By John Mulderig | Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — If their comic-horror vehicle “Studio 666” (Open Road) is anything to go by, the members of the rock band Foo Fighters should definitely not quit their day jobs anytime soon.
While this blood-soaked flick’s scenes of decapitation and dismemberment may be deliberately over the top, that doesn’t make them any easier to watch. They’re interspersed, moreover, with long periods of boredom.
To be fair, no one in the ensemble makes any pretense of being able to act, so their project, directed by B.J. McDonnell, essentially amounts to a practical joke. But it’s one that only diehard fans with cast-iron stomachs are likely to appreciate.
To work on their next album, the group moves into a Los Angeles-area house that, unbeknownst to them, was once the setting for a murder spree. There, guitarist and drummer Dave Grohl, their front man, begins behaving strangely while his mates become increasingly alarmed by a string of gory slayings.
As scripted by Jeff Buhler and Rebecca Hughes, from a story by Grohl, the movie meanders from one hideous death to the next, dumping a lot of pseudo-occult nonsense — as well as an endless barrage of F-bombs — on viewers along the way. After a surfeit of both, exasperated moviegoers may be excused for saying “Fooey!”
The film contains revolting bloody violence, cannibalism, numerous gruesome sights, semi-graphic casual sex, gross-out humor, about a half-dozen uses of profanity, several milder oaths, pervasive rough and crude language and obscene gestures. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.