User reviews

It's not often I see Icelandic movies available let alone ones that peak my interest so I rushed to see Metalhead first opportunity I got.

Initially I wasn't sure what to make of it but it didn't take me long to get engrossed into this fascinating little tale.

Essentially a tale of grief and one girls way of handling a great pain in her life this is a story that many will empathise with (Though maybe not to some of the same extremes)

With strong performances from the outset, a gripping highly original unique storyline & great soundtrack this is a piece of world cinema well worth anyone's time.

A throwback in time. To some to a better time (and music) and to a smaller village that is center stage here. We do have a girl who's different and is not really liked for that reason. The story has a lot of good songs (again only if you like the music of course) and a character development that might be predictable but still works, especially because of the acting.

It stays true to its nature most of the time, not going for an easy way out (no pun intended), but might have jumped the shark a bit at the ending (depending on your view of what's happening). Still good strong characters and a nice story.

In Iceland, Karl (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson), his wife Droplaug (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), his son Baldur (Óskar Logi Ágústsson) and his daughter Hera (Thora Bjorg Helga) form a simple family of farmers that works in their farm. When Baldur has an accident and dies, the family is deeply affected and the twelve year-old Hera becomes a rebel and fan of hard rock. Along the years, they grieve the loss of Baldur and the confused Hera composes songs of death rock and gets into successive troubles in their friendly community.

"Málmhaus", a.k.a. "Metalhead", is an original Icelandic drama, with the story of a troubled teenager that becomes a fan of hard rock. The screenplay is absolutely unique and never uses clichés. Hera is a messy character troubled by the loss of her beloved brother. She gets into the most unusual situations that are resolved by her parents, neighbors and members of their communities that understand the meaning of the loss of Karl to the family, especially to the young girl. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Mudando o Destino" ("Changing the Destiny")

There's something about northern hemisphere foreign-language movies that I love. Anything from Denmark or Sweden, and this is from Iceland, I think?

I do have my doubts about this film though. The acting isn't always great and I had a problem with the believability of the main character as a hard rocker, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of Metalhead much.

It doesn't matter if a movie has little content as long as you enjoy what it gives. Perhaps a bleak statement of art, or just someone working through their grief through mismatched relationships and the love of music, whatever the genre might be: it could be country or gospel, it doesn't really matter. Ultimately things work out well if you stick to your principles and follow your dreams, listening to your heart, instead of taking easy comfort, which is what I got from this movie.

Málmhaus could have been better and a bit more sordid and harrowing, but the ending credits with Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth nailed it for me.

There is not much Black metal in the movie, if you were expecting this. :-) HOWEVER, the film is more than worth watching. More or less benign in nature, it deal with humanity of people that are mostly alone. Just they themselves, their work and their pain.

The movie is set about the time Mayhem started forming Black Metal scene; the main protagonist in a way "invented" her version of black metal as a way to cope with death of her brother. Interestingly, the black metal track from the movie (unfortunately just one song) actually sounds really good! It actually does sound like it was made in that time, making the movie only more believable.

While Burzum is not specifically mentioned in the movie (sadly), it was very important for the plot itself.

Slow "studio" version of the song is also really good. (It is called Svarthamar, and there are two versions- studio and demo on YouTube - artist is Petur Bien - the rest of the album is so-so, instrumental ambient music). I don't remember when was the last time I got shivers down my spine listening to something. The track is really good, especially if you understand the words / read the translation. It goes phenomenally with the movie itself.

I liked Málmhaus as a drama a lot, only the resolution, the ending was a little too much suger-candy for me. I know, I know, sometimes a positive message is not a bad one, but after the really well made story and well performing cast, I would have liked a more twisted or more "serious" ending, or maybe an idea that was not that obvious. Anyway, still good.

Metalhead (Málmhaus)is hard rocking. Superbly artistic and powerful. A strange but potent blend of Icelandic nature, divine acting and deep message. Melodramatic joy where death and hope are woven into a web under heavy tones of metal. The stage is a farm in Iceland where a teenage girl transforms into a heavy metal performer and songwriter, exercising in the cowshed with the cows as her audience but maybe not the biggest fans. Love and death is not far away and gives the film a classic undertone where basic themes of human nature are explored. The strong theme in the movie is the endless question about faith and religion when you are faced with the sudden death of your family or friends, the question where almighty god is when young people die. The film has many references to classic literature and the history of the movie. A film that you want to see again and again. I would not be surprised that this will develop into a classic cult movie. The director and actors deliver a fantastic tale.

I went into this movie completely blind. Had seen advertisements for it for quite some time and have always wanted to see it. I had heard good things about it as well. For the first twenty minutes or so I felt like it was something I was not going to be into at all and for the most part I was right about that. There really isn't a lot of metal things or metal scenes in this film, although it seems to be the main theme of it. There are quite a few nods to some bands and towards the end the metal theme starts to intensify, but (in my opinion) it was not metal enough for the title of the movie to be called Metalhead. I enjoyed some parts of this movie, but for the most part found it to be very boring and lacking in substance. Its okay, kind of good sometimes, but certainly not great.

I saw bunch of "metal" movies. Usually they are documentary about specific bands or metal culture overall, B-production horrors, comedies or horror-comedies, but this is the very first time I ran into drama. This Icelandic movie brings painful story about girl whose metal-head brother died when she was twelve. Trying to deal with her pain she turns to his music, loses faith in God and finally, under influence of burning churches in Norway in early 90's, she turns to black metal. Story about loss, thoughtlessness, unconformity and rebellion, growing up and finding one true self. Slow, heavy and realistic movie that stands out from the mass of template teenage drama to which we are accustomed. It's not masterpiece, but it is worth your time and I warmly recommend it.

8/10

It may seem that this film is about music or about a musical style, but it really speaks about what is that people thinks about us and what they think we should be or they want us to be, about what we want to be and about who we really are. Talk about the most important thing in life, which is one's own identity and our happiness. Very powerful message. It is an excellent film.

That (the header) is all you need to know about the move and you will love it.

Anyway, who is not interested in (old) Icelandic farm life or TNBM or neither it is just a movie about how people treat a loss of life there.

And a fact: even nowadays, because so few pople live on the countriside, the weather is hars and the help is far, many dies.

I must say as a movie lover, this is a very good one! Picture , Color's, scenes .. For sure the pic makes you wonder for a while where it will lead to. I guess they wanted to bring metal heads to the film but her face without make up would make the same impact. A great way to show how it affects a whole family of a dead one. It also get back to the eighties greatest music n reminds me my youth in those great years, it csan explain to those who aren't connected to Metal why people gets into the extreme.

Just an excellent movie!

Films about family dramas are already common in the movie theater, but the choice of the Icelandic writer-director Ragnar Bragason (known for Bjarnfreðarson - 2009) to put the heavy metal in the foreground was an innovation, so Málmhaus (original title) or Metalhead (English title) stands out compared to other similar narratives. The story shows how the loss of a child in a tragic accident can affect the life of a family and also of a whole small community in rural Iceland. The protagonist of the plot is Hera, played by Þorbjörg Helga Þorgilsdóttir (known for Djúpið - The Deep - 2012), who witnessed the death of her older brother by a tractor when she was only 12 year old, in 1983. Traumatized, disillusioned with life and with her faith completely shaken, she decides to seek comfort in the heavy metal musical style that her brother loved so much.

After this initial introduction, Bragason transports us to the early 90s, addressing the main character already in adulthood. With gloomy and melancholy appearance, always wearing a leather jacket and black clothes, Hera is now quite adept of the black metal way of life. She isolated herself from the outside world and is disconnected from the small community in which she lives. Her only moments of balance seem to be next to her guitar, with which she risks to compose her own musics, or when she listens to her cassette tapes or reads magazines in her room.

The presence of Hera is disruptive to her parents. Unable to break free emotionally and psychologically from the memories of the tragedy, she lives committing petty crimes in self-destructive acts and causing confusion in the neighborhood. Her dressing style and her personality are also a painful form of her parents remember their dead child. This is reflected in the depression of her mother, Droplaug, played by Halldora Geirharðsdóttir (known for Englar alheimsins - Angels of the Universe - 2000 and Hross í oss - Of Horses and Men - 2013), and in the hidden suffering of her father, Karl, interpreted by Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson (he acted in Englar alheimsins - Angels of the Universe - 2000, Myrin - Jar City - 2006, Hross í oss - Of Horses and Men - 2013 and Everest - 2015). Thus, each one experiences the grief and the pain in their own way, but it is clear that that accident compromised the family's harmony.

With a peculiar intimate view of heavy metal and black metal movements, Bragason does in Metalhead a production with quite personal characteristics, printing throughout the script references carefully cited and associated with the soundtrack. It is through music that the director expresses and exposes the psychological and emotional state of the protagonist, from her feelings to her internal conflicts. Fans of the genre, besides the recognition of the songs, will delight in with Victim of Changes (Judas Priest), Heartless World (Teaze), Run For Your Life (Riot), Strange Wings (Savatage), Me Against the World (Lizzy Borden), Am I Evil? (Diamond Head), Symphony of Destruction (Megadeth), Í Helli Loka (Sólstafir) and Svarthamar (Pétur Ben & Þorbjörg Helga Þorgilsdóttir - Málmhaus).

The symbolism is present throughout the film. The clothes, the music, the melancholy or obscurity, the corpse paint (face paint in black and white), death, religion, in scenarios such as the church or the cemetery, in the bitter cold of winter, and even in Norwegian characters, a reference to Øystein Aarseth (Euronymous) and Per Yngve Ohlin (Dead), founding members of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem, land that created the subculture of the Norwegian black metal. Some documentaries address and depict this time, as Den Svarte Alvor - The Black Seriousness (1994), Satan Rir Media - Satan Rides the Media (1998), Once Upon a Time in Norway (2007) and Until the Light Takes Us (2008).

Clinging to period details is another strong point of the film, giving it a certain nostalgia of the 80s and 90s. We have the record player and vinyl records, cassette tapes and walkman, household appliances, such as microwaves, cathode ray tube TV and VHS video tapes and cars, all faithfully depicting the period in question. The beautiful shots of Iceland and the moments of black humor soften the delicate issue addressed in the narrative, contrasting with the inner desolation of the protagonist. The performance of Þorbjörg Helga Þorgilsdóttir is one of the highlights of the movie, giving veracity to the story of the main character.

Metalhead is a film that is based on a universal theme, music, employing it to show how people deal with pain, loss and suffering. The story shows the search for an identity and for oneself, an attempt to find meaning for life that goes beyond music.

Originally posted in: https://vikingbyheart.blogspot.com.br

There are objectively good movies, and then there are movies that punches you in the feels. For me, this was a fair bit of the first, and a whole lot of the last.