Heavy Mental (2008)

This independent flick tells the story of Ace, the lead singer of a garage band.  Ace dreams of hitting it big and becoming a rock god, like his hero Eddie Lee Stryker.  When his 2 Dads buy him a guitar that used to belong to Stryker things get a bit strange.  Stryker was framed for murdering his band and then killed by the evil Mrs. Delicious, the biggest crime boss in Detroit.  The same crime boss that is pressuring Ace’s Dads for protection money and planning to blow up the battle of the bands on Saturday.  She hates metal and head bangers!  With Stryker’s help Ace is able to turn himself into a heavy metal hero and do battle with Mrs. Delicious and her gang of thugs. 

I had a blast with this movie.  From the very start where we are treated to a badly made music video for a local heavy metal band I was into the movie.  I remember watching this sort of thing on our local T.V. channels back in the day.  Then the movie gets started and right from the start you have a couple of wacky lesbians killing a kid by running over his head.  After such a great start I expected the movie to slow down a bit, which is typical of most of the low budget independent movies that I watch.  But we just keep getting more goofy characters and crazy situations.  I guess the best way I can say describe Heavy Mental is that the movie is played for laughs and I was laughing my ass off!  I mean for crying out loud one of the hit men is a giant chicken.  I watch movies to be entertained and Heavy Mental was the most fun I’ve had in a while. 

The effects are definitely something you would expect in a low budget movie.  It is pretty obvious where the plastic and latex appliances are being used.  But then this movie isn’t trying to be hyper realistic and the look of the effects just adds to the laughs.  That said I do appreciate the volume of gore that the movie tosses at the audience, whether it looks great or not.  You have a head popping under a tire right away, then some arms and a head tossed around the room.  But my favorite effects shot is the hot dog contest winner who is disemboweled with his own trophy.  I also enjoyed the simple effects used when Ace is possessed.  I mean it looks like a Kiss or Gwar want to be, but that is all part of the fun for me.  The other technical bits like lighting, camera work, and sound are all well done.  This isn’t always a given when dealing with low budget movies so I like to mention it when they are done successfully. 

This isn’t the first movie from director Mike Hartman and Silver Bullet Pictures that I’ve watched and it won’t be the last.  Every movie keeps getting better from these guys.  I recommend Heavy Mental to all those fans of independent movies out there and personally I can’t wait to see what Hartman has up for his next project.  To find out more about Heavy Mental and there other movies head on over to their website at http://www.silverbulletpictures.com/

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer