North Texas Daily

When I found out the Foo Fighters were making a horror movie, it immediately became one of my most anticipated movies of the year. While it may drag a little in runtime, “Studio 666” is over-the-top and the most fun I’ve had with a horror movie in a while. 

This year has given us fun theater experiences like “Jackass Forever” and “Scream,” but allow Dave Grohl and company to add another amazingly-campy entry to the list.

The performances in this film scream schlocky, but in the best way possible. We can’t expect six members of a band to give us Oscar-worthy performances, but they do deliver the most hilariously-awkward line deliveries ever given.

You could tell a large portion of this film relied on improvisation and it worked alarmingly well. Some of the segments and exchanges in this movie are so awkward, it would be almost impossible to recreate them. 

Of the six band members, Pat Smear gave my favorite performance of the bunch. As for Grohl, he is the heart and soul of this passion project. Even when the jokes didn’t land, he was giving everything he had and then some. Throw in some cameos from rising-horror-star Jenna Ortega, along with certified-horror-legend John Carpenter, and you have a cast sure to shred from top to bottom.

So, how scary can a Foo Fighters horror movie actually be? Honestly, pretty terrifying. There are some practical effects on display here, with enough quality to make any horror fan smile.

Every single kill in this movie is incredibly wacky but creative. I am afraid I will never be able to look at a cymbal on a drum kit the same ever again. Even though a majority of the horror is reliant on cheap jump scares, it works for me. This whole movie runs on tropes and trends from classic horror movies, so it is only right to have a couple of mean-spirited jump scares sprinkled throughout.

This film is obviously far from perfect, and I think anyone who absolutely hates it has every right to do so. It’s almost two hours long, and by the end of it all, you really start to feel the runtime. Some side characters in this movie are distractingly annoying, and you know your job as an actor may not be the best when the Foo Fighters are acting circles around you. I can set all of those problems aside though because you could really tell everyone involved was having the time of their life.

I didn’t care a whole lot about the Foo Fighters and their music before this movie came out, but now I can’t help but give them a listen on my drive to class. If this was a big marketing ploy to get people to listen to their music, consider me a mindless consumer.

I can say with confidence this is the best horror movie made by a ’90s rock band I have ever seen. I love when movies like this get made because no one on planet Earth asked for it, yet I can see it gaining some sort of cult following decades from now. I know it wasn’t much of a debate before, but this film pretty much solidifies Dave Grohl as a national treasure and I hope this film leads to more musician-centered horror movies in the future.

I am sure a lot of bands today could make an album like the Foo Fighters, but I doubt any of those bands could make a movie like “Studio 666.” 

Final Rating: 3.75/5

Featured Illustration by J. Robynn Aviles