Lords
of Chaos
2018
Director- Jonas Åkerlund
Cast- Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Sky Ferreira, Jack Kilmer,
Anthony De La Torre, Valter Skarsgård, Sam
Coleman, Jonathan Barnwell, Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht, Lucian Charles Collier
Based on
real life events, Lords of Chaos centers around some shocking events during the
birth of Norwegian Black Metal music, specifically involving the band Mayhem. The
film follows Øystein Aarseth, better known by his stage name Euronymous, a
guitarist who was one of the pioneers of Black Metal. He espouses a nihilistic
form of Satanism endorsing a grim and extreme view of humanity. He finally
meets a singer whose obsession (devotion?) with darkness rivals his own; Per Ohlin,
better known by his stage name, Dead.
Dead’s obsession
with death goes far beyond theatrics. He seems to think of himself as already
dead. He is obviously depressed and engages in self harm on stage. All of this
finally reaches its logical conclusion when he decides to kill himself. He cuts
his wrists, his throat and then blows his head off with a shotgun. Euronymous
finds his friend’s corpse and decides to take pictures of it. The images of his
dead friend, head half blown off, eventually become the cover of a Mayhem
album, adding to the band’s shocking reputation.
Euronymous’ fame and influence grows, and he opens a
record store (called Helvete, or Hell) and starts his own record label. He
gathers a small group that he calls the Black Circle, a group devoted to
Euronymous’ special brand of nihilism. He meets a fan, Kristian Vikernes, that
Euronymous initially spurns as a poseur. Kristian is eventually welcomed into
the circle, under the stage name Varg, because Euronymous sees that Varg has
some real musical talent.
The film
presents Euronymous as a showman and it’s never clear how much he buys into the
evil image he is selling. Whether he bought into or not, Varg certainly did,
and begins a series of arsons, burning down churches. A kind of antisocial competition begins
within the Black Circle, as members try to prove they are really devoted to
evil. Things begin to get out of control when they progress from arson to
murder. A member of the circle ,Bård Eithun,
(drummer for the band Emperor, known as Faust), murders a man by stabbing him
to death. Euronymous is at first surprised
by this but then sees it as a sign of his own influence.
Egos
clash and Varg and Euronymous seem to be on a deadly collision course.
Euronymous is ultimately concerned with making music and Varg is committed to
his goal of social upheaval. Their already tense relationship strains until, in
a final confrontation, Varg stabs Euronymous to death, bringing the film to a
close.
I’m not
a music historian and my love of metal never got any heavier than Megadeth so I
won’t claim any special insights about the characters portrayed in the film.
Whether the portrayals are accurate or not is matter of opinion, but the basic
events in the film all really happened. Dead did kill himself, the picture of
his suicide did become an album cover, Faust really murdered a stranger and
Varg really murdered Euronymous.
As far
as the portrayals, the characters are presented as celebrities who begin to
believe their own press. They are also mostly presented as anti-social personalities,
which makes it a little difficult to identify with any particular character. Rory
Culkin, as Euronymous, does a good job of presenting a morally ambivalent
character as likable. I think this character could have taken up a whole movie
in and of itself trying to discern how much of the image was real and how much
was show.
The only
real complaint I have is that even though the film is supposed to center around
the progenitors of a music genre, you’ll leave this movie knowing little more
about Black Metal than you did going into it. Unlike other music centered
biopics like The Doors or Walk the Line, Lords of Chaos has very little music.
This is surprising given the director’s background was in music videos.
The film’s
depictions of violence are disturbing, not because of their graphicness but
rather their matter of factness. They are brutal and without theatrics, especially
Dead’s suicide.
The most
disturbing thing however, is not the film’s depiction of violence, but the real
life fates of those involved. Varg, a professed arsonist and neo-Nazi who was
convicted of 1st degree murder only did 15 years in prison. Faust,
who murdered a stranger by stabbing him 37 times, only did 9 years in prison.
If the movie has a lesson, I guess it’s that if you’re going to murder someone,
it’s better to do it in Norway.
