Fantasia 2015 – Deathgasm (2015) Movie Review

Jason Lei Howden’s Deathgasm is a blood-gushingly over-the-top perfect horror-comedy! It deserves the horns salute from every metalhead there is and ever was.

Starring Milo Cawthorne as our hero, Brodie, James Blake as the anti hero, Zakk, and Kimberly Crossman as preppy object of desire, Medina, Deathgasm tells the story of every metalhead’s struggle to find his place in society, or to avoid society altogether. All this while in glorious fashion exploiting every heavy metal stereotype that we’ve suffered since the late ‘70s… only now we revel in these tropes because living our way of life is like wearing a badge of honor. Fuck you if you don’t agree.

Howden could have easily crossed the line and insulted the metalheads’ way of life, but he did nothing but praise and honor it. And in the end, metalheads saved the day and Howden made us proud of who we are… even if he spoke to the juvenile delinquent in us all.

Essentially, Deathgasm follows Brodie as he comes under the care of his holy-roller aunt and uncle, which also means living with his asshole cousin, but he’s a minor bully nuisance in the long run. Along the way, Brodie endures taunting at school, a good beating, finds love, finds betrayal, a heavy metal band, and some friends. He and Zakk also find an ancient scroll of music that conjures evil and turns their entire town into zombie-like demons.

All of that is just the beginning. The real fun is in the details. Like the juxtaposition of a black metal dude sitting on a park bench eating an ice cream cone with a preppy, straight-laced girl, like demons being beaten with a two-foot long double-ended dildo, like demon death kills with vibrators to the temples, like sect members getting fucked in the ass with a chainsaw, and so much more.

And then there were the moments that spoke purely to metalheads. Such as the solace we find when we tune in to the tones that take us away and make us strong. Or even Brodie’s explanation to why we love our metal! And don’t think that there’s no commentary on society; besides everyone being fucks, Deathgasm asserts that we all have skeletons in our closets, and the religious faithful maybe even more so.

The Verdict:

Festival audiences are usually pretty vocal during their screenings, but this crowd was damn near riotous. We wanted a good time and Deathgasm delivered in spades. This movie is a shoe-in for induction into the cult movie canon. If there’s room for a sequel, we want it. Raise your horns.