Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare (1987)

Excellent adaptation.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

A metal band rents an old farmhouse to use as a recording studio for their new album. It doesn't take long, however, for things to go horribly wrong. Creatures begin to appear and people start to go missing. Soon, only lead singer John Triton (Jon Mikl Thor) is left to do battle with the devil and his many minions. But Triton is not who he seems and is ready for this battle.A plot summary really can't do Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare justice. There's more here than seems to be at first glance. It's a fairly ambitious plot for a reported $53,000 budget. Speaking of the budget, with limited funds like that, it's amazing how watchable the end product actually is. You can tell that there's a lot of unpaid work by family and friends, not to mention Jon Mikl Thor's music, that were key to making this thing work. And, given the budget, the special effects end up looking "special". No, they won't compete with today's CGI effects or anything from big a big practical effects company, but for what they are, I enjoyed them. And then there's that final fight scene. What a total blast! Even though I had fun watching most of Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, there were a few things that kept me from fully embracing the film and lowered my overall rating. The main problem comes from the long stretches of the movie where nothing happens. Maybe I"m just getting too old, but endless shower scenes and PG-rated sex scenes do nothing for me. A little more variety might have really helped.Overall, I'm impressed with what these people were able to do. I say "these people" because it's apparent Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare was a group effort. The final product is good, but not great. My slightly above average 6/10 rating seems appropriate.

Its an amazingly bad movie-that goes without question. I mean look at the insane cover-art. It begs the question "Why was this movie made?". Here's a curve-ball, The protagonist is named John Triton, but is played by actor John Mikal Thor, the fake name sounds more real than the actor's real name. I would describe this as a exhausted movie, in that it sort of stumbles along preoccupied with getting to that place where it can just lie down and sleep it off. I hope there is a documentary film about how this movie got made and why this movie got made because I imagine it would be like the doc Heart Of Darkness is for Apocalypse Now. Watching this movie initiates you into the sacred order of Rock'n'roll, yeah!

Undoubtedly one of the most pointless and annoying trends in the world of 80's cinema were the horror/hard rock music hybrids. Presumably inspired by the success of "Heavy Metal" (1981), the eighties spawned a whole series of movies in which untalented and ridiculous looking rock band members suddenly found themselves trapped in all sorts of horrific situations like zombie infested little towns, cannibalistic mountain families, demoniacally possessed farmhouses etc… "Rock & Roll Nightmare" is just one of them, but there's also "Blood Tracks", "Terror on Tour", "Black Roses", "Rocktober Blood" and "Hard Rock Zombies". The problem with these movies, however, is that they are terrible for all the obvious reasons. The already thin and derivative story lines are too frequently interrupted to show integral clips of atrocious rock songs, the players are goofy looking amateur musicians without any form of acting skills, budgetary restrictions left right and center, incredibly cheesy special effects and zero amount of suspense. This particular dud, written as well as produced and starring the unimaginably pompous Jon Mikl Thor, plays in an entirely separate league of awful, though. The pre-credits opening sequence is the best part of the whole film, but it promptly goes downhill from there onwards. One windy morning at a secluded countryside farm, a mother calls her husband and young son down for breakfast but she senses there's a sinister presence floating around her kitchen. Only a few moments later the father and son discover the heavily burned and mutilated woman inside the oven. Albeit pretty cheesy and totally random, this intro falsely raises the impression of being the start of a good old-fashioned 80's horror gem, but you seriously shouldn't get your hopes up. The exaggeratedly overlong and boring sequence showing only a white van driving up to the farm already makes it pretty clear that Jon Mikl Thor didn't have much of a story to tell. This is the sort of scene that you use to display the credits, but they already did that prior, so the van's journey actually qualifies as padding footage and we're barely five minutes into the film. Thor is the lead singer/songwriter of a band called The Tritons, and he ordered his fellow band members and their girlfriends to the remote farmhouse – which has a completely operational recording studio set up in the barn – to rehearse and record a new album as well as practice their podium act. Triton's posse exists of a bunch of imbeciles, including a nerdy producer, a drummer with a horrendously fake Australian accent and a couple of very much in love newlyweds (very rock & roll, you guys!). Luckily for everybody, it only takes a couple of stupid rocks songs before the demonic forces get fed up with the band's presence and start taking over their personalities. "Rock & Roll Nightmare" is a boring and soporific ordeal with absolutely nothing recommendable in it. Over 75% of the film is irrelevant and shameless padding footage, mainly extravagant stage acts and gratuitous soft-core sex sequences, and the actual "evil forces" plot is underdeveloped. The special effects are pitiable, with cute one-eyed demon monsters that look more like cartoon characters and a disappointing lack of bloodshed. Director John Fasano often attempts to imitate the classic "The Evil Dead", especially through hectic camera motions up the stairs and uncanny sound effects, but actually this turkey doesn't even deserve to mentioned in one and the same sentence with Sam Raimi's classic. Joh Mikl Thor and his rock buddies are imbeciles with hideous outfits and embarrassing hairstyles, and their movie should disappear into oblivion. Apparently there's also a belated sequel called "Intercessor: Another Rock & Roll Nightmare"… Excuse me for not ever going to watch that.

Something of a cult classic this although it's only in the last 15 or so minutes that it becomes clear as to exactly why.Up until this point, the film is a typically by the numbers, unimaginative 80's slasher flick set in an old farm house wherein the protagonists are bumped off one by one by various supernatural beasties (including some hilariously rendered sock puppet like critters!!!)The protagonists in this case are members of a heavy metal band and their girlfriends/wives. Leader of the group is the lead singer John Triton (the incomparable Jon Mikl Thor!) who has arranged for his band mates to stay at the farmhouse for some creative inspiration. Trouble is that by the end of the film everyone except John has been murdered..... or so it seemed at least for in a twist at the end it is revealed that in fact no one was murdered at all(!) and that John's band mates were all externalised figments of his imagination which he has created in order to lure his ultimate nemesis out into the open.And who is John's ultimate nemesis? Why it's none other than Satan himself!!! (Or at least a rubbery, gangling armed puppet who's method of killing is surely to make his victims die of laughter!) But surely even Jon Mikl Thor, as awesome as he is, is no match for the Devil? (even such a poorly rendered representation of him!)....Well in a final shock twist John undergoes a sudden miraculous transformation and reveals himself to be the studded leather codpiece wearing Archangel Triton!!! WHOAH!!!Now the stage is set for what must surely rank as one of the most hilarious cinematic battles ever filmed as our hero gallantly grapples with his virtually immobile adversary (and with his deadly, demonic starfish!!!)After much exaggerated straining and grimacing Triton proves to be the eventual winner (hurray!!!) and Satan is forced to admit defeat (for now at least) wherein he promptly disappears behind a decidedly shoddy looking pyrotechnic display.WOW! I've got to say it, this final battle is absolutely side splitting stuff! For all fellow fans of bad movies, if you haven't yet seen this veritable classic (ahem) then I recommend you high tail it and grab yourself a copy as soon as possible - trust me, you won't regret it!