Favorite Films: FLOOD Managing Editor and Film Buff Mike LeSeur Shares His Favorite ‘Most Metal’ Movies Ever
Mike LeSeur, the managing editor of FLOOD website/magazine and one of the best editor for whom this editor has ever contributed, obviously knows his shit when it comes to music. Turns out he’s also a brainiac when it comes to movies. (He turned yours truly on to Coherence, if memory serves.)
This writer has had the good fortune of working for Mike since he took on his role at FLOOD some years ago, after more than a decade of contributing for two decades for FLOOD and its predecessor, FILTER. In short, the Bad Penny archives would be weaker than the knee-trembling members of the Trump cabinet were it not for those publications, Mike and chief Randy Bookasta.
When approached to contribute to The Bad Penny‘s self-evidently titled Favorite Films, he perhaps rather cheekily replied with “the 11 most metal movies I’ve ever seen (well, the good ones, anyway).” (Mike knows very well that I’m as much into indie-rock as metal, but that doesn’t diminish my appreciation of his stellar contribution.)
Without further do, here are Mike’s picks. To his credit, yours truly has only seen five of these … let’s make a pact to check them all, shall we?
Begotten (1989)
Feels like Maya Deren directing a Bell Witch video—the fact that there’s a character named God Killing Himself tells you all you need to know about this movie’s metal cred.
(see also: Son of the White Mare (1981), Mad God (2021))
The Company of Wolves (1984)
A far more metal version of John Landis’ lupine fairy tale, Company of Wolves notably features Stephen Rea transforming into a thrash guitarist and peeling off all his skin (we also get Terence Stamp as the devil for a very brief moment). Anticipates the brothers Quays and Guy Maddin just as much as it does Wolves in the Throne Room.
(see also: Hour of the Wolf (1968), The Time of the Wolf (2003))
[Ed. note: If you eat up The Company of Wolves and your stomach is satisfied thereafter, check out Snow White: A Tale of Terror – featuring a horrifyingly rad turn by arguably the best female actor of all time, Sigourney Weaver.]
The Ossuary (1970)
The original Bone Temple — and still by far the most funereal-doom.
(see also: Whispering Pages (1994), I think there’s an argument to be made that most of Svankmajer’s other shorts are a little bit metal, but maybe on the anatomical tip I’d go Meat Love (1989))
L’ange (1982)
A pretty ambient take on totalist metal that occasionally borders on spiritual death-industrial. If ever there was a movie that could get The Flenser into the film distribution game.
(see also: In Absentia (2000), really anything else the Quays have done)
Calvaire (2004)
The only true death-grind Christmas movie I’ve ever seen. I happened to catch its return to theaters a few years ago, and it felt appropriate that the venue was full of balding thirty-something dudes by themselves, which is generally the vibe of most metal shows I’ve been to.
(see also: Antichrist (2009); the New French Extremity more broadly, if you have the stomach for it)
A Spell to Ward of the Darkness (2014)
Perhaps the most literal pick on this list, this is basically just a combination nature film/music documentary following Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe of 90 Day Men (and, more relevantly, Om) through his outdoorsy lifestyle before he corpse-paints up and takes the stage with his band (which features Liturgy’s Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix). It’s like the type of deep-woods black metal that prominently features eerie field recordings.
(see also: I’d maybe recommend subscribing to NatGeo and Metal Injection’s YouTube channels)
Damnation (1988)
I mean, any Bela Tarr movie deserves a spot on this list, and it almost feels wrong to overlook his eight-disc drone-metal epic Satantango. But Damnation is a personal favorite (plus, there’s no violence against cats in this one), with the constant imagery of a totally empty yet still operational ski lift summarizing its post-human messaging.
(see also: Homo Sapiens (2016), This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (2019))
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
I’ve gone back-and-forth on this movie, first becoming obsessed with it as a kid and then distancing myself from it as I grew up and got into Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State or whatever. Maybe it’s telling of my interest in indie rock largely being supplanted by metal that I’ve become newly enamored with what is really a very gross movie that I can’t believe kicked off one of the most successful franchises of the aughts. Sort of analogous to Deafheaven: a strange blend of very pleasant and downright hellish imagery with a uniquely normy fanbase.
(see also: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003))
Mandy (2018)
This movie seems to mine an ’80s heavy-metal aesthetic, even though the film itself is far more contemplative (it helps that the scene is set with King Crimson). Ask me about my theory that the whole movie is an allegory for the Reagan administration threatening to censor extreme music.
(see also: Excalibur (1981), Valhalla Rising (2009))
Nosferatu (2024)
Gonna go symphonic black metal for this one, with some tastefully psychedelic passages.
(see also: the full Eggers filmography, I suppose)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
I mean, what’s more metal than the imagery of Nazis melting into a puddle of blood?
(see also: that video of Richard Spencer getting clocked in the side of the head)
If you like Mike’s work – and if you don’t, you’re a dolt – subscribe to his Substack.
Check out these past editions of Favorite Films:
• Martin Atkins (Ministry, Pigface) ‘Bedazzles’ Us by Picking a Comedy With Dudley Moore, Peter Cook
• Daedric’s Kristyn Hope Digs ‘Godzilla,’ ‘Companion,’ ‘Halloween,’ Rob Schneider ‘Comedy’
• Dez Dare Digs Nicolas Cage, Mia Goth, ‘Moon,’ ‘Midsommar,’ ‘Ex Machina’ (and Puppets)
• Dummy Give Thumbs-Up to ‘Psycho Goreman,’ ‘Megan,’ ‘Creep,’ ‘Nosferatu’
• Dying Remains’ Frontman Treasures ‘The Thing,’ ‘Suspiria,’ ‘City of the Living Dead,’ ‘Wounded Fawn’
• Fireball Ministry’s Emily Burton Digs ‘Jackie Brown’ ‘Aliens,’ ‘Big Trouble in Little Lebowski’ … and a Pick You’d Never Guess
• Heavy Heavy Low Low Vocalist Lists His Favorite Flicks as Halloween Creeps Closer
• Jacob the Horse Singer Digs Russ Meyer, Nolan, Tarsem Singh, William Friedkin
• Avant-Garde Trio Kilter Get Off on ‘Stalker,’ ‘Annihilation,’ ‘Street Trash’
• Tim and Eric Turn Vancouver Psych Squad Meltt Into a Puddle of Laughter
• Napalm Death’s Shane Embury Picks ‘2001,’ ‘Inception,’ ‘Forbidden Planet’
• The New Loud Pick Their Favorite David Lynch Films
• Nightrage Frontman Marios Iliopoulos Is Enthralled by King Kong, ‘Dark Knight,’ ‘Wild at Heart’
• Oathbound Swear ‘Alien,’ ‘Big Lebowski,’ ‘Interstellar,’ ‘Cabin in the Woods’ Are the Bomb
• Did You Catch These Easter Eggs in ‘One Battle After Another’?
• Point Break 2 Frontman Cops to His Guilty-Pleasure Movies: ‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘Terror,’ ‘Elvis,’ More
• Radio Karma Dig ‘Evil Dead,’ ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,’ Multiple Tim Burton Flicks, ‘Stopmotion’
• Soulburn Are Passionate About ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ ‘Shining,’ ‘Lighthouse’ and 2 Flicks Starring Denzel and Depp
• Trabants Frontman Picks ‘They Live,’ ‘Blade Runner,’ ‘Miracle Mile’ and a Host of Crazy Cult Movies You Haven’t Seen
• Musicians Who Like the Bad Penny Adore ‘The Thing,’ ‘The Big Lebowski,’ ‘No Country for Old Men’
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