DVD Review: Heavy Trip

Heavy Trip is a comedy about a heavy metal band that believes it has a chance to jump-start its career by playing a metal festival. It is largely told from the perspective of Turo, the band’s lead singer, who provides a bit of narration at the beginning of the film, introducing the other band members and giving little tidbits about each (for example, guitarist Lotvonen works in his father’s reindeer slaughterhouse). After he introduces Jynkky, the drummer, as the “toughest guy in our band,” we see Jynkky collapse, leading the others to wonder if he has died again (which of course calls to mind the fate of drummers in This Is Spinal Tap).

Turo, Lotvonen, Pasi and Junkky have been friends since early childhood, and their dream has always been to have a band and to play for a big audience. Though they practice all the time, they have never played an actual gig, the agreement being that they wouldn’t gig until they had original material. “We’re not playing covers,” bassist Pasi says. But, hell, check out that fantastic metal version of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock And Roll.” And yeah, there is a nod to Tom Cruise’s dance scene from Risky Business, but Turo (unlike Cruise) has an audience of sorts, a seriously funny moment. Anyway, the band learns that writing an original song isn’t as easy as it sounds. Every riff Lotvonen comes up with is one that Pasi recognizes from an existing song. But then a mishap at the slaughter house where Lotvonen works creates the perfect metal sound. The shot of the four band members enjoying the sound while the legs of a reindeer bounce about in the machine is bloody hilarious.

When a metal festival promoter happens by to get some reindeer blood, the band manages to convince him to accept a demo tape of their song. And they hang all their hopes on this festival in Norway. The town gets behind them too, with people who once teased them now seeing in them something to be proud of. The question is, Do they really have the gig?

Heavy Trip is a lot of fun, with some hilarious moments, like when the band purchases a tour van. The description of the van’s history is perfect. But the film also has heart, and is about the dynamics of a small town as much as it is about these musicians attempting to make it. There is also, of course, a love interest for Turo, a beautiful florist named Miia who is being pursued by the small town’s other lead singer, Jouni. And there are references and nods to some other famous films about bands. The cops trying to catch the band as they make their way to the festival will remind you of The Blues Brothers. And to make sure you make that connection, one character says, “We’re on a mission from Satan,” a line that made me laugh out loud.

Special Features

The DVD contains several special features, including a reel of short deleted scenes and outtakes (one of which has another reference to The Blues Brothers). There is also Heavy Trip Goes To Texas, in which two of the characters from the film – Turo and Jouni – are in Texas in order to make Turo a star, getting interviewed by a Christian magazine, trying to buy another large animal so they can write another song, making a music video, and so on. This feature is approximately fourteen minutes. Also included is a short piece with musicians’ reactions to Impaled Rektum. An audio track of the song “Flooding Secretions” is included, and there is also a song from Jouni Tulkku’s band, with the lyrics on the screen so you can sing along. The film’s trailer is also included.

Heavy Trip was directed by Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio, and is presented in its original Finnish with optional English subtitles. The DVD was released on November 20, 2018 through Doppelganger Releasing, part of Music Box Films.