United Kingdom, Sweden · 2018
Rated R · 1h 58m
Director Jonas Åkerlund
Starring Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Jack Kilmer, Sky Ferreira
Genre Drama, Horror, Music, Thriller
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Based on the true story of Norwegian band Mayhem, Lord of Chaos follows young guitarist Euronymous on his quest to launch the black metal scene in Oslo. The band's nihilistic attitudes, dark music, and shocking publicity stunts spiral out of control into grisly violence in this disturbing thriller.
Åkerlund’s music videos established him as a whiz-bang technician, a skill he only unleashes in two terrifying montages. Lords of Chaos proves that he can also get great performances out of a young cast, especially Kilmer’s otherworldly Dead.
The Hollywood Reporter by Justin Lowe
As a depiction of the very public emergence of a marginal movement, Lords of Chaos provokes both awe and repulsion, but not necessarily admiration for a musical form and subculture unwaveringly devoted to literalism, no matter how extreme.
Åkerlund’s understanding is more like contempt, in a film that downplays the bigotry of the Norwegian black metal scene and shrugs off the severity of its actions with a “boys will be boys” approach that has no reverence for the scene, but doesn’t provide any insight into it, either.
Screen International by Nikki Baughan
Despite the film’s inherent shock value, Lords Of Chaos still manages to successfully mine the explosive psychology of adolescent angst - even if the horror movie aesthetics occasionally threatens to overwhelm proceedings.
After darkness light.
She was hot. He was bothered.
No retreat. No surrender.
Five days in the life of Carmine Street Guitars, a small guitar store in New York City’s Greenwich Village.