139. Lords Of Chaos; movie review

LORDS OF CHAOS
Cert 18
117 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence, gore suicide

I can't say I have ever understood metal music.
Sure, I get that its devotees are trying to be rebellious but it is the sound which hurts my ears.
Anyway, Norwegian band Mayhem aimed to take it to a whole new level by pioneering what they called black metal.
Ultimately, their warped philosophies, which were designed to shock, ended up going far too far.
Set in the early 1990s, Jonas Akerlund's film stars Rory Culkin as Euronymous who sees founding Mayhem as an escape from what he views as a desperately dull and meaningless middle-class life.
His acolytes are the creatively named Necrobutcher (Jonathan Barnwell), Hellhammer (Anthony De La Torre) and Dead (Jack Kilmer).

The latter is obsessed with death and that is seen as a good thing by Euronymous who seeks to undermine society's norms.
Thus, he proclaims Mayhem as the most evil band in the world.
However, he is challenged to see if he can match action with words by the arrival of Varg (Emory Cohen) who really does have no boundaries.
His darkness extends much further than a stage show.
Indeed, Varg treats women (and there are plenty of them) as sex objects, burns churches and encourages murder.
Lords of Chaos reflects how the creation of a band's image became a very frightening reality.
Culkin is an impressive as the leader of the cult movement who has a greater impact on his followers than he had realised.
Meanwhile, Cohen becomes progressively scarier as a devotee who wants to run the horror show himself.
It is a compelling watch but potential audiences should be aware that the violence is hard to stomach.
My greatest fear, having watched the movie, is that youngsters could be this easily influence and, therefore such terror could be repeated.

Reasons to watch: True story of infamous black metal band
Reasons to avoid: Shocking violence

Laughs: None
Jumps: One
Vomit: None
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 7/10

Did you know? Mayhem's five albums were all released after the death of its key members.

The final word. Jonas Akerlund: "The film is not really about metal or black metal or music at all. It is a movie about the relationship between these three boys, the metal is there but it could have been something else, it could have been kids in the favelas of Brazil, kids in the suburbs of London or countryside of Australia, it’s the kind of story we’ve seen before but this time it happens to be with the backdrop of Norway and they happen to play black metal music." The Rock Pit

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