By: Michael Drukarsh - As winter wraps us in a snowy blanket of darkness and cold, there is nothing better than snuggling up on the couch with your favorite snack and a movie. To help those discerning metalheads out there find the perfect movies to rock out to during the holiday season, here is a list of 10 awesome flicks that will jingle your bells and roast your chestnuts.
10. Maximum Overdrive
Unlike all the other movies on this list, Maximum Overdrive’s plot has nothing to do with heavy metal music. So, why, you may ask, does it appear on a list of heavy metal movies? As it turns out, writer/director Stephen King is a huge AC/DC fan so the entire soundtrack is composed of AC/DC songs. The movie is corny, the plot ridiculous and the acting meh, but with Angus and the boys bashing out classics like "Hell’s Bells" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" along with the made for the movie tune, "Who Made Who", Maximum Overdrive is definitely a cheesy guilty pleasure.
9. Airheads
In an attempt to get their demo played on the air, the Lone Rangers take Los Angeles radio station KPPX hostage. While the movie isn’t the greatest, the soundtrack featuring an original song from White Zombie along with tracks from Motorhead and Primus, plus the very real struggle bands have of trying to break through makes this perfect winter watch.
8. Fubar
If you are a Canadian metal head whose teen years were spent rocking through the 80s then not only can you relate to FUBAR, you probably lived at least parts of it. Terry and Dean take on the trials and tribulations of being headbangers in Calgary. Sporting the Canadian Tuxedo top, (classic lumber jacket) and hockey hair (the ever popular mullet), Terry and Dean enjoy life to the fullest before some bad news brings their world crashing down around them. If you can’t find a part yourself in this movie, you need to hand in your metal card.
7. Heavy Metal
A bizarre anthology of stories tied together by an evil force known only as “the sum of all evils”. The movie itself, really has nothing to do with heavy metal, BUT the soundtrack accompanying each story is absolutely fantastic. Black Sabbath (with Dio), Sammy Haggar (pre-Halen), Nazareth and Blue Oyster Cult help make this a movie worth watching. Oh, the graphic sex, violence and nudity is pretty cool too.
6. Rock 'N' Roll High School
High school misfit Riff Randle wants nothing more than to see the Ramones live and have a chance to pass on a song she wrote, "Rock and Roll High School", to Joey Ramone. Like many of the other movies on this list, Riff faces backlash from the authority figures in her life, including Principal Togar, who manages to take away Riff’s precious concert tickets. And, like many of the other movies on this list, the rebellious youth always find a way to outsmart the establishment! With a soundtrack of mostly Ramones songs, Rock and Roll High School does bring back the nostalgic days of youth with Alice Cooper's "School's Out" placed at the end of the movie fitting perfectly with the final scene of ultimate revenge and rebellion.
5. Detroit Rock City
There was not a bigger band in the land then Kiss in 1978 and Detroit Rock City captures the moment in time perfectly. Hoping to catch their idols live at Cobo Hall in Detroit Michigan, four boys from Cleveland make the journey to the big city. In their path they must face the religious parents, lost tickets, stolen cars, bullies and of course Disco loving antagonists. Do the four members of Mystery finally get to Rock and Roll All Night? Grab some popcorn and find out.
4. Decline of the Western Civilization Part 2: The Metal Years
Penelope Spheeris’ second installment of her music documentary, this one, as the title suggested, focuses on the Metal scene of the mid to late 80s. Highlighting up and coming bands of the Sunset Strip, this flashback to the start of the Hair Metal craze also features some great (if not controversial and years later admittedly staged) interviews with some big stars of the day including Ozzy Osbourne spilling orange juice and Chris Holmes pouring vodka all over himself and down his gullet while floating in a pool. Oh, and his mom is sitting on deck watching the whole thing.
3. Heavy Trip
This Finnish heavy metal saga (with English subtitles) follows the band Impaled Rektum (yep) as they try to make it out of their small village in northern Finland and make it big in Norway. As with most of the movies on this list (see Airheads, Detroit Rock City, and Metallica Through the Never) the boys get involved in all kinds of ridiculous escapades on their way to what they hope is the top. What makes this movie different from the others though is its local, Finland, home of some pretty kick ass metal bands!
2. Metallica: Through the Never
A rather strange film that follows Trip, a Metallica roadie on a quest to bring gas to a stranded truck and then retrieve “something very important” and bring it back to the stadium. There is no dialogue in the movie save for the brief instructions Trip receives from his boss and the stage banter heard by Metallica throughout their concert. Instead, Trip's journey follows the band's performance of songs with each incident and encounter reflected by the lyrics and mood of the music. From the traditional opener "Ecstasy of Gold", through hits like "Ride the Lightning" and "Enter Sandman" and classics like "…And Justice For All" and "Battery", Metallica: Through the Never is one strange but incredibly immersive concert experience
1. This is Spinal Tap
The movie that you either got or not. If you don’t know about Spinal Tap by now then you have been living in a very deep hole under a very large rock. The legendary mockumentary about British band Spinal Tap and their rise and fall and rise again is a must see for any music fan. To paraphrase the great Nigel Tufnel, 'How much more better can a rock movie be? None, none more better.'
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