Metalhead (3 Stars)

This is a coming-of-age drama made in Iceland. It takes place from 1983 to 1992.

Hera Karlsdottir lives with her family in the north of Iceland. It's a small community inhabited by only a few farmers. There are only three children in Hera's school class. When she was 12 her older brother had a fatal accident while he was driving a tractor. This had a drastic effect on her. She burnt all her clothes and from then on only wore her brother's clothes. He was a heavy metal fan, and he had a large collection of the shirts of his favourite bands from the early 1980's. She grows to like her brother's music, if she didn't already, and she becomes a metalhead, much to the disgust of the God fearing farmers in the community. She learns how to play an electric guitar.

In 1992 she's left school and she works on the farm with her parents. They can't pay her anything, so she gets other jobs, such as slicing meat in a slaughterhouse, but she's too rebellious to hold a job down.

There are news reports about heavy metal Satanists burning down churches in Norway. About 50 churches were burnt down from 1992 to 1994. There were movements in Iceland calling for the banning of heavy metal.

Hera hates the church, because she blames Jesus for letting her brother die. The new village priest tries to talk to her. At first she rejects him, but then he shows her that he has an Iron Maiden tattoo on his arm. He was a big metal fan before he became a priest. They spend time together listening to music. She tries to seduce him, but he rejects her. This leads to her burning down the local church.

One thing confuses me. She's visited by a musician from Oslo. He says he has a small record label and he's impressed by a demo tape of her home recorded music. He says his name is Oystein. What? Is that supposed to be Oystein Aarseth, the guitarist who founded the Deathlike Silence label in Oslo in 1991? It would be the right time, because he wasn't murdered until August 1993, as shown in "Lords of Chaos". The film doesn't openly state that it's him, but it's a blatant hint.

The film is enjoyable, especially the music, but it moves too slowly to excite me. There are too many cows and not enough burning churches.

The film can be watched on Amazon Prime, but it's only available on disc in Iceland and Germany.