Directed By BJ McDonnell

Starring – Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear

The Plot – Legendary rock band Foo Fighters move into an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history to record their much-anticipated 10th album. Once in the house, Dave Grohl finds himself grappling with supernatural forces that threaten both the completion of the album and the lives of the band.

Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, and sexual content

studio 666 trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

On a metaphorical level, “Studio 666” serves as a fantastical hack-and-slash concept to writer’s block and the imperfections of composing that have followed the Foo Fighters through a nearly thirty-year career of mostly monumental highs. On a creative level, however, it’s very much a faithful throwback to 70’s and 80’s B-movie drive-in flicks, complete with buckets of blood and highly impactful kills that are thankfully almost entirely realized with practical effects of scene-halting gore playing all the more fluently towards the film’s ridiculously campy humor. Pushing this intention are the six real life best friends themselves, who not only transpire that unshakeable chemistry and bond between them in ways that transfix and override the often heavy-handed, on-the-nose dialogue, but also submit to the craziness of the film in ways that are admirable for the silliness that they’re asked to continuously convey with inconsistent accuracy in material. Grohl is easily the highlight reel here, exuding the everyman likeability that has made him a living legend of rock music, but with a captivity in presence that juggles two characters, good and evil, for the price of one performance. The film definitely sticks with him for roughly 70% of the scenes, and while that’s an aspect that creates many other problems in the film’s prominence, for Grohl, it’s a sturdy introduction to film that channels his range in ways that mold that heralded stage presence in ways that are purely vocal. Speaking of those instruments of destruction, the film also brings with it several toe-tapping jam sessions with the Foo Fighters themselves in the heat of the moments, but also materialize additional numbers for the on-screen fictional band referred to as Dream Widow, who make up the abundance of the movie’s enveloping themes. That is, except for the synth-heavy tranquility of the introductory theme by the great John Carpenter, who not only paints this world with orchestral range full of rhythmic chimes, but also appears briefly in the film, in what I feel is easily my favorite of the many cameos from friends that the band constantly call upon.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, this film is a tale of two halves, realized frustratingly by the flaws of the stale direction from McDonnell, which often comes creatively at odds with itself in more ways than one. For starters, the tonal plausibility of horror and comic elements here simply don’t merge in ways that each can vibrantly co-exist, with the first half of the film feeling dedicated to humor, and the second half being groomed entirely for horror. Occasionally these sides try to converge with one another, but with tragically flat results that either outline the desperation of the gags at all of the wrong moments or undercut the tension of the sequences of vulnerability that underwhelm their impact. This leads to another problem with the duration of the film, in that there’s very little build in both the set-up of the humor, or the suspense of the brutality that leads to satisfying payoffs, instead just feeling like a series of one-note punchlines and devastating blows that follows a formula so distinct that each resolution feels easily detectable in the context they’re summoned. The lack of suspense wouldn’t be a problem if the film stayed purely silly, but its desire to incorporate more than a few dramatic instances undercut its authenticity and waste away these moments with uninspired reach for heft that should’ve been omitted all together from the project. This same formulaic familiarity condemns the film’s second half in ways that not only make it inferior to the opening forty-five minutes, but also strip it of the easy-going pacing, which make 102 minutes feel double that with everything encased. Sometimes that leads to exposition-heavy sequences where the film literally halts to give the unimportant antagonist a convoluted historical backstory, and other times it outlines the tragic edit of this cut in ways where continuity doesn’t line up or supporting cast members are forgotten all together. It’s certainly no surprise that Grohl is the primary focus here, as he’s the charming welcome mat for a lot of fans into this band, but what’s disappointing is how little the film has for the rest of its members, all but alluding to their minimalist of importance that might as well be cardboard outlines working around this dynamic lead singer at the forefront. Finally, as to where the practical effects gave the kills a resounded inspiring energy that worked cohesively in the boundaries of its campy carnage, the need for C.G backdrops in the form of supernatural antagonists compromise any nuanced charm of this feeling like a film between friends. Instead, big studio rears its ugly head by summoning some of the most hollow, boring demon constructs that I have seen in recent memory, made even worse by the way the band are directed to react off of their artificial properties. It makes me yearn for the days of Grohl in the rubber devil costume in “Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny”, if even just for knowing that something influential persists from beyond its otherwise laughable design.

OVERALL

As a midnight movie through and through, there’s a fight for the soul of “Studio 666” that challenges creativity and ambition in ways that sadly fumble the execution of its simplistic concepts. As a vanity project during a pandemic, it’s fine enough for the band’s passionate fanbase, but for outsiders, the wasted potential limited to a few good laughs and ferocious kills haunts the production with the thought of what could’ve been.

My Grade: 5/10 or D+