Genre: Crime/Biopic
Related Titles: ????
By Leanne Harragan
May contain upsetting content
17-year-old Euronymous is focused on making 'true Norwegian black metal' with the help of his band Mayhem. When public stunts begins to get people talking about the band, reality and show begin to intertwine.
Going into this film I had no idea what to expect, I hadn't seen a trailer or heard any promo surrounding it but after reading the short synopsis, I had the feeling I'd be in for a wild ride. Being an 18 rated film told me that some serious stuff was going to go down, this was confirmed almost instantly when I was ID'd at the door and warned about the gory nature by the cinema staff. The serious nature of this film took hold almost instantly with the opening titles featuring a warning that everything seen was based on true events.
A wild ride is an understatement to even touch upon this film. It's NUTS. It's safe to say that I've never seen anything quite like it. I don't think I'd watch it again or recommend it to anyone that is faint of heart but that doesn't take away from the fact that I did enjoy viewing it. It's incredibly gory and should contain trigger warnings for almost everything, it has suicide, murder, extreme violence, sex, drugs and alcohol abuse. Nothing is left out and everything is shown in full gore and violence, the bloodshed alone in this film is unlike any film I've seen. The suicide is particularly brutal and even the aftermath of his death is turned into a spectacle for all to see with photos and parts being taken left right and centre. I can't begin to explain how crazy this scene was.
Within the first I'd say about fifteen minutes there had been serious incidents of self-harm, followed by suicide. It was incredibly graphic and I definitely felt myself almost shying away from the screen. The film kind of follows Euronymous point of view, he is the narrator and voice-over throughout the feature but the point of view is sort of all over the place and a little incoherent as it jumps from place to place. This makes the film a little tough to follow in that for the first half, it's a little difficult to keep track of who is who and what they are up to.
Performances in this film were good, in a film like this I always feel that it's important to have unfamiliar faces as it's easier to take them as the characters there are playing. While there's a few familiar names including Valter Skargard, Jack Kilmer and Rory Culkin, none of them are especially recognisable or would immediately be attached to another role. Their performances were good and I particularly enjoyed the performance by Culkin as main man, Euronymous. Similarly Emory Cohen playing the more villainous Varg, his character development throughout the feature and change to performance was especially impressive.
The just below two hour feature is at no point fun or lighthearted. It's incredibly graphic throughout and despite it's somewhat sad turn of events it's not even particularly sad. I will say that it's unlike anything I've ever seen but I was incredibly intrigued as to where the film was going to go and to explore the background of it and the people involved. The way that real life and 'celebrity' life intertwined was interesting and in this film it was easy to see how the lines can blur so easily.
If you are on the lookout for something incredibly different and you can cope with extreme violence then this might be the one for you. If you can't cope with violence and bloodshed, I would recommend steering well clear of this feature!
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