Nobody was going for best actor in a dramatic role...
Rock’s ‘nice guy’ Dave Grohl unleashes his dark side in the Foo Fighters’ horror film Studio 666 – but he’s not expecting an Oscar any time soon. ABI JACKSON and MIKE BEDIGAN find out more
MOVIES starring bands are always a winning formula.
A Hard Day’s Night gave The Beatles a chance to let their personalities shine on the big screen at the height of their mid-1960s fame.
Spice World let Nineties cinemagoers join Baby, Scary, Sporty, Posh and Ginger on a caper-filled double-decker tour of London.
Now, Foo Fighters are inviting fans into the house in Encino, Los Angeles, where they recorded their 10th studio album. But be warned – the house is cursed and the band soon starts to pick up on a “creepy death vibe”.
A nasty case of writer’s block for frontman Dave Grohl turns into a twisted gore-fest when he becomes possessed by a demon.
Directed by BJ McDonnell – who has previously worked on the likes of Hatchet III, A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – it’s an old-school comedy-horror with grisly details galore.
“The house in the movie is the house where we recorded our last record,” says Dave, 53 – referencing Medicine At Midnight, which was recorded in 2019 and released in early 2021, pushed back due to the pandemic.
“We figured, well we just happen to have this house, why not finish the album, have a few weeks off, bring in some cameras and make a really fun low-budget slasher film?
“And then it just sort of snowballed into a full-length feature film.
“It wasn’t something we planned on doing, it just kind of evolved into an actual movie, which still surprises us.
“It’s hard to believe we’re sitting here talking about it.”
They could just have roped in some camera crew and made a documentary about recording the album. But no.
“We’ve made a lot of documentaries, whether it was the Sound City movie [2013], or the Foo Fighters documentary Back And Forth [2011], or the Sonic Highways series [2014], or the What Drives Us documentary series, we’ve done a bunch of those. And they’re great, they’re really rewarding, in a completely different way,” says Dave.
At the end of the day, the “outlandish” idea of Studio 666 was just way more appealing.
“And having made music videos, like we do, over the past 26 years, this was just a much more exaggerated version of that, an extended version of that.
“Usually when you make a rock video, it’s two days on set, and there’s this silly premise that it’s four minutes long.
“This was a month-and-a-half and a much more involved process. A little more ridiculous, I guess.”
They had a lot of fun with it – and that was the point.
“I mean nobody was going for best lead actor in a dramatic role,” Dave laughs.
Plus, as someone often described as one of the nicest men in rock and roll, the Ohio-born musician and father of three, who was also the drummer for Nirvana, got to indulge his inner villain. Did that feel good?
“Yes. It was great. I remember the first time I got to play the villain was in a Tenacious D video for a song called Tribute, and that was fun [Dave was made-up – in both senses – to be turned into a horned devil].
“I mean anything with Tenacious D is fun. The process of putting on the make-up and stuff for that video was maybe like a couple of hours, getting painted red, that was pretty fun [it’s worth a look on YouTube].
“Then I played the Devil in their movie, The Pick Of Destiny, that was about six hours in make-up, it was really, really involved and a tedious, long process that I would never wish upon anyone and would never do again.
“So, for this film it was relatively simple,” he adds. “I just had to put in fangs, put some contacts in and mess up my face a little bit. But it’s great...
“Here in the USA, Halloween is a huge holiday, and I f****** love Halloween, I’m always sad when it’s over. I love becoming someone or something else for a good four or five hours for a night.
“With this film, I got to do that for a good f****** month-and-a-half, and it was fun, really fun.”
Making a movie involves a lot of waiting around on set though.
Then again, being in a mega-successful rock band is always a bit like that, as Foos guitarist Nate Mendel observes.
“A lot of the movie was shot at night, so you start when you would normally go to sleep, and then it goes on ‘til about six in the morning,” says Nate, 53.
“And you’re up trying to scream and act terrified and just act, which is not easy when it’s like three in the morning. So those nights were pretty wild. Kind of fun, but they got a little long.
“It was like being on tour really: we’re in a room, waiting for something to happen – which happened a lot on tour – and then you get the five-minute warning, and then you’ve got to act for five minutes.
“And then wait around a little longer.”
To demonstrate his bandmate’s point, Dave’s face stretches into a timely yawn. “It’s making me tired just talking about it,” he quips, before adding in true rock star style: “You know, we’ve been jet-lagged for about 26 years. So sleep is kind of a waste of time as far as I’m concerned.”
Could more feature films be on the cards for Foo Fighters?
“I think the best part of being in this band, is being the band. And making albums, writing songs and playing live shows.
“It’s been a while since we’ve really been on tour. Last year we did a bunch of shows, and it was so good to get back to live music.
“So I’m really looking forward to that, just hitting the road and playing shows,” Dave shares.
“But to be honest, I don’t know when we would find the time to do this again.
“I mean at that point, it’s going to be like grumpy old men, with chainsaws.”