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Written by Kevin Scott, MoreHorror.com
Rock and Roll Nightmare aka Edge of Hell (1987)
Directed by: John Fasano
Written by: Jon Mikl Thor
Cast: Jon Mikl Thor (John Triton), Jillian Peri (Lou Anne), Frank Dietz (Roger), David Lane (Max), Teresa Simpson (Randy)
Gateway films can take a horror aficionado down roads to a destination that resurrects memories of humble beginnings as a young horror fan. I found “Trick or Treat” on YouTube in its entirety a few weeks back, and nostalgia overpowered me to the point that I had to go down the rabbit hole of horror and hair metal to see how far it goes. “Trick of Treat” seems to be the one that everyone remembers, mainly because of Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne making brief cameos, and Skippy from “Family Ties” sporting long hair, and dropping the “F” word from time to time. Stuff like that is downright unforgettable. Lest we forget however, the ones that were equally as cheesy, but might have fell by the wayside.
I can think of two hair metal horror films other than “Trick or Treat” that captivated me with some superb VHS box art. Those would be “Black Roses” and this film (which is also on YouTube in its entirety). No adolescences here worshipping metal gods. We barely get a scene with a small group of puritanical groupies. This centers more around the band “Triton” and their saga of moving in to an isolated farmhouse to write and record a new album.
The lead singer of the band John Triton (Jon Mikl Thor) is an Adonis of a dude with a waxed chest and long flowing blonde hair. His bandmates all have surprisingly short hair which makes them hard to keep track of, and there’s the stereotype of the seasoned, bitter, and ungrateful rock star girlfriend, the guy that got married when a world full of women was his oyster, and the band manager along for the ride to handle the details while the musician types do their thing.
I should mention that the very same farmhouse was the scene of the murder of a family several years before by something, well something is about the best way I can describe it. All seems to be going well, and we get a couple of song montages from the barn recording studio before the band, their girlfriends and spouses get picked off by, well, something again.
Jon Triton has to show his metal and stop whatever evil is inhabiting the farmhouse, and killing his band.
I’m not selling this film for anything more than what it is, a product of a time when horror and hair metal were standard issue for most teenagers (at least the truly cool ones), and because typically, if someone liked metal, they naturally liked horror. It just made sense to put them together. I wish we had some really cool new rock and roll horror films today. The only one that comes to mind off the cuff is the rock and roll vampire film “Suck”. I am going to throw in a disclaimer for “Rock and Roll Nightmare” about the climax of the film. It does have a twist ending that subtly capitalizes on supernatural forces using horror movie archetypes way, way, way before “Cabin in the Woods” ever did. It also features some extreme Axl Rose “Welcome to the Jungle” hair ( pre Axl Rose, I might add), and some really crazy monsters that range from Satan, to ghoulies, to minions from “Despicable Me” if they had been on Meth for a while. It also has a van that’s “A Team” cool, with handcuffs hanging from the rear view mirror. I should told you that first. It’s a great time capsule B movie with good scenes to downright painful ones. Sounds like the purest definition of a B movie to me.
