Lords of Chaos is the second movie released this year by director Jonas Akerlund (after the dreadful Polar, released on Netflix). Unlike Polar, this is not a horrible movie, but it is about a group of horrible people, which immediately presents this movie with the same challenge that Adam McKay was presented with when making Vice: How do you make a movie with unlikable protagonists enjoyable?
Lords of Chaos and Vice take this same question and veer off in two totally different directions. While Vice told the story of Dick Cheney through the use of humor and biting satire, Lords of Chaos instead chooses to be just as grim as its subject matter. It has a very dark color palette, which fits perfectly for the tone of the film, and there’s always an underlying feel of distance and isolation as we follow each of these characters around. We always feel like we’re at arm’s length away from these people, even though we spend adequate amounts of time with them on screen. Although it’s questionable how close it is we want to get to these people.
The film is the true story of the black metal band Mayhem. Formed in the 1980s by a teenager who goes by the pseudonym Euronymous (Rory Culkin), Mayhem first appears in the Norwegian black metal scene, gaining notoriety for the self-destructive behavior of their lead singer Dead (Jack Kilmer), who performed grotesque acts on stage. Dead ultimately commits suicide, which prompts a new outlook for Mayhem and the black metal scene in general, which leads to the rise of the Black Circle, who commit to looking and behaving more evil to go along with their death-like imagery. While Euronymous is the one who initiated the Black Circle, he soon finds himself at odds with fellow musician and Black Circle member Varg (Emory Cohen), as the two attempt to one-up one another’s attempts to see who is the most evil in the black metal scene.
If the above plot synopsis doesn’t entice you, then it’s totally understandable, as it’s difficult to really invest time in a movie that’s simply about a bunch of people who are committed to going around and performing acts of evil, with no real force of good to bring any sort of balance to the movie. The film doesn’t really make any whole-hearted attempts to make any of these characters sympathetic or the type of people we want to be around.
Euronymous is the only character that we can come close to really investing any time in, mostly due to the fact that he narrated the film. But even then, any attempts to make this guy seem likable don’t feel all that authentic. It was speculated in real life that Euronymous mostly said what he said for to create an image, rather than that he truly felt like an evil person. And this movie repeatedly makes that fact pretty clear, to some frustrating results. His behavior jarringly shifts back and forth throughout the movie, going from a kind-of nice guy to a sort-of menacing individual.
While it’s understandable Euronymous may have been this way to an extent in real life, it’s not executed well here. While we do see a very brief scene or two of Euronymous truly struggling to make certain decisions or try to check his behavior, it would have given him a little more depth had we gotten a few more scenes where he’s truly going through some internal conflict as he lashes out against people and commits these evil acts that he doesn’t truly believe in only for the sake of an image.
And what doesn’t help is Rory Culkin’s half-hearted performance. Culkin has proven in his roles as a child that he’s a fairly competent actor. Yet he just doesn’t seem like he was truly giving it his all in this performance. He never fully commits to any sort of emotion, which is also why it takes so long to even think of warming up to him. At times he seems wooden, and other times, it’s as if he’s doing the bare minimum to convey a certain emotion. There are times where he tries to take control over a situation and he just does not sound convincing at all, and if one were to make an assessment about Euronymous based solely on Culkin’s portrayal, one would question how he managed to last so long in a leadership position.
While Euronymous is the closest thing we get to likable in this movie, just about every other character is the furthest thing from it. Every other major character that we focus on is a despicable person, who believe even more than Euronymous in the evil they commit. They’re seen participating in acts like regularly burning down churches like it’s going out of style to committing murder with no remorse. They say nor do nothing redeemable, and there are times where we may question ourselves as to why we’re even wasting our time with any of them.
And at the center of all these truly terrible people is Varg, who is nothing but cold, preachy, and power-hungry. He gives grandiose speeches on how to take the Black Circle’s evil to the next level and is often incredibly self-serving. What once again doesn’t help is Emory Cohen’s performance as the musician. While Cohen seems like he could be a fine actor - and even benefits from looking very much like the musician - his constant complaints that he takes up with Euronymous often come off as whiny and forced at times, and he quickly becomes grating.
The film is very gruesome, and it’s violent moments are certainly not for those who get squeamish easily. While the film is not consistently full of incredibly graphic imagery, when it does get violent, it takes an extreme focus on those moments. The scenes often feel drawn out, and can be quite uncomfortable to watch, which often goes hand in hand with the image that the actual Mayhem tried to convey.
And those who are already aware who Mayhem is and the main story behind this movie are really the ones who are going to appreciate this the most. It’ll honestly be difficult to get invested in this movie if one doesn’t already know who Mayhem is or is a fan of the metal scene. Those who already know how extreme this story gets are mainly going to be the only ones finding themselves tuning in to the very end, as there are so many unlikable characters and uncomfortable moments it’ll be easy to give up on this.
Lords of Chaos is very much a niche movie. From a filmmaker’s perspective, it’s shot very well, and does a great job capturing the incredibly dark feel of the black metal scene of the time period. It’s an intriguing story, but only those who really know most of the story going into it are going to be the only ones who are excited to see what happens next. It’s extremely graphic at times to the point of uncomfortable and follows a group of absolutely awful people who we really don’t get to know much about - and are honestly so horrible that it's questionable if we really want to know more about any of them. For those with any interest in how the grizzly true-crime story is played out on the big screen, this will make for a solid watch, but watching this once is all you need.
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