There aren’t many bright sides to having a cast made exclusively of unlikable characters. Typically, a great movie has at least one redeemable character for audiences to root for.
Somehow, though, Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos manages to achieve greatness while breaking all the rules of storytelling.
The movie is told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, the self-serving and incredibly ambitious Euronymous (played by Rory Culkin). Euronymous is incredibly single-minded, and he’s on a path to do whatever it takes to bring Norwegian black metal to Oslo. He intends to do this mainly through smoke-and-mirrors publicity stunts, nothing truly harmful to anyone but his band mates…but things quickly spiral out of control.
After losing his cat-slaughtering lead singer to a rather graphic suicide, Euronymous takes pictures of his friend’s corpse to use for publicity. Additionally, he keeps fragments from his friend’s skull for the rest of the band to wear as jewelry. You’d think the movie couldn’t get much darker than this, but we’re barely in shades of grey by the end of the first act; Lords of Chaos goes full black, and you might hate yourself a little for loving it so much.
I don’t typically believe in trigger warnings, but this movie’s an exception. There’s graphic violence, sexual abuse, suicide, wrist cutting, murder, and several instances of violence toward animals. Also, if you’re of the Strong Christian Values personality type…you may just want to fuck directly off and go watch Veggie Tales: Carrot Pegging Jesus, because this movie isn’t for you.
My least-favorite character was also, in a peculiar way, the most compelling character throughout the movie. Kristian “Varg” Vikernes is introduced as a sad and desperate poser who tries everything he can think of to be taken seriously by Euronymous and his band mates. After proving his abilities as a musician and being given a foot in the proverbial door, Varg’s own ambition goes out of control and he becomes a truly evil specimen, celebrating every victory by burning down a church and fucking every woman in sight. He’s such a truly pathetic person that you still feel sorry for him even as he’s calling women sluts, pretending to be a Nazi, and making a series of progressively stupid decisions. Much like certain men of our time, he’s such a jackass that you can’t help but listen to his misguided ramblings about notoriety and power.
The battle of one upmanship between Euronymous and Varg leads to some dark places, and it doesn’t end well for either of them. But watching their mutual turmoil and individual insecurities is both hilarious at times and completely heartbreaking at other points. They’re both rather young, and although they absolutely deserve everything horrible that happens to them, you can’t help but feel bad for them when their lust for “pure evil” status blinds them to their own naivety.
Lords of Chaos is one of the best band biopics I’ve seen, and anyone who spends their time bitching about a lack of truly unique movies clearly hasn’t seen this one. You probably won’t like any of the characters, but you’ll have a hell of a time convincing yourself they’re not compelling to watch.
8/10
Throughout the month of October, I’ll be reviewing 31 movies I’ve never seen before. Is there an excellent movie you think I haven’t seen? Tell me in the comments below, and I’ll check it out!
You can also check out Nik Sullivan's review of Lords of Chaos here.
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