CERT: TBC / PLATFORM: VOD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD (US) / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (US), TBC (UK)

In outright defiance of both its title and ‘punk band ends up with a man-eating demon for a roadie’ plot summary, writer/director Matthew John Lawrence’s Uncle Peckerhead abounds with joyous fun. The tale of a scrappy punk trio, Duh, in need of a van ahead of their first-ever tour seems as though it’s going to go the route of broad humor and sick splatstick gags to wind its way down the road when one first takes a look.

However, within minutes, bandmates Judy (Chet Siegel), Max (Jeff Riddle), and Mel (Ruby McCollister) are shown to be fun, fully-fleshed out characters, while Peckerhead (David Littleton) slowly charms both the band and the viewer. The quartet in the beat-up van, playing shows in crappy venues, wearing their own T-shirts because nothing else is clean: these are all things which ring true to anyone who’s ever discovered a new favorite band in someone’s basement.

There’s a ton of heart in Uncle Peckerhead, thanks to the fact that the music – partly by Riddle and a couple other compatriots – sounds like a real band. It’s catchy, kind of like a mix between the bouncy underground pop of Lemuria, mixed with Green Day’s stadium punk rock. This is music folks could legit fall in love with.

Oh, and there is also a swimming pool’s worth of carnage, spaced in and about the film to where it seems almost possible that this could all calm down, only to rise back up, even gorier than before. Thanks to victims who are, almost without exception, atrociously awful, it’s almost possible to root for the spine-ripping messiness of it all.