X
- 2019
- R
- Gunpowder & Sky
- 1 h 58 m
- 2019
- R
- Gunpowder & Sky
- 1 h 58 m
Summary Based on an astonishingly true story, Lords of Chaos recounts the exploits of the Norwegian black metal movement’s most notorious band: Mayhem. After the gruesome suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin, the band's founder, Øystein Aarseth, used the opportunity to inject a mix of satanism, havoc, and murder into the music to sell more record...
Directed By: Jonas Åkerlund
- 2019
- R
- Gunpowder & Sky
- 1 h 58 m
- 2019
- R
- Gunpowder & Sky
- 1 h 58 m
Lords of Chaos
48
5.3
Where to Watch
Summary Based on an astonishingly true story, Lords of Chaos recounts the exploits of the Norwegian black metal movement’s most notorious band: Mayhem. After the gruesome suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin, the band's founder, Øystein Aarseth, used the opportunity to inject a mix of satanism, havoc, and murder into the music to sell more record...
Directed By: Jonas Åkerlund
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
48
41% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
24% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
35% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
48
41% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
24% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
35% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Much like the music, Lords of Chaos is frequently unpleasant but oddly compelling — not least because Åkerlund ensures that the film never takes itself as seriously as its subjects did.
Despite the film’s inherent shock value, Lords Of Chaos still manages to successfully mine the explosive psychology of adolescent angst - even if the horror movie aesthetics occasionally threatens to overwhelm proceedings.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 29 User Ratings
5.3
52% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
17% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
31% Negative
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 29 User Ratings
5.3
52% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
17% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
31% Negative
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
Equal parts funny and harrowing; an enjoyable "true story"
Looking at late 80s/early 90s Norwegian black metal, Lords of Chaos asks, "was its extreme image authentic or manufactured". Adapted from Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind's 1998 book, written for the screen by Dennis Magnusson and Jonas Åkerlund, and directed by Åkerlund (himself a founding member of black metal band Bathory), the film suggests that behind the scenes, most black metallers knew that their militant anti-establishment Satanism, claims of human sacrifices, championing of suicide, and advocation of anti-Christian violence were simply marketing tools, not to be taken literally. The film tells the story of what happened when some black metallers took them very literally, leading to suicide, arson, and murder.
Oslo, 1987; the film follows Oystein "Euronymous" Aarseth (Rory Culkin), who has established a band named Mayhem to create a new subgenre of "true Norwegian black metal". Hiring troubled singer Pelle "Dead" Ohlin (Jack Kilmer), the band starts to build up a following, including the awkward Kristian "Varg" Vikernes (Emory Cohen). After Dead commits suicide, Euronymous welcomes Varg into the fold. However, as Varg becomes more and more extreme, a power struggle develops between the two.
Åkerlund isn't especially interested in valorising black metal, with the majority of the film designed to chip away at its image of evil. In this sense, the story is primarily about image and marketing. Whereas some of the others saw evil in a literal sense, Euronymous saw it in terms of branding.
It's in relation to this manufactured image that much of the film's humour is to be found. Describing their style, Euronymous proudly declares, "when people hear our music, we want them to commit suicide." Later on, he admits, "all this evil and dark crap was supposed to be fun." He has to borrow his parents' car to get anywhere (it's difficult to be taken seriously as a purveyor of terror when you're in your dad's Volvo). An impassioned speech about the nature of black metal is interrupted by someone being told their kebab is ready. Euronymous complains of Christianity, "they're oppressing us with their kindness and their goodness". And in easily the funniest scene in the film, as Euronymous and Varg wait outside a recording studio, a group of elderly women emerge, with Euronymous running up to them and growling, "Hail Satan!"
From an aesthetic point of view, the film features three notable scenes; two murders and one suicide. All three scenes are shot matter-of-factly by cinematographer Pär M. Ekberg and sparsely edited by Rickard Krantz, with the suicide really getting under my skin. I'm not sure if it's the length of time it takes (the scene runs over three minutes), if it was Mattias Eklund's sound design wherein we can hear the knife cutting flesh, if it was the lack of cutaways, or if it was the close-ups of the wounds, but I found the scene brilliant, but harrowing.
Another aesthetic element worth mentioning is that the actors all speak in English with their own accents. Personally, I find this far less distracting than everyone speaking English but with Scandinavian inflexions. It's a little jarring at first, but you quickly acclimate yourself to it, and it ultimately proves far less distracting than an actor with a God-awful accent.
In terms of problems, some will take issue with how ironically the film approaches the material. The repeated shots of band members leaving their parents' homes does seem to betray something of a judgemental jokey disdain. Additionally, the film never examines what drove these young men to make this kind of music in the first place, or why these poorly recorded aggressive songs garnered such a fanatical following, which leaves a noticeable lacuna. In one respect, Lords of Chaos is an act of de-mythologizing, attempting to show that this frightening group of Satan-worshipping church burners and murderers were really just middle-class kids with a case of ennui. On the other hand, it illustrates that what had started out innocently led to some serious real-world ramifications. Euronymous is depicted as a wannabe cult leader, but one who doesn't subscribe to his own ideology of violence and rebellion, and is completely at a loss how to put the genie back in the box when certain members take his words literally. Lords of Chaos is his story before it is the story of black metal, and this is a vital point. For adherents, this will prove offensive. For everybody else, the ironic humour, harrowing violence, and thematic nihilism gel to form a fascinating film that's well worth checking out.
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As interesting as this film’s topic is, I honestly can’t recommend anyone watch it. There are some very disturbing acts and horrific images throughout it’s run time. In fact it’s pretty gruesome. While on the whole that does service the film, it just feels sensationalized. Especially in contrast to the mental health issues that never seem to be brought up for more than a brief mention. None of the characters are likable - and that’s okay because I don’t think that you’re supposed to like them. It’s based on actual events that literally set the world on fire durning the late 80s in Norway. It’s not a bad film, but the content is just very dark and it left me empty. It’s like the film A Clockwork Orange and the movie Airheads hooked up and had a deeply disturbed idiot baby that grew up to to be a homicidal nut case.
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Åkerlund's style, and his quietly sensitive handling of the bloody details, will still bang the head that does not bang.
Åkerlund’s understanding is more like contempt, in a film that downplays the bigotry of the Norwegian black metal scene and shrugs off the severity of its actions with a “boys will be boys” approach that has no reverence for the scene, but doesn’t provide any insight into it, either.
Still: the cold half (ie: the important half) of Lords of Chaos is so ugly and mean-spirited that I couldn't really enjoy the other parts of the film that work, not even Rory Culkin's fantastic lead performance, or the on-screen chemistry that he shares with supporting actress Sky Ferreira (as photographer/love interest Ann-Marit).
Of course, the argument can be made that a film is a work of art, which grants extended artistic license. Fine, then why not use the events as a basis for a fictional story rather than deliver unabashed inaccuracy in the name of art?
Lords Of Chaos is more interested in the spectacle than the substance behind the true story, and that kind of phoniness likely wouldn’t even get the film or Åkerlund invited into The Black Circle.
Where do I even begin with this. I have so many complaints, but I'll try to make this brief.
The fact that the main characters are all American bothered me to no end. Much of the main supporting cast was also American or or English, with the exception of Valter Skarsgård who plays Faust and Arion Csihar who is actually the son of Attila Csihar. The actors themselves are good actors, nothing against them, but I would have loved this to have actually been played by Scandinavian actors. Heck if there were some actors that were from elsewhere, but could pull off a Scandinavian accent, then fine.
Jonas Åkerlund was in Bathory for their first album which many will argue was the first black metal album. To say he doesn't have clout would just be a lie. Though he went into filmmaking when, according to him, black metal became too serious. That said, it doesn't absolve him of making a movie about underground black metal, but for a very mainstream audience. That's not something that's easy to do and honestly just shouldn't have been attempted at all.
The character of Ann-Marit is unnecessary. Plain and simple. Being a female metalhead myself, it's always annoying to see because Euronymous did have girlfriends, but it was nothing like Ann-Marit from everything I've read.
While the average person probably doesn't care about the inaccuracies, for a lot of the metal world this story is very important. I mean, they missed a giant opportunity about Glen Benton meeting Euronymous (and yes, I know there's a lot of dispute around that meeting, but it's such a famous thing that it's shocking they didn't even touch on it).
There's not enough black metal. I know this was supposed to be for mainstream audiences, but it still bothers me.
Pretty much the only positives are the actors and that it really upset Varg cause let's face it, Varg is an ****
If you actually are interested at all in what really happened during that time, I highly recommend you watch Until The Light Takes Us.
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Production Company
Proton Cinema,
4 1/2 Film,
Chimney,
Eleven Arts,
Insurgent Media,
RSA Films,
Scott Free Productions,
Twentieth Century Fox,
Vice Studios
Release Date Feb 8, 2019
Duration 1 h 58 m
Rating R
Tagline Based on Truth and Lies.
Awards
Molins Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
Splat! FilmFest
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Monster Fest
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
