Punk Rock Holocaust (2004)

Director: Doug Sakmann

Screenplay: Nick Esposito, Doug Sakmann and Christopher Stella

Cast: Kevin Lyman as Himself; Heather Vantress as the Warped Tour Reporter; Lloyd Kaufman as Belial / Satan; Doug Sakmann as William Van Landingham, III / Main Executioner / Explosion Stunt Executioner; Steven Smith as the Fuse Action News Reporter

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #159

 

And that my friends is how the drummer from Def Leppard really lost his arm.

Tongue in cheek, I am glad the type of music in this film, a slasher film built around the Warped Tour and to promote it as a brand, faded away whilst heavy metal, even still off the record charts, got its groove back after the nu metal decades. I say this as someone, growing up as a teen in this era, who immediately recognised Bowling for Soup, all crushed to death by one of their own members, so call me a hypocrite at the same time. 

Having grown up in the early 2000s, and been able to catch up with some of the trend, there was a time when even Metal Hammer magazine had bands like Funeral for a Friend prominent, not a derisive comment but that, reading it in the late 2000s, those bands were not as prominent when the heavier music gained popularity again and were more likely to dominate their free CD compilations over those bands likely to go on the Warped Tour. This period instead was nu metal on its way out, when ska punk was a thing, and we were just off the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal" whilst cult metal bands from Europe and around the world, chugging along, would eventually become the legends but not until after this period, even those like Meshuggah who started in the early nineties.

Here the Warped Tour, whose staff and founder Kevin Lyman play himself, are lightly mocking themselves even, though it does come with a Woody Allen levels of self confidence issues when a joke says they are about as punk as Pee Wee Herman. Punk Rock Holocaust itself is peculiar as a hybrid of concert footage, a promotional film, and a micro budget slasher film which however has a level of production value few have. To my surprise, hearing of this in a negative light over the years, this was a surprise, a mess, but one that would have actually thrown a kitchen sink on stage if considered funny, that production value a huge virtue alongside a sense everyone was having fun.

Contextually director Doug Sakmann has already made a short film called Re-Penetrator (2004), a porn horror story inspired by Re-Animator (1985) which suggests he was already unconventional, a good thing as the worst nature of slashes especially was predictability and telling a conventional story blandly. He has to work around that, honestly, this is a long list of deaths tentatively wrapped around a story involving a Warped Tour. The attempt at said plot is more complicated than you would initially think, all stemming from a band playing "industrial New Wave synth pop" being slighted by Lyman, demonic revenge and Troma figurehead Lloyd Kaufman playing Satan, if the Devil had followed comedian Bill Hicks advice and gotten into the music industry, a huge music mogul pulling the strings on popular bands. To this film's credit, it is openly humorous with this plot, an absurd film desiring to build a high body count but with a silliness, where the masked killer is so evil they will contaminate the vegan food stand with animal fat.

Again, it is a messy film in structure. They also make the blasphemous mistake, when Andrew W.K. comes to save music, to cut away between his set and death by electrocution to another scene at the autograph tents where his songs are muffled in the distance. It does also make too many defensive jokes about Warped not really pushing punk, which is less a criticism but a sense of too much insecurity then they might have realised. It is contrasted by the level of humour which is not in jokes and amateurish but are actually funny, such as a fake French hardcore band named Beret, created by Kaufman's Satan because this was the time when the United States and France, during the second Gulf War, were divided on the conflict, the hostilities something he can make a profit on by having an angry French band all in stereotypical white and black shirts, berets and black trousers being snotty.

In terms of said micro budget, it's ambitious too which is a blessing when, rather than a lack of budget not being a deterrent, having a very dull sense of imagination is a dangerous mindset that can affect anyone. A lot of the bands and musicians - Bowling for Soup, Andrew W.K, "Jeff from Simple Plan" who is impaled on a guitar - were clearly happy to be involved for a lark, but rather than an indulgent and dull experience, it's an indulgent film which still stays creative. Baring one tasteless joke comparing the growing massacre as "Hot Topic meets Altamont", (see The Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter (1970) for why), it was an absolute blast. A playfully ghoulish film as, whilst the insecurity can be felt, has also the glee to just imagine the Warped Tour staff being unscrupulous, to the point of feeding the increasing numbers of victims' bodies to the staff in economic cannibalism and taking it to an exaggerated extent.

The amount of resources in general are a huge assistance, a whole sense of a culture being displayed, almost documentary-like, which happens to have been invaded by a slasher film. Between skateboard half pipes being used in the midst of performances, and all the various stands and tents you get to see , it has a vibrant colony of people on screen for my initial jokes I look to with fondness seeing them enjoying themselves. The production even shots in the real New York Time Square, with advertisements for The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and Prince's comeback album to a major record label, Musicology (2004), all in the goal to recreate a famous scene from Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), where Jason in the same square scares off some punks by showing his face under the mask.

The practical effects are also a high point, the entire crew behind them (or the few depending) the MVP for Punk Rock Holocaust. It gets to the point, with the ambition, that what I first thought was a comically cheap prop, cyanide apparently coming in black and blue pills in an orange medical bottle labels clearly "Cyanide", was actually done deliberately for a joke. Probably the most elaborate scene is helped by a band called The Phenomenauts, one of countless bands inspired by old science fiction pulp and also embracing it in an elaborate stage persona and show, meant as a crew of a spaceship with one of the members a robot. Not only do they bring in firework guns, which can hurt people in this film, but also a tour van even is crushed by a crane and blown up. (That the band snuck into the tour twice the previous two years before, only to be officially invited for the 2004, adds a nice contextual touch to them having a big scene in this film).

The film even shows the kind of resourcefulness that other micro budget films, with less resources, would applauded by recontextualizing real demolition footage. The schism with the Warped Tour itself, whilst compelling, feels like a detriment to all these wonderful little touches as, whilst its funny that founder Kevin Lyman has actually made a pact with Satan, making the joke they are conformist and designed by Old Nick to steal your soul does cross a line in making the likes of Less Than Jake and Pennywise feel compromised by accident. A shame as, with the rest a better balance of goofiness, like trying to synch around actual mosh pit footage with a killer going stab happy, you have something completely charming. Deeply silly, indulgent and with flaws, but a utterly entertaining for me whilst it lasted.