Deathgasm is a 2015 New Zealand independent comedy horror film written and directed by Jason Lei Howden in his directorial debut. The film premiered on 15 March 2015 at South by Southwest and was released in theaters later that year to positive reviews.
Plot[]
After his father dies and his mother is institutionalized, teenager Brodie moves in with his Uncle Albert in Greypoint. Brodie is a metalhead, which conflicts with Uncle Albert's fundamentalist Christian beliefs. He is bullied at high school by other students, including his cousin David. Brodie's only friends are geeks Dion and Giles, but he later meets and befriends another metal fan, Zakk. The four decide to form a metal band, Deathgasm. To Brodie's surprise, the beautiful Medina appears to be interested in him and they go out on a date, but Brodie is too shy to kiss her.
Zakk convinces Brodie to venture into an abandoned house to find metal musician Rikki Daggers. They find him sleeping inside holding a record. After accidentally awakening him, he hands them the album and convinces them to flee. A man named Vadin later kills Daggers. Vadin is part of a cult which is looking for "The Black Hymn," medieval sheet music with the power to summon demons. Since Vadin failed to obtain The Black Hymn, the cult's leader, Aeon, has him beheaded.
Brodie finds the Black Hymn inside the record's cover, and Deathgasm plays the song, resulting in flickering lights and Uncle Albert hyperventilating and bleeding from his eyes, before Brodie stops after feeling that something is wrong. The next day in school, Brodie translates the Latin writing on the sheet, saying: "The black hymn. Play it to invoke the demon." Medina finds Zakk and passes him a note to give Brodie that contains a message to meet at the local park; Zakk keeps the note and lies to her that Brodie no longer wants to see her before they kiss.
Brodie deduces that the Black Hymn is connected to dark forces and, wanting to take revenge upon his bullies, completes playing the Black Hymn with Deathgasm. The band is knocked unconscious and notices that something is different upon awakening. Several townspeople begin vomiting blood. After Brodie meets up with Zakk to ponder about why Medina ignored him, the two are later attacked by Zakk's demonically possessed father, whom they manage to kill. Dion, Giles, and Medina also fend off the possessed and hide in the school's panic room and leave a note on Brodie's door regarding their location. Trying to find out what is happening, Zakk and Brodie meet with fortune teller Abigail, who tells them they have invoked the demon Aeloth by playing the hymn, and that the residents of town are now possessed by Aeloth's demons, which kill and possess every human being in order to prepare Aeloth's arrival. By 3 AM, Aeloth will merge with the most evil human being present. Before she is able to tell them how to undo Aeloth's summoning, she is killed by her possessed boyfriend Byron before becoming a demon herself.
The cult members arrive at Greypoint to herald Aeloth's arrival, but Aeon is killed by his acolyte Shanna, who usurps leadership. Zakk is not interested in fighting Aeloth, but Brodie manages to convince him to help under the assumption that summoning will be undone by playing the Black Hymn backwards. They drive to Brodie's house to obtain the sheets of music, however the wind blows it away while Zakk removes the note placed by Medina. After killing Uncle Albert and David, the two find the sheets while killing several of the possessed. Brodie and Zakk head to the school where they reunite with Dion, Giles, and Medina. However, Brodie finds Zakk's jacket in Medina's bag and confronts him over deceiving them; Zakk admits that he is not interested in Medina and wanted to do it out of boredom before deciding to abandon the group.
The remaining four head to Daggers' house to play the song with Daggers' loud amplifiers, but they are confronted by the cult, where Shanna takes the band prisoner and rips apart the sheets. A remorseful Zakk rescues his bandmates and Deathgasm disrupts the cult's ritual to summon Aeloth. Brodie begins to play the Black Hymn backwards, but Dion and Giles are killed by the demons. Brodie is unable to finish playing in time, and Aeloth enters the body of Shanna, who is quickly killed by Zakk. However, since he is the most evil person amongst them, Aeloth then takes possession of Zakk's body and attacks Brodie and Medina. Brodie realizes it is too late to complete the hymn, so instead he just passionately plays heavy metal. Brodie's playing causes Zakk to collapse and temporarily transform back into his human body, and Zakk convinces Brodie to kill him to prevent Aeloth's resurrection.
A few months later, Brodie and Medina are a happy death metal-loving couple in Greypoint. Zakk's spirit returns through one of Brodie's records and they converse over what hell is like.
Cast[]
- Milo Cawthorne as Brodie
- James Blake as Zakk
- Kimberley Crossman as Medina
- Sam Berkley as Dion
- Daniel Cresswell as Giles
- Delaney Tabron as Shanna
- Stephen Ure as Rikki Daggers
- Tim Foley as Vadin
- Kate Elliott as Abigail
- Nick Hoskins-Smith as David
- Colin Moy as Uncle Albert
- Jodie Rimmer as Aunt Mary
- Erroll Shand as Byron
- Andrew Laing as Aeon
- Aaron McGregor as Terry
- Cameron Rhodes as Mr. Cappenhurst
- Campbell Rousselle as Ron
- Paula Hallagher as Brodie's Mum