Taylor Hawkins, left, and Dave Grohl battle some demons in the horror-comedy “Studio 666.”
“Studio 666” – ★ ★
For anyone who found the band tensions that reverberate in “The Beatles: Get Back” too tame, the Foo Fighters have made a movie in which arguments over recording an album lead to a trail of dead bodies — and, no, this isn’t Yoko’s fault, either.
“Studio 666,” a horror-comedy starring the six members of the Foo Fighters as themselves, is one of the sillier concepts to reach the big screen in a while. That it even exists is part of the joke — maybe even the whole joke. While Dave Grohl and company were making their 10th album at a big, old house in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, they hit on the idea of a bloodier riff on “This Is Spinal Tap” that would parody not just themselves, but any band that’s ever sequestered themselves in a colorful locale said to have good sound.
“Like Zeppelin, when Zeppelin went to the castle,” Grohl urges his bandmates in the film.
The Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl is a little possessed in “Studio 666.” – Courtesy of Open Road Films
“Studio 666” was conceived as a lark, and that’s exactly how it comes off. It’s a goof, and there’s something to be said for watching Grohl and the gang having so much fun. In the version I saw, you can even catch them laughing once or twice. The charm of that can only go so far, of course. This is essentially a decent “SNL” sketch stretched to nearly two hours.
But the Foo Fighters have in their three decades proved, if nothing else, the boundless possibilities of positivity and being regular, self-deprecating guys. Letting the good times roll has made the Foo Fighters — despite being decades removed from their biggest hits — one of rock’s biggest acts, hall of fame inductees and, now, movie stars. If anything, “Studio 666” is a testament to how bloody likable they are.
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Whitney Cummings, right, tries to make Rami Jaffee feel welcome in the horror-comedy “Studio 666.” – Courtesy of Open Road Films
Bad vibes are the enemy in “Studio 666” — that, and a demonic force that dwells beneath the house and seizes Grohl, turning his monomaniacal desire for an “epic” album into a fevered, murderous obsession. Referencing Rush, he wants it to be “2112 times 2112.” He claims to discover a new note: L Sharp. A heavy metal thrasher stretches past 40 minutes in length.
Members of the band — Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel — are peeled away one by one, and director B.J. McDonnell makes sure any death is comically extreme. A few friends make cameos — Lionel Richie, Whitney Cummings and Will Forte as a delivery guy with a demo tape who tells the group they’re “like my second favorite band after Coldplay.”
Chris Shiflett and the Foo Fighters have some bloody fun in “Studio 666.” – Courtesy of Open Road Films
It’s rare for any musical act to make a movie like this today — documentaries seem the preferred format these days — and rarer still for it to be a band that’s been around as long as the Foo Fighters have. But hopefully it starts a new trend among ’90s acts. Maybe a harebrained heist movie with Pavement or a science-fiction thriller with Radiohead?
