Wait… John Carpenter is in Studio 666?!

The Foo Fighters, fronted by Dave Grohl, are starring in a brand-new horror-comedy titled Studio 666, directed by Hatchet III filmmaker BJ McDonnell and filmed in secret during the pandemic.

In Studio 666, the Foo Fighters move into an Encino mansion with horrible, Satanic history to record their latest album. Once in the house, Dave Grohl finds himself grappling with supernatural forces that threaten both the completion of the album and the band’s lives. The film is based on a story by Grohl, written by Jeff Buhler and Rebecca Hughes.

Open Road Films releases the mayhem into theaters on February 25, 2022.

Ahead of the film’s release, Bloody Disgusting chatted with Grohl about his horror influences, the heavy gore, and the details behind John Carpenter‘s surprising involvement in the movie, including creating the opening theme.

The Horror Influences:

Studio 666 wears its horror influences on its sleeves and includes unmistakable riffs off iconic horror movie moments. One formative horror movie stands out among the rest as the most important to Grohl.

Grohl explained, “We were inspired by a lot of our favorite classic movies. When I was a kid, my favorite horror film- my favorite film of all time- and I’m not even kidding, is The Exorcist. I just think it’s a fucking masterpiece. I’m here in Virginia right now, in the house I grew up in. When I was a punk rock kid, we would go down to Georgetown, Washington, DC, every weekend and drink beer on those Exorcist steps that are right across Key Bridge in Washington, DC. The house is right there, and the steps are there. That’s where we hung out all the time.

Director BJ McDonnell’s STUDIO 666, an Open Road Films release. Credit : Courtesy of Open Road Films

“I had this personal thing with The Exorcist that I just think it’s the greatest movie all the time. There were a lot of classic horror elements that we wanted to throw into the movie. Will [Forte] walking up to the house with food delivery, when we saw the lighting, we told him, ‘Dude, just pause for a second. You’ve got to be Father Karras. You have to be there in that foggy moment. We have to get that Exorcist shot.’ A lot of people catch it, some don’t, but a lot do.”

On John Carpenter:

The horror master makes a surprising cameo appearance in Studio 666 and offered to write the opening theme music for the movie. Grohl is still in awe of it.

The musician details the serendipitous events that led to Carpenter’s involvement: “When we told our road crew that we were making a horror film, our lighting designer, Dan Hadley, said, ‘Oh my God, I know John Carpenter. I went on the road and did lights for him when he was performing his music for live audiences. You should email him and see if he’ll make a cameo.’ I’m like, ‘There’s no fucking way John Carpenter’s going to in our silly little horror film.’ He said, ‘You should try him.’ So, I fucking emailed John Carpenter, ‘Hi. My name’s Dave; I’m in a rock band called Foo Fighters. We’re making a horror film, and we have a mutual friend, Dan Hadley. Want to make a cameo in our movie?’

“He emailed back and said, ‘Fifteen years ago, Foo Fighters took my son’s band on tour. You treated him so well on the road. Not only will I be in your movie, but I’ll write the theme song.‘

“Look, when we first heard the theme song, when he and Daniel [Davies] recorded the song, and they sent it to us, everyone got the chills. Everyone practically had tears in their eyes, and we looked at each other and said, ‘How on earth could we be so lucky to have such an incredible experience?’ It blew everybody’s fucking minds. Yes, we had a great day on set. It was awesome. He was wonderful. Everyone was in awe. You listen to the music, and you’re like, ‘Okay, there’s a reason why John Carpenter is a legend.’ You just close your eyes, open your ears, listen to that, and, ‘That’s John Carpenter.‘”

The Gore:

Another surprising element about the Foo Fighters’ horror-comedy is the level of gore unleashed. It turns out that Grohl also happens to be friends with one of horror’s legendary special effects artists.

“The special effects guru, Tony Gardner, is a friend we worked with on a Foo Fighters video years ago,” Grohl said. “We did a video for a song called ‘Run.’ In that video, we’re senior citizens playing in a rest home. We needed prosthetic makeup to make us look old, so we hired Tony, who’s been around for decades making horror films. He invented Chucky. He was in the ‘Thriller’ video; he’s been around a long time. You would never imagine that someone with this twisted, brutally disgusting imagination would be such a sweet dude. We called him asked if he wanted to make a horror film. He said, ‘Finally, yes! I get to make horror prosthetics.’ We had a day of walking around the house, coming up with inventive new, funny, creative ways to murder people.

“That was Tony. He said, ‘You know what you should do? You should crucify [Redacted for spoilers] or decapitate them with a symbol. [Redacted], you should throw their face in the grill, and you’d see the flesh coming up. We laughed the whole time. Yes, let’s do it. Let’s do it. It was fun. None of us are real horror aficionados. We all grew up watching our favorite horror films and were inspired by our favorite bands that made band movies. When it came to the gore, all Tony. That’s fucking Tony Gardner. He’s a legend, so I’m glad that he did it for sure.“

See who Dave Grohl kills and how messy it gets when Studio 666 hits theaters this weekend. And keep your eyes and ears peeled for John Carpenter’s music and cameo appearance!