Lords of Chaos (film)

In 1987, a young guitarist called Euronymous forms a black metal band called Mayhem, the first of the genre in their country of Norway, with Necrobutcher on bass, and Manheim on drums. Manheim leaves and is soon replaced by new drummer Hellhammer and they recruit a new vocalist from Sweden called Dead, who exhibits self-destructive behavior, during their live shows cutting himself and bleeding on the audience and throwing pig heads at the "posers". At a show filmed by their friend Metalion, the band meets a fan named Kristian, whom Euronymous initially looks down on.

While home alone, Dead uses his personal knife to cut his arms and throat, and then uses Euronymous' shotgun to shoot himself in the forehead, leaving behind a suicide note. Euronymous returns home and finds the body but instead of calling the police, he takes photos of the body and moves the knife and shotgun around. After Dead's body is taken to the morgue, Euronymous gives necklaces to the other band members which he claims are pieces of Dead's skull; this disgusts Necrobutcher, prompting him to leave the band.

Soon after, Euronymous starts his own black metal record label and opens a record shop called Helvete ("Hell"), which becomes a social hub for black-metallers like Metalion, Fenriz of Darkthrone, Faust of Emperor, and Kristian (who is now calling himself Varg Vikernes) of Burzum. They become known as the "Black Circle". After being mocked by Euronymous, Varg who is very anti-Christian burns down a local church. When challenged by Varg concerning his status as the leader of the Black Circle, Euronymous burns down a church with Faust and Varg accompanying.

Euronymous recruits Varg as bassist, a guitarist called Blackthorn and a Hungarian vocalist, Attila Csihar, to record Mayhem's first album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. A power dispute between Varg and Euronymous arises.

After a wave of church burnings begins, Faust brutally kills a gay man, leading police to link black-metallers to the crimes. Helvete is shut down and Varg is arrested as prime suspect after an interview with a Bergen newspaper in which he boasts of the crimes. He is soon released for lack of evidence. Varg tells Euronymous that he is leaving Mayhem and is starting his own record label. Euronymous reveals that the "skull piece" necklaces were fakes, and that he never intended anyone to follow through on his angry rhetoric, which infuriates Varg.

While packing away things in the shop, Euronymous angrily rants to a peer about wanting to kill Varg, but later calms down and sends him a contract to release their music rights to him. Varg, having heard that Euronymous was making death threats against him, travels to Oslo in the early morning of August 10 to confront him. Telling Euronymous he wants to sign the contract, he enters his apartment and, after a brief conversation, stabs him. Euronymous pleads for his life, but Varg follows him through the apartment to the stairwell outside and stabs him to death. The next day, the news of Euronymous' murder spreads throughout Norway and Varg is soon arrested. He is sent to prison for a maximum of 21 years, guilty of both the murder of Euronymous and the burning of several churches. In a voice-over, Euronymous tells the audience not to feel sorry for him, that he enjoyed his life and invented a new sub-genre of metal.

Lords of Chaos is based on the 1998 book of the same name. Originally, Japanese director Sion Sono was set to direct a film based on the book, with Jackson Rathbone starring as Varg Vikernes.[7][8] It would have been Sono's first English-language film. The screenplay was written by Hans Fjellestad (who was earlier reported to be the film's director as well[9]), Ryan Page, Adam Parfrey (the book's publisher), and Sono.[10][11][12] In July 2009, Sono stated that filming (in Norway) would begin in August or September and end in December.[7][13] The film was set to be released in 2010.[10] It was later announced that Rathbone would no longer be playing Vikernes due to scheduling conflicts.[14]

In May 2015, it was announced that former Bathory drummer and film director Jonas Åkerlund would direct the film.[15][16] The film was set to shoot in the fall of 2015 in Norway, but for unknown reasons, filming did not begin until 2016.[17] The film was shot in Oslo, Norway, with live performance scenes shot in Budapest, Hungary. The live sequences shoot also included filming for the Metallica music video "ManUNkind", starring the cast of the film.[18]

Vikernes, who had already expressed criticisms against the book, stated in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel in 2016 that when approached by the filmmakers, he, along with Mayhem and Darkthrone, denied the rights for their music to be used in the film.[19] In a 2018 interview, Åkerlund said that they had in fact secured the rights to Mayhem's music.[20]

Åkerlund described the film as "about truth and lies". In an interview for Dazed Digital, it was reported that Åkerlund consulted "original band merch ... was granted access to key police reports as well as detailed photos of Euronymous’s record store Helvete, and the house the band camped out in. ... Åkerlund even used real locations for exterior shots of, among others, Euronymous’s flat and a rebuilt church that Vikernes burnt down in Holmenkollen."[21]

Culkin said that he prepared for his role by consulting several associates of Euronymous: "They almost always compared him to a mythological creature: one person said he was kind of like a gnome and another said he was like an evil elf. Because he was small dude but confident in himself and he has this clan around him, people really embellished and lionised him."[21]

In one scene from the film, Dead anachronistically declares, "We are Lords of Chaos."[22] The name actually originates from the unrelated American criminal group whose name was adopted for the book Lords of Chaos. The book's scope was not focused solely on the Norwegian black metal scene.[22]

Jack Kilmer's performance as the band's frontman Dead has received praise for being the most accurate portrayal in the film, with the exception of one scene where he has a cat hanging from his room. The real Dead never killed any cats but did chase them off for fun. Some criticisms were made that the Live in Jessheim scene jumps to Dead's suicide, given a whole year had passed in between both events and Dead and Euronymous' subsequent falling out and animosity was never portrayed apart from one scene in which Euronymous mockingly waves a shotgun in front of Dead and suggests he shoots himself. The time Varg claims Dead stabbed Euronymous was never portrayed in the film.

The first screening on Lords of Chaos was held during 2018 Sundance Film Festival on 23 January 2018 in Park City, Utah.[23] In October 2018, a first-quarter 2019 release window for the US was announced, with Arrow Films securing the rights for distribution in the UK.[24] It was released in the US on 8 February 2019 by Gunpowder & Sky. In the UK, it was released on 29 March 2019.[25]

• Until the Light Takes Us, 2008 documentary film about the Norwegian black metal scene
• Murder of Euronymous

• Official website
• Lords of Chaos at IMDb
• Lords of Chaos at Metacritic
• Lords of Chaos at Rotten Tomatoes