Like many others, New-Zealand-born Jason Lei Howden used to cope with teenage angst by a heavy dose of headbanging and listening to loud songs played-back with various speed and directions, looking for demonic messages. However, his feature debut Deathgasm proves that he was able to leave his dark years behind him and even look back at them with an ironic, but at the same time lovingly nostalgic smirk. The story about a bunch of high-school losers forming the titular metal band draws heavily from the director’s growing up. Well, the story takes a few liberties, when through some cursed lyrics the heroes turn the inhabitants of their small town into murdering maniacs possessed by demons, whom they have to battle with chainsaws, axes and even some unconventional warfare such as DnD dices and double ended dildos. Howden’s film is a child of pure fan enthusiasm, created thanks to the 200 000 dollars prize-money from the Make My Horror Movie contest. Since its premiere at the SXSW festival it has become a midnight-screening sensation. This is an pumped-up, gore-and-laughs heavy metal horror flick, which even people, who consider playing one of Ozzy Osbourne’s records backwards as a tedious waste of time, can enjoy.
