EXTREME JUKEBOX

In a city in northern Italy, a serial killer dubbed Naughty Rocky Boy by the media is reaping victims in the rock music environment, targeting musicians and fans. While the police investigate, the rising rocker Jesse Cake is instead obsessed with the myth of David Crystal, a musician who died thirty years ago and seems to have left an unpublished piece recorded on a cursed disc as a testament. Found in the old house where Crystal spent his last days, Jesse listens to the disc to draw inspiration from his music, thus unleashing the presumed curse that implies the awakening of a damned soul from the afterlife. Is Naughty Rocky Boy perhaps connected to David Crystal's cursed disc? Today it is rare to find horror films that manage to coexist with comedy without the latter taking over in an invasive way over blood and scares. To memory, one can attribute to this genre blend the successful "Young Devils" by Rodman Flender, the now legendary "Shaun of the Dead" by Edgar Wright, and the mediocre "Bloodbath" by Jay Chandrasekhar, and it is precisely to the structure of the latter that "Extreme Jukebox" resembles (probably unintentionally). The directorial debut of Alberto Bogo, a successful blend of horror-slasher and rock comedy. But beyond comparisons with recent productions, which are actually hard to identify given the sad degeneration that the mix of horror and comedy has turned into the mindless parodies of the "... Movie" series, "Extreme Jukebox" seems to draw more from the glorious tradition of 1980s horror cinema, evoked by the look of the characters, the film's aesthetics, the creativity in staging the murders, and the primacy of the body count. The expert viewer cannot help but think of the cult film "Trick or Treat," due to the centrality of the cursed disc, but Bogo's film then takes on its own specific identity, making it a completely original work, tending to mix with irony both the clichés of horror cinema (slasher in particular) and rock music, intended both as a mockery of the vices and virtues of those who make that music and those who listen to it. The result is both funny and entertaining; the film is rich with brilliant finds that go beyond mere citation, but also in the construction of elaborate murder scenes that feature imaginative musical instruments modified to kill, such as the harpoon microphone and the axe guitar. The wildly anarchic spirit that clearly emerges from watching "Extreme Jukebox" extends to a narrative deconstruction of the story. Alberto Bogo and Andrea Lionetti (also co-producer) write the film in a deliberately shambolic manner, dividing it into chapters and creating a melting pot of disordered situations that suffer from an overcrowding of characters who enter and exit the scene abruptly and disorderly. The events involving Naughty Rocky Boy and the cursed disc are constantly linked together and at the same time completely different, leading to an ironic tripartition of the serial killer and a real and supernatural nature of the same. As proof that the absurd development of the plot is absolutely intentional, there are some intelligent finds, such as the "funeral pool-party" scene, or some well-written and genuinely funny dialogues like those that fill the scenes taken from NTV news (with ironic subliminal crawls) or the delirious monologue of David Crystal on the concept of a cursed disc during Chloe's dreamlike/psychedelic journey. There are cameos by illustrious Italian music personalities, such as Pino Scotto, who plays the rock priest Don Zappa, and Terence Holler as a TV commentator. Meanwhile, the musical references really abound and even involve the look of the killer, who in his tongue-smirking grimace cannot but recall Gene Simmons of Kiss. A small criticism must be made to the sex & gore combo, indispensable for 1980s slasher films and here only partially reproduced. There are some bloody scenes, but certainly one could have easily exceeded, given the over-the-top imprint of the entire film, while the lack of sexy scenes, a topical element of these films, mentioned in the introduction but then completely abandoned, is unforgivable. "Extreme Jukebox" is still an independent film made with very little and inevitably drags some of the limitations that these tiny productions have, starting with the acting. The protagonist Alessio Cherubini and Maurizio Lastrico (who plays David Crystal) get by quite well, a little less so all the others. It is worth noting the presence in the cast of Guglielmo Favilla and Alex Lucchesi, sympathetic faces now known in the Italian indie genre scene. It must be said, however, that the ridiculous budget available was definitely well utilized, and then the soundtrack is a pleasure for the ears of every rocker viewer.