I'm not sure if Jonas Akerlund (ex Bathory drummer) set out to make a parody of Black Metal, but that's sure as hell what he achieved. I won't deny the acting is pretty decent, though why they couldn't get young Norwegian and Swedish actors in the roles escapes me. But the tone of the film and the drama it eschews are unforgivably bad. To me it strikes a tone somewhere between bemusement and outright contempt of its subject matter and it's characters. It's a bewildering mish mash of fairly graphic violence and rather poor attempts at comedy, that may work in a Rammstein video clip but falls miserably short here. And as Black Metal fans know the novel it was based on was full of inaccuracies and outright lies, and there seems to have been no move to correct those here. Poor effort all around really.

Get something straight up front - this is a movie, not a documentary. It will have errors. Get over it, move on. As a whole it does well to bring to life the schizo genius/idiocy of the roots of black metal. It is ~90% accurate which makes it leaps ahead of most docu-dramas. To the unwashed, this may seem like a parody of sorts. But the reality is that the main players were a fringe crazy that was beyond parody. Yes, they were all probably like that and the film understates it if anything. Black metal is a thing. Yes there is a point about the desecration of Asatru shrines. No it does not justify anything. If the film does have a flaw it is in emphasising satanism and odinism - no, their thing predates that. It is otherwise a fine retelling, Don't listen to the _Mayhem_ cultists. This is a good movie.

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source: Lords of Chaos

I'll start by saying I am barely a metal fan but this is awesome and I absolutely love things about mayhem/darkness! I love Emory Cohen and Rory Culkin in just about everything so I think they're perfect for this sinister story. This has so many levels of disturbing and effed up parts so that's important to know! No one and I mean it under 18 should ever should see this unless they can handle it. I absolutely love the way the main characters celebrate I won't spoil but definitely one of the most evil things you could ever do on earth, like entirely satanic! I would've given it a 10 if it wasn't for the overdoing it last 15 minutes, rubbed me the wrong way, otherwise spectacular film!

Is it accurate? No. Is it entertaining?Absolutely. Well acted and made? Very much so. There are obviously black metal purists that will hate this film due to the factual errors, but as someone interested in the whole black metal thing rather than being a fan, I found it fascinating. It doesn't shy away from the violence, and it makes you think about the mental health of the participants. Could have done with a little more emphasis on the music, but that's my only gripe. Recommended for anyone with the slightest interest in metal.

Some really disturbing scenes in this piece, based loosely on the tragedy. Not for the faint hearted, some good acting and very lifelike gore. Not a bad film by any means!

The 2 biggest problems I have with this film are the cast and the acting. Why would people in Norway speak English to each other? Wouldn't it make more sense if you hire actors speaking Norwegian if the movie takes place in Norway? Almost everyone in this film speaks English in an American accent. It does not feel like this film takes place in Norway at all. The acting is HORRIBLE! After Euronymous finds Dead's corpse and tells his band, one of the band members starts arguing with Euronymous after Euronymous has made necklaces from pieces of Dead's skull. The acting is so dull. I was not buying anything they were saying to each other. Most importantly, the actor who plays as Varg is incredibly laughable. He looks NOTHING like Varg and is too fat to play as Varg. His acting is horrendous. I couldn't take anything he was saying seriously. He speaks with little emotion and you feel as if you're watching a play rather than a film. Everytime Emory Cohen laughs in the film, he sounds so awkward and cringy. Lastly, this is a small issue, but after Euronymous has sex with his gf, he starts to get a bunch of weird visions about Dead in the woods as if you're watching The Ring. What was the point of that? I was really looking forward to this film since I enjoy some black metal bands, especially Burzum. I read a lot of negative reviews and I even watched the real Varg Vikernes' youtube videos criticizing this film before I watched this film. I tried to forget about the negative feedback and watched the film because I wanted to judge the film without any bias, but this is just stupid.

What I mean by my title is that I am not too familiar with the real story, and I have seen a lot of reviews on here bashing the movie for not being true to reality. I understand where they are coming from but as someone who knows only surface level stuff about Mayhem, I will review this movie just from a movie perspective, no bias over real events. So, just by looking a this movie as a film, I enjoyed it quite a bit! I thought that the story was intriguing and sad, and I found myself very engaged with what I was watching. There were three scenes in particular that really stood out and shocked me. I thought they were relatively realistic and very emotional, but what really stood out to me was the performance by Rory Culkin. I think he was absolutely fantastic in this role and I can't wait to see what else he is going to be in in the future. Overall, it is far from a perfect movie but for what it is it is sad, entertaining, brutal and emotional with a standout performance by Rory.

Wanted to like this movie but I really did not at all. First of all, the inconsistent tone is a bummer. For the first 20 minutes, it feels like a black metal Detroit Rock City (I love that movie) and it's a lot of fun. Then, the majority of the movie shifts to what attempts to be a lot more serious, but really only exists as an extremely redundant and empty display of only the most surface level elements of black metal origins, while completely lacking any sort of depth, character development, or creativity. The lack of nuance was actually mind-numbing... I don't know how you could write a script this vapid and feel okay with it. I would call the writing abominable. There is a complete lack of persona due to this, and most of the characters are hardly given enough to form personalities with, aside from Varg. The performances are also primarily wooden and empty as a damn trash can after the garbage man came. Culkin is a lot of fun to look at when he's done up that way, but his performance fails to deliver any sort of emotional resonance when it feels like under the circumstances it should contain some. Varg's character is effectively despicable as the events that occur leave you with no other choice, but Emery Cohan's portrayal is not sellable. There had to have been a bit more evil he could have pulled from something deep within him. When any of these dudes try to deliver lines like "HAIL SATAN" or "Let's burn the churches. All of them" it all sounds like a complete joke, a mockery. They're supposed to mean it! There were only two solid performances in the film, and that was coming from Sky Ferreira who seems to just be acting as she would in reality, but it works well - it's charming and feels sincere, and from this Scandinavian journalist dude. There were two strong scenes towards the end of the movie but it wasn't enough to save the movie: a sequence where the aforementioned journalist is interviewing Varg about the church burning and murders, which works very well in a dryly comedic sense.... and of course, a rather violent finale... RATHER violent, which is the only scene that does manage to conjure up a bit of sadness and/or chills-through-brutality. These scenes were well done, but the rest of the movie did not sit well with me. Soundtrack is mostly unfitting and overly pretty considering the subject matter. It really should have just been strict black metal - there's NO reason for it not to be. Editing and pacing is typical Jonas Ackerlund tomfoolery - calm down and tell us a story please. This is the main reason why I disliked SPUN, regardless of the fact that it's about tweakers... it still doesn't make for an enjoyable viewing. This movie would have fared way better as either a strict comedy, or a full-on drama that stayed true to the morbid tone of everything black metal has always been about. The hybrid does not work in this case. I think it goes without saying that it would have benefitted from some Norse accents as well! UFFDA.