Trick Or Treat
Despite its persecution as a musical genre along with its listeners (a far cry from the hands off, politically correct embracing of the far more offensive hip hop gangster rap style), the irony is that heavy metal as a musical art form has always carried underlying messages of both self empowerment and taking charge of oneās own life, positive attributes that nonetheless led to the genre having an entire campaign led against it by one Tipper Gore (at the time the future Second Lady Of The United States) who claimed that everything about metal was pornographic and satanic mostly because many of the performers in that genre were unafraid to go over the top in their style of performance when really the songs and lyrics themselves were rather inoffensive and non threatening but even when certain guys such as Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne (easily the two godfathers of metal on both the American and British fronts) started venturing into more edgy territory, it was almost always tongue in cheek with Cooper doing affectionate tributes to old school horror movies and Ozzy (while doing the same thing) was mainly just riffing on his patented ācrazy manā persona that in and of itself is what brought him his massive following with fans who maintain their love of him to this day. The biggest crock though continues to be the idea of teenage metal fans in the 80s somehow being āsatanistā because of their love of the music (certainly no worse than rap promoting criminal behavior) when the core of what it had meant to people was really laid in communal rebellion, having others like you to hang out and party with while enjoying the music and going to concerts. The stars of metal themselves (of course) were mostly ultra talented and very rich musicians who enjoyed playing the music as much as we enjoyed listening to it with little to no sinister undertones on their parts. What was also popular in the 1980s was the slew of fun, over the top horror movies complete with their wide ranging stable of franchise villains. In 1986, an attempt was made to create a horror franchise complete with a ready to go primary bad guy based off from the simple yet uniquely brilliant premise of the popularity of heavy metal: what if one of the (if not the biggest) heavy metal stars was REALLY an evil practicing Satanist with a literal master plan of using a handpicked group of his most devoted fans to first destroy and then take over the world all while wiping out and burying all of the rigid pricks who tried to stop his music in the first place? That premise was indeed recognized here with no less than actor Charles Martin Smith (Terry Toad from American Graffiti) making his debut here as a director en route to a long running, low key helming career but the excitement about who was to take on the lead role of Rockās Chosen Warrior would end in disappointment for some. Gene Simmons was formally offered the part straight up but declined while still asking to play a smaller role instead. Itās completely unknown as to whether Ozzy (an obvious choice) was offered, but he was still signed on to do a cameo as an anti metal preacher in some hilarious casting role reversal. Eventually Blackie Lawless (lead singer of WASP) was actually cast in the role and was willing to do the entire movieās soundtrack, but in a massive timing blunder, the producers had already at that point signed the band Fastway to perform the songs and Lawless was told that heād have to lip sync his way through the part (keeping in mind that nobody from Fastway was offered an actual role in the movie either), a proposal that insulted Lawless enough to have him walk away from the project. Knowing that these circumstances would most likely prevent any real life, big name metal star from taking on the role, the producers settled on Tony Fields, not a musician AT ALL but instead a former member of the Solid Gold dancers who presumably would choreograph his own movements. This led to a big reason as to why a franchise would be impossible, as first off Fastway wound up being pretty embittered by the experience and would also disown their involvement in the movie as well and then Fields himself would die young of AIDS only a few years later, so short of ever recasting for a remake this remains the one shot at horror immortality for one Sammi Curr, a superstar in the heavy metal world who has spent his entire career fighting the squares who oppress him and only his number one fan (who lives in the same hometown he grew up in as this was filmed in Wilmington, NC) can help him exact his ultimate revenge. This leads to the other casting coup of the movie as our hero and star here is Marc Price, a standup comedian who gained fame as the neighbor Skippy on Family Ties, an unpopular recurring character on an insanely popular sitcom who often exhibited weird and creepy traits built around his obsession towards Justine Batemanās Mallory Keaton (whereas in contrast Malloryās actual metalhead boyfriend on the show as played by Scott Valentine would have an extremely large following). Fortunately, Price is able to channel those off kilter qualities well into the role of Eddie Weinbauer (aka Ragman), to most a middle class, dipshit loser at his high school constantly being harassed by the bullies (led by future Melrose Place actor Doug Savant) who finds his only solace in heavy metal music in general (he has a poster of Ozzy on his wall) and the music of Sammi Curr in particular. When he sees the news on TV of Currās alleged death in a hotel fire, his world shatters around him and he goes to seek counsel with Nuke (Simmons), the local DJ whom heās friends with who apparently had known and grown up with Curr during his high school years. Turns out that Nuke (for unexplained reasons) has the only copy of the last vinyl record which Curr ever recorded and (for further unexplained reasons other than Nuke possibly being in on Currās master plan) decides to give it to Weinbauer because āthatās what heād wantā. Weinbauer excitedly takes the record home to play it, only to quickly realize that Curr is actually talking directly to him through the record and soon the bullies are experiencing a series of āhappy accidentsā (including Savantās girlfriend who is somehow ārapedā by the music itself in what is both the filmās most controversial and yet most ridiculous scene) before Curr finally manifests himself in full physical form (apparently able to travel by and control currents of electricity) with a half burned face in order to motivate Weinbauer to stick to The Plan (which appears to be in seeking revenge for the both of them since Curr still carries a grudge against his old hometown for shunning him in his younger days along with banning him from coming back to perform at the High School Halloween Dance). But Weinbauer has developed a conscience now, turning his back on his now former hero (thus earning his wrath) and forcing Curr to use other avenues to continue his path of death and destruction including Weinbauerās nerdy best friend (Glen Morgan, future co creator of The X Files with Chris Carter in his only acting gig) who is literally intimidated out of his wits to help him. The idea of a horror villain who is also an iconic, respected rock musician is nearly as potent as that of him being dependent on any given one of his devoted fans to help carry out his misdeeds and these aspects of the story are utilized to their fullest here in such a way that horror hasnāt seen before or since. Despite not being a singer himself, Fields as Curr DOES carry a towering presence about him and that includes whenever he is seen on stage as well. And the music by Fastway is just about perfect, clearly defining the leanings of the Curr character while also being one of the best and most underrated metal albums of the 80s in its own right. And best of all, Smith as director nails home the feeling of being an isolated metalhead outcast in the era, showing Weinbauer with Currās help sticking it to the rich kid bullies who garner no sympathy from us at all as part of the āus against themā mentality with Price as Weinbauer coming off as realistically awkward without being unappealing. Sadly, the franchise would never happen (nor would a copying of the formula) but the result here remains an absolute underrated classic of both its decade and of the horror genre for all time and a must see for anyone interested in how the 80s managed to get so much rightā¦
10/10