The Overlook Theatre Reviews: Heavy Metal Massacre, Bleeding Skull's

3 of 7 viewers "Liked" "Heavy Metal Massacre" (1989, USA)

Here's what the creatures had to say:

Lord Battle - "Heavy Metal Massacre is a micro-budgeted fever dream set in Providence Rhode Island. The gorilla style stolen shots of the city scape at dusk first feel exactly how you would imagine they would but if you're a high level film adventurer and see this movie through, you'll start to be overcome by a somber mood of loneliness as it feels like some disease has whipped out the city's population. Except for its strange East-coast glam scene that's plagued by a slasher... of sorts. Heavy Metal Massacre is a film that should only be consumed along side drugs, warriors who use the hashtag "DeathToFalseMetal", or a pallet equipped with shackles (and an awkward blood stain)." - 4.5 Stars

Math Mage - "More a series of amateur music videos than an actual movie: what plot there is concerns a villain sue murdering his way through late 80's fashion disasters. That plot is obscured by terrible acting, bizarre camera angles, strange sound editing, and giant hair. A must see." - 3 Stars

The Berkeley Blazer - "I appreciate HMM as a fascinating artifact of its time. This is the stuff ripe for Riff Trax, and the Overlook had its own little pow wow of jokes to throw at this artsy (as opposed to artful) movie of metal and murder. Watching this on VHS was very appropriate as the filmmakers of this '89 opus tried to stretch the boundaries of their video editing technology with strange effects so obscured by the passage of time I grasp for a vocabulary that does them justice. I'll just say its overall presentation is VHS as fuck. However, despite the alluring weirdness, HMM is not a very good film, long stretches of bad metal score camera pans of a room decorated by what I imagine to be a teenage boy named Rolf with bad skin. Our pro/antagonist murders women in a manner simultaneously awkward, disturbing, and hilarious all at the same time, and while normally I would call this a boon, in HMM the novelty wears quickly and with a vengeance. Truly, I would have turned this movie off after five minutes if I hadn't been hibernating in the Overlook den. The being said, there's an undeniable power to the authentic-seeming (in '89 I believe I had acquired the lauded art of tying my shoes to my resume) aesthetic of HMM; the hair, jeans, accents, and barren cityscapes of this world are affecting, though usually not in a pleasant way. Metal marauders and horror heathens will get some mileage out of HMM, but I can't in good conscience recommend it to fine citizens like our dear readers, who eat healthy foods and live in the light." - 2.5 Stars

Huntress - "With Heavy Metal Massacre, you get an extremely ambient look at a killer in the 80’s and although he looked glam, somehow the pacing of his film felt more doom than anything." - 2.5 Stars

Dabbles - "Although this movie was really fun to rip on, it just seemed like a long mashed together storyline. It takes the idea of a slasher to weird drug filled areas and the pacing was just so off that I forgot what was going on for a bit. It was still entertaining, but I didn't really feel the long shots and "flashing".. but then again it was the 80's so I can't be mad." - 2 Stars


Trash - "Wow. This is a movie. Heavy Metal Massacre is some no-budget insanity, Rock n' roll legend Bobbi Young ate a VCR and a bunch of New England metal and puked it all up and this is it. George Lucas would be envious of the use of video transitions which bookend scenes of brutal kills buried in a lot of what-the-hell-is-happening and huge feathered hair, make-up, and tight clothes on every person on screen to a point at which gender becomes indistinguishable. Despite that, this guy clearly has some weird sexual hang-ups, as every time one of the beautiful girls go for intimacy, he gets super awkward in a way that doesn't read as acting. I've also learned from the internet that the star / writer / producer Bobbi Young is actually a guy named David DeFalco who used to be a professional wrestler and is a crazy dude, and I am so into looking up everything else he's ever done." - 4 Stars

Capture by the Beast - "It feels like the whole films budget was put into hiring hot girls. It's just too bad they don't get naked and our main man never gets the pouigh. Put this movie on if you wanna end up in the friend-zone." - 2 Stars

The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*

(Below is for after you've seen the film)

This week's review took place 11PM on a stormy night with only the strongest creatures returning from Rings for another feature. The feature was selected via our twitter poll (which goes up every Thursday) and what our little birdy brought us last week just so happened to be the film I had been pushing for the past month. Receiving no votes for 2 weeks and 1 the third, I couldn't have been more surprised that Heavy Metal Massacre had tied with the obscure Japanese found footage film Noroi: The Curse. I guess what I'm trying to say is HMM is an extremely selfish choice of mine as avant-garde heavy metal film making funneled through a micro budget is not for everyone but if you wanna test the mettle of your adventuring party, put an order in for HMM on BleedSkull.com.

After the screening I sent out some goblin spies to dig up some info on the chaotic Defalco characters that made this character. Nothing came back on the director Steven but the name David Defalco (Writer/Producer) turned up some interesting facts...
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First David DeFalco is an Ex-pro wrestler.

I couldn't find the name he wrestled under but I did find this bio written by a Chicago horror convention David DeFalco appeared at:

David DeFalco

The son of an affluent politician, David grew up far removed from the entertainment industry on the outskirts of Boston, Massachusetts.

David started as an executive producer at Full Moon Entertainment until 1997 when he formed his own company, DOMINION ENTERTAINMENT.

David produced, wrote and acted in the direct to video hits, POINT DOOM, GANGLAND and REDEMPTION. In those movies, he worked with stars like Richard Grieco, Andrew Dice Clay and Ice T.

By 2001, and after having produced several motion pictures, David decided to make his directorial debut. He co-wrote and directed THE BACKLOT MURDERS, a small horror/comedy that took place on all the classic sets at Universal Studios.

In 2003, David took a chance to diversify from the action genre pictures, and wrote and directed the controversial CHAOS. With this film, he has undoubtedly established himself as a director who can create intense, gut-wrenching human drama.

In 2004 DeFalco and Dominion Entertainment entered the theatrical feature arena with the release of the romantic comedy SWING, starring Tom Skerritt, Jacqueline Bissett and Jonathan Winters. And early in 2005, CHAOS will debut in theaters.

No mention of Heavy Metal Massacre... And if you wanted a more intimate look inside DeFalco's life checkout this preview for Rob Van Dam's RVD TV #09 "Monster Mansion".
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If you're like me and are dying to see the whole video of RVD and Andrew Bryniarski (Leatherface 2006) take a tour of David DeFaclo's house, there are still copies on Amazon. Along with the other films David has directed, of which I'd recommend the straight to video Backlot Murders starring Corey Haim!

- Lord Battle

The Overlook Theatre materialized in a residence for a screening on  1/19/2016

*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not affect the rating.