Heavy Trip (2019)

“Heavy Metal Comedy From Finland That Gets Funnier & Funnier”

The latest entry in a somewhat unlikely subgenre of cinema - one that includes THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984), DEATHGASM (2015) and on TV The Comic Strip’s BAD NEWS TOUR (1983), gets a digital release from Sparky Films.

Turo (Johannes Holopainen) is the lead singer in a heavy metal band in the tiny Finnish town where he lives. The band have been ‘rehearsing’ for twelve years but have never played a gig. When an accident at lead guitarist Lotvonen’s reindeer slaughtering plant gives him an idea for a riff, the boys finally have their first demo track.

A chance visit to the reindeer plant by a Norwegian heavy metal festival impresario means the band get the chance to pass on the tape. Soon they are being hailed as celebrities by the townsfolk, even though plans for them to play at the festival are still up in the air (not that anyone but Turo knows that).

They come up with a name (Impaled Rectum), take a band promo shot (I’ll leave you to find out how) and everything is looking up. Until, that is, they actually have to perform in front of an audience.

An utterly charming, endearing, and most important of all, frequently hilarious comedy that gets crazier and more outrageous as incident is allowed to pile on incident, HEAVY TRIP has been likened to Rob Reiner’s classic SPINAL TAP but it some ways it’s a funnier, tighter, and much more economical version of John Landis’ THE BLUES BROTHERS (which even gets referenced in the dialogue), most obviously in the way the climax builds and builds.

It looks as if HEAVY TRIP is only getting a digital release in the UK but I hope someone, somewhere puts out a disc with a gag reel as extras, and perhaps even a commentary track from directors Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren. I’d love to know if all those track titles quoted and bands referenced are real. As to if the creative talents behind this are metalheads it's almost impossible to believe they’re not and like SPINAL TAP, I certainly hope fans of metal take this with the knowing affection I’m sure its intended to convey. 

Charming, endearing, and very, very funny, HEAVY TRIP is highly likely to be one of the comedy highlights of the year.

HEAVY TRIP is out on digital download from Sparky Films from Monday 5th August 2019