Film Review: The History of Metal and Horror (2022)

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SYNOPSIS:

The History of Metal and Horror is the documentary that explores the history of heavy metal music and horror, and how the two genres have merged over time. Various metal artists share their first introduction to horror, their favorite horror films, their influences, and more. Horror film icons also discuss how their films have influenced the horror genre, their connections to metal artists, and why metal and horror work well together.

REVIEW:

Panic Fest 2022 is doing such a great job. It’s been so much fun being a part of this festival virtually. Mike Schiff made me want to sit down and watch a documentary. This documentary opens like a film. The story of what some dude wants to watch a documentary about. I do love history, architecture, locations, places, music, life. But there are some documentaries that you have seen over and over again.

Some of the soundtracks from horror movies are just incredible. Also, before I go further could we take a moment to talk about Mike Patton’s band FANTOMAS, “The Director’s Cut” FANTOMAS covers everything from The Omen, Cape Fear, Rosemary’s Baby, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. You have Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, Buzz Osborne, and Trevor Dunn. If you have never listened to this album, you should.

Okay, so back to this documentary. This gentleman passed on the Proctology (Great job Joe Knetter) documentary so, we get metal and horror. Michael Berryman is the host of this documentary and what a perfect host to pick. Mr. Berryman has been in some of the best horror films including The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

Mike Schiff brings artists and horror icons together. It’s funny to me because as a horror fan I grew up in a time when it wasn’t always cool to be a horror fan. People had thoughts, many thoughts but horror has a long history. This documentary is taking us on a deep dive. Hollywood may not love horror either but they dish out a film or two during Halloween for that cash flow.

Horror fans and metal fans may have been in that same loop. I think the creativity with horror is endless but that’s me. To hear Doug Bradley, talk about Dracula and Frankenstein is just… I want to melt on to the floor. And, yes, I will say Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho did help with people’s secret, still secret obsession with serial killers and true crime. People would never tell you “back in the day” what true crime podcasts or series they were watching or binge-watching.

Anthony Perkins portraying Norman Bates, his dark eyes staring at the camera with that smile is one of the most iconic images from the screen. John Russo talks about The Night of the Living Dead, an amazing film by George A. Romero.

Okay, now we’re talking… The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s SO AWESOME to see Dick Warlock in this.

I’m convinced everyone loves The Lost Boys. My heart sank seeing Sid Haig, he was a cool dude. Horror films are so much more than just scaring people or, oh shit that’s gross. It’s just cool to see this broken down and to see people like Alice Cooper, Jose Mangin, Marky Ramone, Scott Ian, Rob Zombie, Phil Anselmo, Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, and more.

I grew up watching horror movies. I would stay up late, and have to get up for school. I found horror movies to be fun and comforting. When real life is insane, you try to find something cool but I digress, let’s not turn this into a therapy session. It was fascinating to hear which film or television series everyone remembers watching that got them into horror.

“The origins of metal are form the blues.” Jose Mangin said it. They talk about the history of metal now and how Black Sabbath influenced metal. They dive in with how metal is influenced by horror and the characters from horror. This documentary was great. I would recommend checking it out. It covers a little bit of everything.

Make sure to check out The History of Metal and Horror.

Check out Panic Fest 2022.