Get ready to bang your heads along with Bloody Disgusting and Doppelgänger Releasing as we’ll be touring the black metal comedy Heavy Trip across the Nation this fall. Late-night theatrical showings will be taking place in top markets on October 5, 2018, with a nationwide VOD release set for October 12, 2018.
In the vein of Airheads – if the band were a young Dethklok from “Metalocalypse” – the Finnish comedy is about a small-town Finnish heavy metal band that blasts its way out of the quiet countryside for a big debut gig in Norway.
“Turo (Johannes Holopainen) is stuck in a small village in the Finnish countryside where his greatest passion is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem is that he and his fellow headbangers have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. But that’s all about to change when the guys meet the promoter of a huge heavy metal music festival in Norway and decide it’s now or never. Hitting the road in a stolen van with a corpse, a coffin, and a new drummer from a local mental hospital in tow, Impaled Rektum travels across Scandinavia to make their dreams a reality.”
The film had its lauded U.S. premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, an equally fiery Norwegian premiere two weeks later at Oslo’s Inferno Metal Festival, 2018 Fantasia Film Festival, among others.
Helmed by first-time feature filmmakers Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren, Heavy Trip is the first title scheduled for release under the new distribution deal between Doppelgänger Releasing—the genre label of Music Box Films—and Bloody Disgusting.
We think that Heavy Trip is destined for cult classic status and hope that you guys will unite in celebration of this heartwarming, but totally metal comedy.
Here are the first theatrical dates, with more on the horizon:
– Los Angeles (Laemmle Music Hall Beverly Hills): October 5
– Austin (Alamo Drafthouse): October 5
– Chicago (Music Box Theater): October 5
Birth.Movies.Death’s Marisa Mirabal gave the horns of approval, “Heavy Trip solidifies its place among other beloved metal genre films by summoning a dark comedy that even those who aren’t familiar with Pantera, Children of Bodom, or Uruguayan grindcore can throw their horns up and enjoy.”
“Wail loud, scream proud and support this kooky exploratory import that’s worth one hell of a night with rocksteady friends, horns in the air, until the final credits roll,” added Slashfilm’s Matt Donato.
“Part let’s-get-it-together band saga and part road movie, the story arc is awfully familiar, but that doesn’t stop it being a rollicking romp,” included The Hollywood Reporter.
Daily Dead‘s Heather Wixson writes, “Heavy Metal plays out like a mix of Airheads meets Little Miss Sunshine and it just left me with a big, goofy grin once it was over,” while Morbidly Beautiful calls it “pure cinematic joy.”
The Daily Grindhouse declared it “the best rock and roll film in at least a decade.”
We’re excited to see what Bloody Disgusting readers think!
