Studio 666: Campy Foo Fighters Horror Stumbles (but Still Beats Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park)

By Thom Ernst

Rating: C+

So, this is the story as I know it. The Foo Fighters were recording their 10th album in an Encino mansion during the pandemic. I won't go into (because I don't know) whether the COVID protocol was being met. 

Let's assume The Foo Fighters live a fan's fantasy of a rock family where the members get along so well that they can safely isolate together. While making their album, someone—and here is where things get fuzzy, but the predominant impression is that the idea is all Dave Grohl's—decides to make a movie. Not just any movie, but a self-deprecating, meta, blood-and-guts, goofy, Monkees-meets-Scooby-Doo horror film. 

The film is Studio 666, although the title will travel better when referencing the Foo Fighters as in The Foo Fighter's Studio 666, or The Foo Fighters' present, Studio 666. Why risk missing out on a core audience of Foo Fighter fans?

The story involves The Foo Fighters wanting their 10th album to be earth-shattering, which leaves Grohl experiencing creative constipation, and their record producer (Jeff Garlin) fuming. The band is set up in a mansion to inspire Grohl's creativity. Unbeknownst to them, the mansion is where a previous band attempted to record before being brutally murdered by their frontman. 

Soon, creepy things start to happen; strange apparitions, weird nosy neighbours (Whitney Cummings), ghoulish demons with glowing red eyes, and an unexplained cameo from Lionel Ritchie. 

I know. 

What a fun and ridiculous premise for a movie. But what is hilarious in concept and on paper might not play as funny on screen. Even hardcore Foo Fighter fans checking in to watch Grohl and his band of lovable miscreants goofing it up might feel like they've stumbled on to an unfinished demo reel. 

Music videos have made The Foo Fighters familiar with the camera but not comfortable enough to be actors. Without the opportunity to hone their acting skills (cameos on The Muppet Show and in Bill and Ted Face the Music don't count), they come across as stiff, with a home movie level of comic timing. 

Professional actors, comic or otherwise, might have done the film a decent turn. But I get it, where would be the hook without the Foo Fighters?

Although I am reluctant to lean towards any criticism that could be construed as ageism, I cannot overlook how age factors as a problem. Grohl is in his 50s, and the Foo Fighters are not far behind. A half-century is an acceptable age for most everything except maybe starring in a film that dips to sophomoric humour. Then, 50 becomes a painful reminder of just how bad a look it is when grown men act like boys. 

Again, professional actors might be able to pull it off, but The Foo Fighters as The Foo Fighters don't always hit the mark. 

Grohl has mentioned in articles that the inspiration for Studio 666 stems from This is Spinal Tap, not a horror film but a landmark entry in the mock-rockumentary genre. 

Both Studio 666 and This is Spinal Tap take stabs (literally in Studio 666) at mocking the perception of the rock industry as a toxic environment of egos and money grabs. Yes, Dave, there are moments when Studio 666 does have a Spinal Tap vibe—this seems particularly evident if comparing Harry Shearer's Derek Small from Spinal Tap with Rami Jaffee's dumbed-down self-portrayal. 

But the more vital link here is with the antics of The Monkees, whose psychedelic feature film Head (1968), directed by Bob Rafelson, must have been a shock for fans of one of the world's first non-threatening boy bands. 

Where Studio 666 excels is in its extreme comic-book violence. Grisly deaths are made more fun by the film's meta-approach. Director BJ McDonnell — whose only other feature was the crazily violent Hatchet III — puts chainsaws, hammers, vans, barbeques, garden sheers, and other such instruments of mayhem to gasp-inspiring creative use. 

It's harmless fun, enough to achieve a place among music movie curios like Ringo Starr/Harry Nillson's unwatchable Son of Dracula (1973) and the equally cringe-worthy Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978).

For what it’s worth, Studio 666 is leagues better than both of those efforts. 

Still, it's hard to know what lasting impression Grohl hopes to leave of The Foo Fighters with Studio 666. Maybe for Grohl, it's enough that the band might demystify the gap between serious musicians and a willingness to self-parody.  

Studio 666. Directed by BJ McDonnell. Starring Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, Rami Jaffee, Jeff Garlin, Will Forte, and Whitney Cummings. Opens in selected theatres February 25.