Written and directed by Mitchell Tolliday, co-written by Neil Rickatson, the rapid rise and violent fall of rock band ‘Stack of Corpses’ whose attempt to jump start their career by stealing another singer’s song ends up with bloody and unexpected consequences. Told through 6 chapters of the band’s life. Starring: Fran McAteer, Luke de Belder, Imogen Wilde, Rhiann Connor, Alyx Nazir, Niccy Lin, Lauren Cornelius, Kerry Boyne and Simon Callow.
Jumping into Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock ‘n’ Roll the tone is so strongly old-school comedy, veering into madcap territory that it quickly creates a very silly vibe. That then creates a big obstacle to being able to build the actual tone that it’s looking for. It’s going for comedy-horror but the horror, while present in its violence, never breaks into the atmosphere. There’s no tangible balance between the two, the scales are entirely tipped into comedy’s favour. Once you’ve reached the end, you can see what it was going for, it’s most clear in the finale but it’s too late to bring everything together.
Part of the problem is, while the idea of chapters is a good one for this story, they have no real flow to them. They move in a distractingly juddering way, making the timeline all over the place. It never really gives you a good chance to get to know its characters, making them feel one-noted. The progression of the band also becomes slightly hard to follow with it constantly skipping ahead before its had time to settle. Especially when Mitchell Tolliday is employing a very chaotic atmosphere, it becomes at odds with itself and overly frantic.
With the exception of some slightly unconvincing location choices, the visual quality and direction hit decent notes. The special effects have a nicely B-movie quality which holds a nostalgic charm. It keeps things fairly intimate, it never strays from the characters, it’s up close and personal to lean into the mayhem. Although, that does mean it doesn’t use a great deal of variety in its shots.
The performances all feel very in tune with one another, they’re all going for that same vibrant, frenzied tone. Again, that unfortunately does mean that it doesn’t bring much variety to the table when they’re all so much on the same page. Nevertheless, the cast do bring individual qualities to their characters; Fran McAteer is brash and lad-like, Luke de Belder adds in a naivety and softness, Rhiann Connor is your classic bingeing rockstar and Imogen Wilde brings intelligence and some emotional baggage.
They’re a great bunch but there isn’t a lot of room for them to play around with these characters when they’re repeatedly hitting the same notes. Simon Callow was also a strong choice, but his scenes don’t have a lot to add and become another distraction when Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock ‘n’ Roll is already struggling to build a flow to its story.
Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock ‘n’ Roll clearly went in with a concept built upon fun and entertainment but the tone is so classically cheesy and overt, it holds itself back. If you went in knowing nothing, you potentially might not realise it was meant to be a comedy-horror until the final scenes because it’s missing that darkness. The comedy tone is overpowering, and Mitchell Tolliday and Neil Rickatson are ultimately trying to fit far more years and plot points into the mix than they had the time and budget for. It never really allows itself to sit in a moment, it’s forever skipping to the next scene, making itself overly chaotic and fairly messy.
FilmCarnage.com 