If one were to quantify comedy heavy metal band Steel Panther as a horror film, the results surely wouldn’t be too far away from Deathgasm, a New Zealand splatter flick that’s precisely as messy as its title suggests.

Not since Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead or Peter Jackson’s Braindead have we seen this level of splatterpunk filmmaking – a cross between Night of the Demons (the original one, of course) and a Tenacious D skit. Jason Lei Howden’s feature debut is Troma infused in the very best way – a grotesque, wild and profane love letter to metal and horror movies. All that, and heart too: it depicts a friendship between a group of misfits, bonding over their passion for metal. While the relationship between Brody and Zakk (Cawthorne and Blake) is imperfect, it feels real, and you’ll genuinely feel for them both.

But what you’ll mostly feel is a sense of sheer joy at watching as the chaos unfolds onscreen, be it in the hilariously inventive animated sequences or a show-stopping battle in which the two boys attempt to kill a pair of demons using only a box of sex toys as weaponry. Like the music it so adores, the story barely stops for breath from start to finish, imbuing even its quieter, more tender sequences with a wonderful sense of humour that almost always works (best Rick-rolling joke ever). This writer laughed so hard that I spilled beer all over my lap; and then carried on laughing. Ferocious, inventive and oh so very gory, Deathgasm is the most fun you’ll have with a horror film all year.

Oh, and it goes without saying that the soundtrack is pretty great too. In the words of the mighty Steel Panther – death to all but metal! m/

DEATHGASM / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JASON LEI HOWDEN / STARRING: MILO CAWTHORNE, JAMES BLAKE, KIMBERLEY CROSSMAN / RELEASE DATE: TBC