Starring Stephen Quadros, Traci Lords, Troy Donahue, and Tim Moffett
Directed by Mark Freed
Music by Robert Decker; Lyrics by Mark Freed
We jump ahead 50 years to the height of the heavy metal craze of the late 80's and early 90's. Heavy metal was one of the two big up-and-coming musical genres of the time, with rap being the other. The sound was big, the hair was bigger, and the success was the biggest of all. Stories about the bands' wild lifestyles prompted a lot of jokes and parodies in the 80's and early 90's, of which this is one of the more obscure. Apparently, the script was written in three weeks, and it took a mere three weeks to shoot, monumental even for the era of direct-to-video horror opuses. How does this affect the Faust-like story of a young guitar fan who sells his soul to become a rock star? Let's begin in LA, as an up-and-coming metal band auditions a new guitarist, and find out...
The Story: One of the young men auditioning is Martin (Quadros), a nerdy metal fan who quit his pizza delivery job to join the group. He fails the audition, but falls for the group's beautiful blond manager Lindsay (Lords). Out a job and a home when he's kicked out of his trailer, he desperately goes to a voodoo woman (Tyger Sodipe) to get killer guitar skills. He gets them, all right, along with the insane huge hair, three groupies who are his best friends, and the biggest hair of all.
Unfortunately, not only does he discover he's sold his soul, he can't eat human food. He can only consume human souls. Traci and her band are impressed with him when he auditions as Angel Martin and hire him on the spot. His incredible guitar skills are instrumental in getting them a record deal with an executive on a major label (Donahue), but people also start dying whenever he's with the group, including their original singer Jake (Jericho DiAngelo). Traci's boyfriend Greg (Moffett) doesn't like the attention Angel is giving her, either. He's determined to find out what's going on with this too-perfect embodiment of rock's excess, before he takes down both his girl and the band.
The Song and Dance: This may have been a quickie B-pic, but it has a few virtues. Quadros is genuinely funny as a parody of the ultimate heavy metal god, and though people may have questioned former soft-core star Traci Lords as the girl who falls under his spell, she's actually quite good. Love the costumes too, with all the requisite big hair, tight dresses, studded metal collars, and neon track suits. Some of the effects are surprisingly decent for a cheap movie, notably near the end when we see Angel's groupies turn back to what they'd been before.
The Numbers: We open with "Purple Haze" for the first audition. "Virgin Girl" is performed at least three times, notably at the first concert before the death of Jake. "I'm In Love With a Slut" and "Get a Band" are the band's other numbers. "Casualty Rap" is heard in the background when they're dragging bodies.
Trivia: As mentioned, this was written in three weeks and shot in another three weeks, with the cast and crew working anywhere from 14 to 20 hours a day.
Last film for character actor Aldo Rey.
What I Don't Like: Um, yeah, at other times, it's pretty obvious this is a cheap B-movie from the early 90's. The dialogue is laughable, and most of the characters are jerks or pretty dull. The rock-Faust story has been done better elsewhere, including Phantom of the Paradise from 1974. The rock songs Angel is so obsessed to play are completely unmemorable, too. Neither Donahue nor Rey have much to do, despite being pretty heavily advertised. Donahue only appears mid-way through the movie and vanishes once Angel goes on his killing spree.
The Big Finale: Not the best thing ever, but if you're looking for a goofy, campy send-up of early 90's hard rock excess, you can do far worse than this piece of low-budget lunacy.
Home Media: On DVD and Blu-Ray from Olive Films. Tubi currently has it streaming for free with commercials.
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