WARNING! Major spoiler in next paragraph.
Late in the film "Suck" obnoxious radio DJ Rockin'Roger (Henry Rollins) makes a crack about the vampire rock band the Winners while he's interviewing them live. One of them replies, "Did you just say our band sucks?" The band proceeds to kill him while he's on the air! And what is the result? They get a million hits on their website - and become superstars!! I'm gonna make damn sure that what happened to Rockin' Roger doesn't happen to me.
This is one terrifically inventive genre mash. Director-writer-composer-star Rob Stefaniuk is a bundle of energy, a Michael J.Fox with spiked hair and attitude. He's assembled a great cast, starting with Liv Tyler lookalike Jessica Pare and including music legends Alex Lifeson (of Rush), Rollins, Moby (!), Iggy Pop, (!!) and Alice Cooper.(!!!)He's even got Malcolm McDowell as vampire hunter Eddie Van Helsing (not Van Halen.) And, thanks to McDowell, he's got footage from Lindsay Anderson's 1973 "O Lucky Man!" with a young McDowell worked seamlessly into the plot! And what a plot! There are even some subtle hints that the whole story could be a nightmare that Stefaniuk's lead singer is having. (Shades of "Laura" or "The Woman in the Window"!) The mixing of rock music and vampires is not new (see "The Vampire Lestat")but nobody has done as much with it as Stefaniuk does here. He does his own singing, too. And the music is, well, awesome.
This movie was well received at SXSW, and well it should be.
You heard it here first, baby. "Suck" doesn't!
Late in the film "Suck" obnoxious radio DJ Rockin'Roger (Henry Rollins) makes a crack about the vampire rock band the Winners while he's interviewing them live. One of them replies, "Did you just say our band sucks?" The band proceeds to kill him while he's on the air! And what is the result? They get a million hits on their website - and become superstars!! I'm gonna make damn sure that what happened to Rockin' Roger doesn't happen to me.
This is one terrifically inventive genre mash. Director-writer-composer-star Rob Stefaniuk is a bundle of energy, a Michael J.Fox with spiked hair and attitude. He's assembled a great cast, starting with Liv Tyler lookalike Jessica Pare and including music legends Alex Lifeson (of Rush), Rollins, Moby (!), Iggy Pop, (!!) and Alice Cooper.(!!!)He's even got Malcolm McDowell as vampire hunter Eddie Van Helsing (not Van Halen.) And, thanks to McDowell, he's got footage from Lindsay Anderson's 1973 "O Lucky Man!" with a young McDowell worked seamlessly into the plot! And what a plot! There are even some subtle hints that the whole story could be a nightmare that Stefaniuk's lead singer is having. (Shades of "Laura" or "The Woman in the Window"!) The mixing of rock music and vampires is not new (see "The Vampire Lestat")but nobody has done as much with it as Stefaniuk does here. He does his own singing, too. And the music is, well, awesome.
This movie was well received at SXSW, and well it should be.
You heard it here first, baby. "Suck" doesn't!