LORDS OF CHAOS / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JONAS AKERLUND / SCREENPLAY: DENNIS MAGNUSSON, JONAS AKERLUND / STARRING: RORY CULKIN, EMORY COHEN, JACK KILMER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Based on a true story, black metal, dark actions and hubris reign in Lords of Chaos.
In Oslo, 1987, teenager Euronymous (Rory Kulkin) and his band Mayhem develop Norwegian black metal. But, as their popularity grows, they stray into bigger and darker things as their persona, image and worldview become much more than just the music. When Kristian ‘Varg’ Vikernes (Emory Cohen) is drawn into the black metal scene, his music suddenly attracts plenty of attention and Euronymous and Varg find their relationship straying into violent territory.
Lords of Chaos is, at its heart (its very black heart), a story of outsiders and how they are found in all social groups. Euronymous and his band make it their cause to create the darkest music – music that scares people, and its own point is to be repulsive to “normal” people. A social group forms around the mutual love of true Norwegian black metal, a cast of outsiders that have suddenly found somewhere they fit in. Euronymous’ ideas and actions start to blur the line between promotion and notoriety, ideology becomes blurred, and what starts as all talk and persona evolves into violence, arson and murder. The characters don’t think about the consequences of their actions, they do it as part of the scene and the movement.
With all the violence and destruction in the film, it’s easy to forget just how young the characters actually are, and though there’s humour throughout, it never flinches away from the brutal violence, depicted in a realistic and unsensationalised way. It manages to humanise the characters, looking beyond the black clothing and aggressive behaviour to the people underneath – the teenagers underneath – full of worries and anxiety, still working out who they are and finding their place in the world. You don’t have to be a metal fan or interested in the metal scene to enjoy it, but Lords of Chaos does struggle to keeps its focus the whole way through. It feels like the main story only kicks in hallway through, the first half being dedicated to setting up the band and the scene.
This Arrow Blu-ray release contains a raft of extras. Half of them are interviews with writer and director Jonas Åkerlund, journalist and author Jason Arnopp (both of whom were actually there during the events of the film), and some of the actors. These are grouped with the usual outtakes, trailers and image galleries.
Lords of Chaos shows how ideology, arrogance and self-promotion can easily turn into violence. Strong performances lift a film that struggles a bit to find a proper through line and remain compelling for its almost two hour runtime.
