Heavy Metal is evil, or at least the way the PMRC thought back in the 80’s. Nothing’s really changed. Once in a while a group like that rears its ugly head to mouth off about a film, a song or musician. Now I think it’s so funny when people get upset at the mild antics of Miley Cyrus (obviously they’ve never seen a Gwar show). So what if a Metal band was evil?
Black Roses (1988) was a film by the late John Fasano (Rock n Roll Nightmare, Jitters, co-writer on Another 48 Hours). In the small town of Mill Basin, everything is clean and straight edged. A rock n roll concert coming to town is on par with the apocalypse, according to the parents that live there. Black Roses roll into town and all the teenagers become excited to see the hot new rockers. English teacher Matthew Morehouse (Played by John Martin---Days of our lives, Columbo) cares about his students, especially Johnny (Played by fabulous voice over actor Frank Deitz---Tarzan, Hercules) and Julie. He teaches them about poets such as Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, none of which are particularly interested. The parents gather at the town center to discuss whether or not to allow the concert to happen. The Mayor (Ken Swofford---Rockford Files, Andromeda Strain) is all for it, because he sees the group as non-threatening, and actually makes a good point that the whole reason rock ‘n roll exists is to shake things up a little bit.
Wiseguy Johnny bulls his way through a discussion about Whitman by comparing the town of scared parents as hypocrites with Whitman’s use of the word evil in a line of his poem. That just shows Mr. Morehouse that Johnny didn’t do his assignment. Johnny has a lot of angst and Julie’s home life isn’t that much better than his, having to deal with a lecherous step-father. To see what this is all about, most of Mill Basin’s parents attend the show, as does the Mayor and Mr. Morehouse. The band plays its first number, a song the lead singer says is about his hometown, a soft rock ballad with keyboards in the vein of Van Halen- Sammy Hagar days. When the Mayor says he’s satisfied nothing bad about the band, he leaves along with other parents.
That’s when Black Roses becomes what they really are. They ditch the soft rock crap, turn their amps up and rock out. Even changing costumes. Lead singer Damien (Played by Broadway actor Sal Viviano) shrieks and hits the high and low notes in Bruce Dickenson fashion. The next day, Mr. Morehouse has class and all the kids walk around in a daze. Things get worse, when the band give out tickets to another show, and hand out their debut album. A fight ensues during this free give away. It’s obvious the music makes them violent and soon Mr. Morehouse suspects something evil in this band and their music. After another free concert, the kids are completely under the spell of the music and begin knocking off all authority in the town, especially parents.
At the heart of this film is B-movie fun in the Roger Corman tradition. It’s hard to be regimentally strict on the film. It was made with love for the horror genre. The camera movements and lighting was top notch. The effects and some of the acting is a bit to the left of Corman. The one effect that is laughable is when a demon/spider crawls out of the speakers, swallow the father and drag him inside the speakers. But the change to Julie, later in the film, was pretty good, until she completely turned into a puppet.
Now the strong points; Carmen Appice makes appearances as Black Roses drummer and the soundtrack is actually pretty good. Just hearing Appice play drums is enough to earn some stars.
According to a recent interview with Fangoria, John Fasano said his ex-girlfriend, Cindy Sorrell (who also wrote the script), had the idea “what if a band really was from hell?” The idea was spurred on from Al Gore and Tipper Gore claiming Heavy Metal was evil. Shapiro-Glickenhaus productions put up four hundred thousand for the film because Fasano had been so successful with previous films Zombie Nightmare and Rock n Roll Nightmare. The film was mostly shot in Hamilton Canada, with a few key scenes shot in New York.
A funny note to add is that Fasano wasn’t a fan of Heavy Metal until after he made Black Roses or the others. This film in particular has gone on to become a cult favorite among head bangers just as Heavy Metal Parking lot did. In 2007 Synapse released Black Roses on DVD with a commentary by Fasano. It also includes bonus footage of audition tapes. The soundtrack had been released with the film includes Appice on drums, Mark Free on vocals, Mick Sweda on guitar, Alex Masi on guitar, Chuck Wright on bass and Elliot Solomon on keyboards. The movie is also notable for the Lizzy Borden song Me against the world.
Mark Slade, HMS
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