Heavy Trip, 2018.
Directed by Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren.
Starring Johannes Holopainen, Samuli Jaskio, Antti Heikkinen and Max Ovaska.
SYNOPSIS:
Turo is trying to overcome his fears by leading the most unknown heavy metal band in Finland, Impaled Rektum, to the hottest metal festival of Norway. The journey includes heavy metal, grave robbing, Viking heaven and an armed conflict between Finland and Norway.
When I moved to Norway seven years ago, I was convinced I would finally be in a place full of people with long hair who shared my love for heavy metal. Imagine my surprise when I failed to meet any metalheads in my first week in the country, then my first month. I was shocked that there were not that many fans of heavy metal, black metal, doom metal, Viking metal or any other sub-genre – and the few I met were not that popular among their peers. This is to say, I immediately saw myself in Juuso Laatio’s and Jukka Vidgren’s Heavy Trip.
The first-time directors said in a Q&A following the SXSW premiere of their film that their native Finland has more heavy metal bands per capita than any other country in the world, yet but Turo (Johannes Holopainen) it just means he’s an outsider in his rural Finnish town. He’s shy, rides a bike to town, has stage freight, and can’t even mutter a word to the pretty girl who’s clearly into him. Whenever he’s not cleaning up shit as an orderly at a mental institution, he’s screaming his lungs out as the singer of a Symphonic Post-Apocalyptic Reindeer-Grinding Christ-Abusing Extreme War Pagan Fennoscandian Metal band that eventually gets Christened (or Sataned?) Impaled Rektum. Johannes perfectly portrays the despair in Johannes whenever he gets insulted in his home town, and the subtle glee he feels when he finally gets to scream ruthless yet inaudible lyrics to a microphone.
The rest of the cast is as quirky as Turo, and each band members feels completely different. Pasi (Max Ovaska) is the group’s human encyclopaedia, remembering every lyric to every song he’s ever listened to. When he isn’t playing the bass, he’s working at the local library convincing people to borrow Uruguayan grindcore metal instead of Justin Bieber. Jynkky (Antti Heikkinen) delivers the blast beat as Impaled Rektum’s drummer, and his outgoing personality makes him the toughest guy in the band. Then there’s Lotvonen (Samuli Jaskio, the lightning-fast guitar player who works at his family-owned reindeer slaughterhouse and who accidentally finds the riff to the band’s first original song after a reindeer carcass accidentally gets stuck in a meat grinder.
After 12 years of cover songs they finally have their own brain smasher of a track, and when an outsider comes by to buy reindeer blood, they guys will discover an opportunity to play their first live gig at Norway’s greatest and darkest metal festival. Yes, this is all metal as fuck.
What makes Heavy Trip stand out is that this isn’t just a comedy, though there are plenty of hilarious gangs including one in the border with Norway that almost starts a war and has the funniest portrayal of Norwegians I’ve ever seen. This movie is also surprisingly sweet and heartfelt and it treats metalheads with respect while making you fall in love with the dopey but sympathetic characters. The comedy reminds of This is Spinal Tap, but the absurd gags like grave-robbing and hijacking a Viking ship makes it clear that the film is more influenced by the classic Blues Brothers – at one point, a character says “We’re on a mission from Satan.”
Heavy Trip will lure you with great original songs and hilarious gags, but you will stay because of the lovable characters and the sweet story about rebellion and following your dreams. This movie should be watched with the volume on 11, the beers cold and the battle-axes sharp.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Rafael Motamayor is a journalist and movie geek based in Norway. You can follow him on Twitter.
Originally published March 30, 2018. Updated April 11, 2018.
