatio who, along with Jukka Vidgren, co-wrote and directed 2018’s Heavy Trip — the most unerringly-authentic metal comedy since This is Spinal Tap . Juuso is discussing the challenges of filming night scenes in his native Finland during the summer, when the sun simply doesn’t set. 

“For variety, it’s good to have night and day scenes, so the night stuff is all done in post,” he explains.

But grave-robbing is actually one of the film’s more minor plot points. Drawing inspiration from The Blues Brothers and other vintage American comedies, Heavy Trip tells the story of a lovable extreme metal band from a small town in Finland, whose simple quest for a gig catapults them into a sprawling and disastrous odyssey involving local bullies, wild animals, grave robbing, terrorists, Vikings, a crucifixion, a love story, an international standoff, buckets of vomit and a steady onslaught of brutal, neck-snapping metal. Their goal: make it to the Northern Damnation festival in Norway so they can play their bludgeoning new song in the parking lot.

Describing the film’s origins, Juuso explains, “Jukka and I were both raised on Hollywood cinema and Hollywood comedies. We wanted to make a feel-good film about a subject that isn’t typically seen as a feel-good subject.” 

The subject, of course, is heavy metal, which tends to get a very short shrift in most movies, with metalheads coming across as thuggish or dim-witted scenery for the main characters to avoid or to overcome (although, of course, there are some movies that get metal absolutely right ). The band in Heavy Trip — who adopt the suitably-appalling name of 'Impaled Rektum' — are the movie’s sweet but hapless protagonists. Portraying them in a realistic and positive way was one of Juuso’s primary objectives. 

“There’s something about metal guys,” he says. “Metal people know that they’re generally really nice and gentle and funny; or sometimes quiet, nerdy people and in contrast they do the most sonically violent stuff you can imagine. There’s a great contrast between the people and the music that they play. Also, usually metal people are the butt of the joke and we wanted to tell the side of the metal people.” 

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One of Heavy Trip ’s many refreshing qualities is the clever ways in which it acknowledges the many cliches that it taps into — road trip movies, bands looking for their big break, romantic comedies, small towns, etc. — while turning them on their heads. For example, the film’s principal antagonist is the town’s slimy, womanising lounge singer. 

“I don’t know how well his jokes translate into English,” Juuso says, “but the lines that I wrote for him are so dirty in Finnish that I was embarrassed for my parents to see the film. It was really great to write such an asshole character.” 

The lead singer’s crush is not a leathery metal vixen but the girl in the flower shop who likes coffee and sticky buns. It’s very easy to relate to the characters because they seem like real friends in a real band dealing with the kind of stuff that most people — metalheads or otherwise — have experienced. And the way that the band’s vocalist (played by Johannes Holopainen), ultimately deals with the town’s homophobic bullies is deeply-satisfying.

From a metal perspective, the authenticity is off the charts. The actors sport t-shirts from the likes of Death , Kreator, Slayer , and Cannibal Corpse and their rehearsal room is decked out in painstakingly-curated extreme metal regalia. Also, the band’s first hit, Flooding Secrations (sic), is an absolute firestorm of pummeling blastbeats and grinding riffs, composed by Mika Lammassaari (Mors Subita). A longtime metaller himself, Juuso knew that the metal references had to pass muster with the scene’s most committed disciples — a caricature in and of themselves — who appear in the composite form of the band’s bassist, Pasi (masterfully played by Max Ovaska). 

“I think that if you’re in the metal scene,” Juuso says, “you know somebody who’s like that. An absolutist or a purist. I don’t want to admit this, but have you seen the show Community? There’s a lot of Abed in Pasi.” 

In one of the film’s recurring jokes, Pasi describes their subgenre as, “symphonic, post-apocalyptic, reindeer-grinding, Christ-abusing, extreme, war, pagan, Fennoscandic metal.”

One finds more than a few similarities between Dave Mustaine and Impaled Rektum’s guitarist Lotvonen (played by Samuli Jaskio). 

Juuso explains, “Pretty much the whole appearance of the guitar player is the old school Mustaine look. I tried to pack as many Megadeth references as I could into the film. He works in the slaughterhouse and he has the Killing Is My Business shirt and his guitar is the Mustaine guitar from the early 90s. Also, one inside joke is where the drummer (played by Antti Heikkinen), is sneaking into the police station, the chords playing in the background are another Megadeth reference — Hangar 18 .”

The film begs for multiple viewings. With a coveted 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Heavy Trip has found a wide and enthusiastic global audience that continues to grow exponentially now that it’s available on streaming platforms. Weirdly, although Finland is acknowledged as the metal capital of the world, Heavy Trip initially bombed there. 

“Nobody went to see it in the Finnish cinemas,” Juuso says. “It was marketed very poorly and to the wrong audience; it was marketed to 15 year-olds but it’s not a film for them. They don’t know the metal references and they don’t listen to metal anyway. After the failed opening, it was pretty much, ‘Well, there goes our career. Nobody’s going to work with us again.’” 

But the sense of failure was short-lived. At its South By Southwest premiere, the audience got it immediately, responding with thundering laughter and standing ovations. 

“We were really surprised, wondering if people would like a Finnish film with subtitles, but they loved it. Since then we’ve been to a lot of festivals and I’ve actually seen mosh pits at the theatre! We have the craziest fans in Japan. They have cosplay over there and one guy cosplayed as the speed camera! And they had special screenings where the music is turned up extra loud. There’s a crazy Heavy Trip scene over there.”

Which leads us to the inevitable question — will there be a Heavy Trip 2? 

“It's in the works," he says. "We’ve written a really good script and we were supposed to film it this summer. We’re aiming to film it next year. You never know. The last film took six years so I hope this one doesn’t take so long!”. 

There’s no need to worry — in the immortal words of Pasi: “We’re on a mission from Satan.”

Buy Heavy Trip on Amazon

Hailing from San Diego, California, Joe Daly is an award-winning music journalist with over thirty years experience. Since 2010, Joe has been a regular contributor for Metal Hammer , penning cover features, news stories, album reviews and other content. Joe also writes for Classic Rock, Bass Player, Men’s Health and Outburn magazines. He has served as Music Editor for several online outlets and he has been a contributor for SPIN, the BBC and a frequent guest on several podcasts. When he’s not serenading his neighbours with black metal, Joe enjoys playing hockey, beating on his bass and fawning over his dogs.

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" Heavy   Trip ," a Finnish ensemble comedy about a wannabe black metal band, is probably the only film you'll see this year with a crowd-surfing corpse. Don't let the last part of that sentence dissuade you from seeing " Heavy   Trip :" it's a real crowdpleaser. 

Granted, many of the film's jokes are at the expense of the small-town residents of Taivalkoski, a little Finnish burg where reindeer meat is sold and the slur "homo" is regrettably used to put down outcasts. Painfully shy metalhead Turo ( Johannes Holopainen ) is one such misfit: he and his band—later named "Impaled Rektum"—have been practicing for 12 years, but have never performed live once. That all changes when the Rektum bump into the director of a Norwegian metal festival. Their ensuing hero's journey-style story is a heart-felt and surprisingly well-timed comedy with just enough self-deprecating humor to make even the most shop-worn cliches work. " Heavy   Trip " is a feel-good comedy about the members of a subculture that simultaneously embraces and pokes fun of its subjects. 

You don't even have to enjoy  heavy  metal music to like " Heavy   Trip ," though it definitely helps. Turo and his band are good at what they do: Turo's singing voice sounds like a possessed diesel engine; drummer Jynnky ( Antti Heikkinen ) keeps time even when he's choking on his food; guitarist Lotvonen ( Samuli Jaskio ) shreds his instrument as quickly and as gracefully as a free-falling rollercoaster cart; and bassist Pasi ( Max Ovaska ) gives such a solid, low-thrumming foundation to the group's glass-shattering music that he makes even goofy KISS-style ghost paint and nail-studded bracelets seem like reasonable fashion choices. 

You can tell that these guys are serious about what they do just from the way that they solemnly talk about metal. Thankfully, their passion is never really the butt of the film's jokes. Sure, Pasi, a part-time librarian, recommends Uruguayan grindcore metal to two unsuspecting patrons who only want to hear Justin Bieber's latest record. And yes, Pasi's fellow band-mates are the kind of guys who have starry-eyed conversations about what their band should be called--"Fetal Death." "Let's not get small children involved in this"—while they push Jynnky's broken down van. Pasi also quotes former Black Sabbath frontman Ronnie James Dio with grave earnest-ness and can recall the opening chords to all his favorite songs by Pantera, Children of Bodom, and Mors Subita. Turo means it when he says "This music is our thing. Other guys can play hockey and drive around chasing pussy. We play metal." And Holopainen's apparent sincerity and conviction makes you want to overlook the wounded macho pride inherent in his second sentence. He convinces you that Turo's crass declaration makes sense in his world, a place where he and his friends are credible under-dogs.

Co-directors Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren and their three co-writers' rare sensitivity and knack for comic timing makes Turo and his group's generally familiar story arc—Impaled Rektum's Norway gig gives them an immediate ego boost, but they become so overwhelmed with their imminent success that they cause an international incident involving a stolen van and an illegally exhumed corpse—that much more convincing. You can see some plot twists coming, just as you can tell that Turo will inevitably overcome his timidity and show local florist Miia ( Minka Kuustonen ) how he feels about her. 

But Laatio, Vidgren, and the gang deserve major credit for nailing their scenario's most predictable elements. They spin things out until eventually, you start to wonder why you're watching the Swedish border patrol attack a "Jesus and the disciples"-themedbachelor party. Thankfully, even this shaggy dog-style scenario pays off. Twice. Laatio and Vidgren are so good at establishing their film's internal logic that it's even hard to find fault with their most seemingly chauvinistic, bro-y jokes, like when Jynnky's reindeer-slaying dad tells Impaled Rektum's members that "The meaning of life is like a clitoris: you move around it, but you can never be sure you've found it." That joke may seem icky, but it's not finished until Jynnky's mom adds "You haven't." 

Likewise, a fratguy-worthy paraphrase of " The Blues Brothers "—"We're on a mission from Satan"—isn't over until a Swedish border patrolwoman says "Listen, I love Satan as much as any woman in their 40s. But you're coming up for interrogation right this moment." The rest of the film's jokes are similarly raunchy, but never in a mean-spirited way (Just wait 'til you see how Turo ultimately deals with being called a "Homo"). That spirit of inclusivity makes " Heavy Trip " a cult hit waiting in the wings. Come for the brutal music, stay for the charming DIY optimism.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

Heavy Trip (2018)

Johannes Holopainen as Turo Moilanen

Max Ovaska as Pasi / Xytrax

Minka Kuustonen as Miia

Ville Tiihonen as Jouni Tulkku

Samuli Jaskio as Lotvonen

Antti Heikkinen as Jynkky

Chike Ohanwe as Oula

• Jukka Vidgren
• Juuso Laatio
• Aleksi Puranen

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2018, Comedy/Music, 1h 31m

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Critics Consensus

Heavy Trip 's heartfelt humor and fully realized characters make this a journey well worth taking - and one of the best rock comedies in recent memory. Read critic reviews

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Heavy trip videos, heavy trip   photos.

In this offbeat comedy from Finland, Turo is stuck in a small village where the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem? He and his bandmates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway--the promoter for a huge heavy metal music festival--and decide it's now or never. They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer in order to make their dreams a reality.

Genre: Comedy, Music

Original Language: Finnish

Director: Juuso Laatio , Jukka Vidgren

Producer: Kaarle Aho , Kai Nordberg

Writer: Juuso Laatio , Jukka Vidgren , Aleksi Puranen , Jari Olavi Rantala

Release Date (Theaters): Oct 5, 2018  limited

Release Date (Streaming): Oct 12, 2018

Box Office (Gross USA): $9.7K

Runtime: 1h 31m

Distributor: Doppelgänger Releasing / Music Box Films

Production Co: Making Movies Oy

Cast & Crew

Johannes Holopainen

Turo Moilanen

Pasi, Xytrax

Minka Kuustonen

Ville Tiihonen

Jouni Tulkku

Antti Heikkinen

Chike Ohanwe

Kai Lehtinen

Martti Syrjä

Lotvosen isä

Juuso Laatio

Jukka Vidgren

Screenwriter

Aleksi Puranen

Jari Olavi Rantala

Kai Nordberg

Pilvi Kuusrainen

Line Producer

Cinematographer

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• Cover Story

The Heavy Trip movie sequel has been announced for 2024

Heavier Trip – the aptly-named sequel to 2018 cult favourite metal film Heavy Trip – is arriving next year…

The sequel to Finnish satire film Heavy Trip has been confirmed.

A social media post has announced that the new movie – which will be called Heavier Trip – is “coming up”, with a poster teasing the release date in 2024.

The first movie, which has an impressive 94 per cent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes , debuted at SXSW in March 2018, and has since become a cult favourite amongst metalheads.

Speaking with Vague Visages in 2019, Jukka Vidgren – who directed the film alongside Juuso Laatio – said of the wider reception to Heavy Trip: “We were really surprised that the first film festival that we got into was something as huge as SXSW. After that, we got a lot of festival invitations. The film has always felt very Finnish to me, but the humour seems to translate very well, which is something I didn’t [consider] while making the film. I then thought, ‘This is something so Finnish, these small villages, the metal music, etc., and it will not be relatable for other people outside of it.’ But I was wrong, and that’s great. People do like the film, and the film has been sold to distributors to like 20, 30-something countries.”

Explaining the core themes of Heavy Trip, meanwhile, Jukka explained, “Most of the ideas came pretty easy. There’s a good soil for a comedy in a heavy metal scene. The core of the film was that these very nice, almost innocent kind of guys are playing this music that sounds very scary. That’s actually pretty much true. A lot of metalheads that we know are generally lovely dudes.”

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Heavy Trip (2018)

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• Cast & Crew
• 72   Metascore
• 1 hr 31 mins
• Music, Comedy, Action & Adventure

Turo tries to face his fears by leading the Impaled Rektum, an unknown heavy metal band in Finland, to a metal festival in Norway. The journey consists of grave robbing, heavy metal, Viking heaven, and an armed conflict between Norway and Finland.

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1:32 Heavy Trip

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Johannes Holopainen

Turo moilanen.

Minka Kuustonen

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‘Heavier Trip’ – Impaled Rektum Return in First Look at Upcoming ‘Heavy Trip’ Sequel!

Bloody Disgusting and Doppelgänger Releasing joined forces back in 2018 to release  Heavy Trip , a Finnish black metal comedy about a small-town heavy metal band that blasts its way out of the quiet countryside for a big debut gig in Norway. The film is an absolute blast and ended up being a hit in Norway, leading first-time feature filmmakers  Juuso Laatio  and  Jukka Vidgren  back behind the camera for a sequel, titled Heavier Trip !

Filming on Heavier Trip has wrapped and with the project headed to the upcoming European Film Market, we’ve got some first-look images as well as plot details for ya this week.

The upcoming sequel promises to be “Harder. Faster. Louder.”

Here’s the official plot synopsis…

“The most ferocious death metal band in the world, Impaled Rektum, is incarcerated in a Norwegian prison when they discover that the guitarist’s family is facing significant financial trouble. In an effort to assist them, the band breaks out of prison and embarks on a journey through northern Europe to perform at the largest and wildest metal festival in the world: Wacken.

“Deceived by an dishonest record label legend and pursued by a murderous prison guard, numerous adventures await them; but their ultimate challenge becomes maintaining the band together amidst this chaos.”

Johannes Holopainen, Chike Ohanwe, Samuli Jaskio , and Max Ovaska star.

Stay tuned for more on Heavier Trip as we learn it!

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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First Details Revealed About Upcoming Sequel To Cult Heavy Metal Comedy 'Heavy Trip'

Last month filming wrapped up for the sequel to the Finnish movie "Heavy Trip" about IMPALED REKTUM , an underground blackened death metal band and their search for their sound: symphonic, post-apocalyptic, reindeer-grinding, Christ-abusing, extreme war pagan, Fennoscandian metal. The 2018 film, a triumphant celebration of Scandinavian black and death metal, introduced us to the group which, for various reasons, has been stuck for 11 years practicing in a basement. The movie ends with IMPALED REKTUM finally performing in front of a receptive metal audience. The sequel, per writer/directors Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren , opens a few years later with IMPALED REKTUM in jail and with an offer to play Germany's Wacken Open Air festival. Unprepared and imprisoned, the band refuses the festival slot. However, the guitarist's father goes ill and is in dire need as the family home and slaughterhouse are about to be demolished. Cue the music: time to get out of jail!

"Heavy Trip II" was funded from a consortium of international sources: Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium, and Bulgaria. The sequel was filmed with a slight increase in the budget, which, according to Vidgren , we will see in production value, but, due to inflation, the additional funds, he says, didn't stretch much further than the original movie's budget. However, Laatio does say that this is a bigger movie. With the experience of making the first movie, they were able to, according to Juuso , "Squeeze the air out of the script pretty early, instead of cutting loads of shit in editing."

With filming in their native Finland and at this year's Wacken Open Air in Germany, an epic mud bath, the sequel is slated for release in 2024, although no date for release or U.S. / North American distributor has yet been tapped. Jukka and Juuso are thoroughly enmeshed in the editing process, and Juuso confirmed to BLABBERMOUTH.NET that Mika Lammassaari ( MORS SUBITA , ex- ETERNAL TEARS OF SORROW , ex- WOLFHEART ) is still writing "the band's music, the heavier stuff. But we have Swedish occult rock band YEAR OF THE GOAT that's doing the complete score for this film." He continues, "This has been my 10-year plan, to collaborate with them somehow. I had to make the first film so that I had something to give them: 'Would you, would you be in the second film?' I've been a big, big fan of them for a long time, and this is a personal project in many ways for me. It fulfills a lot of my fanboy dreams."

"Heavy Trip" debuted in 2018 at SXSW and was shown in select theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin and more, in conjunction with VOD platforms. The sequel has been in the works for five years, with Juuso and Jukka writing and securing funding since the completion of the last movie.

Helmed by first-time feature filmmakers, the original "Heavy Trip" movie was a satire about the aforementioned metal band's efforts to land its first legitimate gig. In the film, Turo ( Johannes Holopainen ) is stuck in a small village in the Finnish countryside where his greatest passion is being the lead vocalist for the group IMPALED REKTUM . The only problem is that he and his fellow headbangers have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. But that's all about to change when the guys meet the promoter of a huge heavy metal music festival in Norway and decide it's now or never. Hitting the road in a stolen van with a corpse, a coffin, and a new drummer from a local mental hospital in tow, IMPALED REKTUM travels across Scandinavia to make its dreams a reality. This road trip comedy includes a musical brotherhood, grave robbing, Viking heaven, and an armed conflict between Finland and Norway.

According to Juuso , who is a longtime metal fan, "Heavy Trip" initially bombed in Finland, which is widely considered to be the most heavy metal country in the world.

"Nobody went to see it in the Finnish cinemas," Juuso told told Metal Hammer magazine in a June 2022 interview. "It was marketed very poorly and to the wrong audience; it was marketed to 15-year-olds but it's not a film for them. They don't know the metal references and they don't listen to metal anyway. After the failed opening, it was pretty much, 'Well, there goes our career. Nobody's going to work with us again.'"

Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho reportedly produced the original "Heavy Trip" for Making Movies on a budget of $3.6 million, financed by the Finnish Film Foundation , YLE and Film Camp .

"Heavy Trip" currently has a 94% critic score from 32 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes , the online review aggregation service that allows both critics and the public to rate movies. The same site has an 83% audience score for "Heavy Trip" from more than 250 reviews.

"We have the craziest fans in Japan," Juuso told Metal Hammer . "They have cosplay over there and one guy cosplayed as the speed camera! And they had special screenings where the music is turned up extra loud. There's a crazy 'Heavy Trip' scene over there."

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See Wacky Trailer for Finnish Death-Metal Comedy 'Heavy Trip'

Move over, This Is Spinal Tap : a new heavy-metal comedy is rapidly approaching, and it's cvlt as fvck. Introducing Heavy Trip : a feel-good clusterfuck of a comedy that tells the story of a Finnish death-metal band's long, strange journey to perform at a Norwegian metal festival. Directed by Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio, the movie's set to premiere next month at SXSW, marking the first time a Finnish comedy has been screened during the fest, reports Birth. Movies. Death .

In anticipation of the big event, the makers of Heavy Trip have released a short trailer previewing the madness to come. After being discovered by a shady promoter, Impaled Rektum, Finland's most brutal band, ditch their mundane day jobs and load in the van. Their epic journey has them robbing graves, kidnapping drummers, communing with Vikings, facing off against cops and soldiers, and, oh yeah — playing lots and lots of death-metal.

Will the band's "symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme-war pagan Fennoscandian metal" make it to the main stage? Guess we'll just have to wait and see; In the meantime, read on for the official synopsis as featured in the SXSW schedule :

Turo (25) is stuck in a small village in Northern Finland. The only glimpses of light in his life are provided by the amateur metal band, whose vocalist he is. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway: the head of Northern Damnation, a huge metal festival. They decide that it's now or never. After a miserable warm-up gig Impaled Rektum breaks up just to get together again. They steal a van, a corpse and a coffin from the local cemetery, a new drummer from the local mental hospital and flee to Norway. As they are escaping Finnish police, they have to face the Norwegian Army and its notorious "Delta troppen" in order to get to play their first real gig.

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10 Heavy Metal Movies to Watch in Celebration of 'Stranger Things' Eddie Munson

Raise the horns to the best of metal cinema.

The following article contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4 Now that Stranger Things season four is over, fans finally know how their favorites fared in their battle against new villain Vecna. One of the highlights of the latest season was newcomer Eddie Munson ( Joseph Quinn ), the longhaired metalhead who finds himself wrongly accused of murder. In classic Stranger Things fashion, the new fan favorite was killed off, but not before gifting fans one of the show's best scenes when he shredded "Master of Puppets" in the middle of the Upside Down. The scene was also well received by Metallica themselves .

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While Eddie may no longer be part of the Hawkins gang, his metal spirit can be found within an assortment of films that tackle the headbanging genre. The following films range from comedies, horror movies, and mockumentaries, but they all possess a reverence for heavy metal. Once you have finished violently sobbing like Dustin, watch one of these movies and raise the horns for Eddie as he rides the lightning into the afterlife.

'Metallica: Through the Never' (2013)

Part live concert, part feature film, Metallica: Through the Never shows the immortal metal band playing their greatest hits while roadie Trip ( Dane DeHaan ) races through the city to collect an item for the band. Trip's journey veers into the supernatural as the world around him reflects the current song.

While Eddie had some great moments throughout Stranger Things , he will always be remembered for his performance of Metallica's "Master of Puppets." If you loved that song, you would find plenty more to like in Through the Never as James Hetfield and co. blast through some all-time metal classics.

Metallica: Through the Never is available to stream on Netflix.

'Wayne's World' (1992)

The film that launched Mike Myers ' career, Wayne's World follows the titular Wayne (Myers) and his best friend Garth ( Dana Carvey ), two metal fans who create their own public access TV show. When a commercial station offers to broadcast them, they jump at the opportunity but soon find their beloved show changing for the worse.

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Based on a Saturday Night Live sketch, Wayne's World was a massive box office success and remains the best SNL star vehicle . Music legends Alice Cooper and Meat Loaf appear in the film, while the iconic ending featuring Bohemian Rhapsody remains a cinema favorite. Party on, Wayne!

'Metalhead' (2013)

A drama film from Iceland, Metalhead tells the story of teenager Hera ( Thora Bjorg Helga ). Losing her older brother in a farming accident, a grief-stricken Hera immerses herself in his love for heavy metal. She learns to play his guitar and adopts his fashion sense as a way to deal with her sorrow and still connect with her deceased brother.

Most metal films either veer into horror or comedy, but Metalhead shows metal music's comforting powers. While Hera's black metal make-up (known in the scene as "corpse paint") and dark clothes make her an outsider among her church-going community, this same metal lifestyle offers a sense of belonging and purpose to the grieving teen.

'The Devil's Candy' (2015)

When a young family moves into a new home in Texas, they soon discover Satanic forces possess the house. The Devil's Candy stars Ethan Embry as Jesse, a struggling painter who becomes inspired by the sinister voices whispering in his ear, while these same devilish entities target his daughter Zooey ( Kiara Glasco ).

Directed by Sean Byrne , who made the cult-classic horror film The Loved Ones , The Devil's Candy pays tribute to metal through its soundtrack (Metallica, Slayer) and its characters. Jesse and Zooey are metalheads, and their shared love for the genre makes for a wholesome father-daughter relationship, adding an extra layer of tension once their lives are at risk.

The Devil's Candy is available to stream on AMC+.

'Airheads' (1994)

When amateur band The Lone Rangers hijacks a radio station to get their music on the airwaves, it soon becomes a hilarious hostage crisis. Airheads stars screen legends Brendan Fraser , Steve Buscemi , and Adam Sandler as the clueless band members who find themselves way in over their heads.

Airheads accurately captures the spirit of wannabe rock stars who want nothing more than for their music to be heard and will appeal to anyone looking for a harmless comedy. The soundtrack features the likes of Motorhead and Anthrax, while Lemmy himself even has a cameo.

Airheads is available to stream on HBO Max.

'Deathgasm' (2015)

A horror-comedy from New Zealand, Deathgasm follows teenage metalhead Brodie, who is forced to move to a new town. An outcast, Brodie soon befriends some fellow metal fans, and they decide to start a band. The teens come across a Satanic song they hope to add to their repertoire but accidentally unleash demons upon their small town.

Wearing its love for metal on its sleeve, Deathgasm is also a throwback to classic horror movies such as The Evil Dead . As more and more townspeople become possessed, the film piles on the gore as the band fights to end the Satanic panic they have unleashed.

Deathgasm is available to stream on Tubi.

'Lords of Chaos' (2018)

A dramatization of the history of real-life black metal band Mayhem, Lords of Chaos is a self-described story based on "truth and lies." Beginning in 1987, the film portrays the formation and downfall of the band while also focusing on the black metal scene present in Norway at the time.

A highly controversial band, Mayhem's history features murder, suicide, and church-burning, all of which are depicted in the film. While its accuracy is disputed by surviving band members, the film offers a grim look into the dark backstory of one of black metal's pioneering acts.

'Detroit Rock City' (1999)

Set in 1978, Detroit Rock City follows four teenage musicians determined to see their idols, Kiss, live. The four boys find themselves in all manner of trouble on their way to the concert, forced to overcome fundamentalist mothers, disco fans, and stolen cars.

Equal parts road-trip comedy and coming-of-age film, Detroit Rock City offers an amusing look at life in 1970s America, as rock and metal began to engulf the youth and panic parents everywhere. The film proved to be a box office bomb but has remained a cult classic among Kiss fans.

'Heavy Trip' (2018)

Heavy Trip follows amateur band Impaled Rektum, who dream of becoming metal gods, despite never having written a song or played a gig. When the opportunity to play at a metal festival in Norway arrives, the band hit the road to make their dream come true.

A feel-good comedy, Heavy Trip features great characters, such as the black metal face-paint adorned Xytrax ( Max Ovaska ), who is Impaled Rektum's bassist and can recognize any song by its opening riff. The film is a crowd-pleaser, offering plenty of heart and laughs, and will convert anyone into a fan of "symphonic postapocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal."

'This is Spinal Tap' (1984)

Presented as a documentary of fictional band Spinal Tap, This is Spinal Tap follows the British heavy metal band as they embark on a comeback tour of America. Spinal Tap themselves are a parody of the metal bands that were popular at the time, and the film is full of hilarious moments as the band experiences numerous setbacks and stage mishaps.

RELATED: 7 Mockumentaries That Blur Reality in the Best Way

This is Spinal Tap has proven to be highly influential, popularizing the mockumentary style, while certain quotes such as "turn it up to 11" have become part of popular culture . Real-life musicians such as Jimmy Page , Ozzy Osbourne , and Kurt Cobain praised the film for its amusing accuracy, and it remains one of the most beloved metal movies of all time.

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• AV Club Katie Rife While the film's attempts at slapstick can be painful-in a cringing way, not in a brutal way-Heavy Trip does succeed in creating perhaps the most charming ensemble of morbid dorks since What We Do In The Shadows.
• The Lamplight Review Brent Hankins For anyone that's ever played in a garage band and remembers things like pre-show jitters, schlepping equipment to and from the venue, and the importance of a good promotional photo, Heavy Trip should resonate particularly well.
• Film Threat Filipe Freitas Heavy Trip is an absurdist, powerhouse folly, which feels spunky enough to honor the musical genre and comes filled with deadpan hilarity to please comedy addicts.
• Nightmare on Film Street Kimberley Elizabeth Tune in, Turn off, and just go with it - Heavy Trip is a hilarious home for outcasts and misfits. A laugh riot for the rebellious, and call-to-arms for the underdog.
• Smash Cut Reviews Karl Delossantos Not everyone will be able to find the rhythm that Heavy Trip is drumming, but once you do it's futile not to drum along.
• RogerEbert.com Simon Abrams A cult hit waiting in the wings. Come for the brutal music, stay for the charming DIY optimism.
• Slant Magazine Pat Brown Its story distances heavy metal from any whiff of toxic masculinity by setting Turo and company against homophobes and rakes.
• Austin Chronicle Richard Whittaker It's no Metalocalypse (pretty much the only metal comedy to completely break the rules), and there are no new classic anthems here, but if you want to bang your head to a very familiar beat, Heavy Trip is a solid cover version.
• 812filmreviews Robert Daniels The band at the center of Heavy Trip, Impaled Rectum, provide the best comedy of the year and one of the best music films in decades
• Chicago Reader Jamie Ludwig One of the funniest buddy films of the year.
• Los Angeles Times Michael Rechtshaffen Remains knowingly true to its quirky quartet and milieu even as the plotting runs off the rails a tad in the third act.
• RogerEbert.com Nick Allen Achieves the status of bonafide crowd-pleaser, for a crowd that isn't normally acknowledged with such detail and warmth.
• Hollywood Reporter Deborah Young Part let's-get-it-together band saga and part road movie, the story arc is awfully familiar, but that doesn't stop it being a rollicking romp.
• Austin Chronicle Josh Kupecki This Finnish black metal comedy has its heart in the right place (severed from the body, of course, and served on a stake), but never quite transcends its quirky humor to become the epic it sets out to be.
• Third Coast Review Lisa Trifone If you can, see this one with an audience where the laughs from your fellow film-goers will surely elevate this slapstick rock comedy to an eleven.
• Birth.Movies.Death. Andrew Todd Heavy Trip ought to appeal to a wider audience than Lords of Chaos, as the bar for entry in terms of prior knowledge (and stomach fortitude) is much lower. It's also just a likeable story.
• Consequence Dominick Suzanne-Mayer There's always been a from-the-basement feel to the genre, and everything about the modest dark comedy of Heavy Trip feels entirely faithful to that anarchic spirit.
• Blu-ray.com Brian Orndorf The production manages to maintain control of outrageousness, keeping extremes sly and silliness within reach, skillfully finding moments of pure joy.
• Cinema Crazed Felix Vasquez Jr. A genuinely entertaining, heartfelt, laugh out loud film...
• Eye for Film Jennie Kermode Heavy Trip has universal appeal, but you will need resilient eardrums to get you through - and if you know your metal well, the in-jokes may well have you in stitches within the first 20 minutes.

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