Last night, I caught a performance by heavy metal band THOR! (caps and exclamation point necessary), along with the premier of their new sequel to Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, The Intercessor.
Oh. My. God.
The movie doesn't have a whole lot to do with the original, except that it takes the supreme goofiness of the last ten minutes and blows it up to feature length. Best as I can remember, the plot is as follows: Mephisto summons the souls of the Elements (four women in skimpy dresses) and the four horsemen of the apocalypse (all of whom are hilarious overactors, with the standout being War, a sort of Canadian approximation of R. Lee Ermey) with a plan to take over the world, which somehow involves corrupting the dreams of an 8-year-old girl. Meanwhile, Zompiro, the lord of the dead (or something), also wants to take over the world, and tries to undermine Mephisto. It's all up to The Intercessor (Jon Mikl-Thor's archangel character from the first movie) to kick some demon ass. Oh, and there's also a subplot about a crippled goth kid in love with the girl next door, but we sorta forget about him halfway through.
The movie is VERY low budget-- it has the feel of a metalhead's home movies, which is essentially what it is. There's a definite tongue-in-cheek quality, but they wisely keep it from becoming a Troma-style gagfest (don't get me wrong, I love Troma, but homemade Troma wannabes get old fast). The crowd-- mostly metalheads and Thor fans-- seemed to dig it, whooping and hollering at all the appropriate parts, and a few inappropriate parts.
Thor's set was a hoot as well. The man's let himself go since R'n'RN, but he still knows how to rock. Much of his stage antics consisted of putting on a wide array of rubber masks and running around in a cape-- think an unironic Tenacious D. At one point, he bent a mic stand around the neck of a man in a demon costume; later, he bent a steel bar with his teeth. Oh, and they played "We Live To Rock," from Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, thus making my life absolutely complete.
Oh, and according to their website, the Intercessor DVD comes out in November; I got interviewed a couple times standing in line, so I very well might be on it (look for the dude in the Hawaiian shirt and bowler hat).
Now, I am envious, because "Rock 'N' Roll Nightmare" is amazingly bad, but fun. To imagine the crazed explosion of the last ten minutes in a full length film is almost impossible. I will certainly get the film.
Now, of all things, most movies that I happen to find in the rough turn out much less fun. Must be luck of the draw.
I keep meaning to see R-n-RN
I do remember seeing a similar bad rock and roll movie based in Canada pretty much written by and staring the bands lead singer...I'll see if I can dig it up...
NEver mind, it *was * Rock 'n' Roll NIghtmare (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093873/) with Jon Mickl Thor as Jon Triton, lead singer of the "Tri-tones" :)
Thor will be in Chicago this Wednesday at the Bottom Lounge, and again playing and showing the two movies. I might be attending, as well as Joe Bannerman of Opposable Thumbs.
Be there or be square.
Thor is coming back to Chicago, Saturday Oct 6th!
He'll be playing at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago.
<img src="http://a635.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/81/l_12d6d7cc5d05dffeb0549dca899a42fa.jpg">
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCID1xJFPYI
The best song of the movie...period...