Lords of Chaos
2018, 118 minutes, Digital, R
UK, Sweden
Language: English
Director: Jonas Åkerlund
Cast: Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Sky Ferreira, Jack Kilmer, and Valter Skarsgård
Distributor: Gunpowder & Sky
The story of True Norwegian Black Metal and its most notorious practitioners: a group of young men with a flair for publicity, church-burning and murder: MAYHEM.
Oslo, 1987. Seventeen-year-old Euronymous is determined to escape his idyllic Scandinavian hometown and create “true Norwegian black metal” with his band, MAYHEM. He’s joined by equally fanatical youths – Dead and Varg. Believing that they’re on the cusp of a musical revolution, the group gets even darker driven by the black metal dogma to spread evil.
They begin burning down churches throughout the countryside and stealing tombstones for their record store. But when the press catches up with them and Euronymous takes more credit than he’s earned for the group’s violent acts, Varg, fresh out of jail, arranges a dark encounter to settle the score and ultimately determine who the darkest black metal musician is.
“A pitch-perfect black metal dramedy… Despite Åkerlund’s refusal to lionize these immature kids, Lords of Chaos is tremendous fun. Caveat: one must be able to handle severed pig heads, cat torture, and casual Nazism.”
— Amy Nicholson, Variety
“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.”
— Michael Nordine, IndieWire
OFFICIAL SELECTION:
Sundance Film Festival
Fantastic Fest
Sitges Film Festival
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