The Heavy Metal Horror Cult Classic With Wacko Effects, Stream Without Netflix Right Now
Big hair, stonewashed jeans, and hair metal aren’t the only things the 1980s are known for. This decade ushered in the era known as the “Satanic Panic,” a cultural phenomenon where some concerned parents, teachers, and religious leaders across the United States were convinced that the children were targeted by a vast network of an underground cult conspiracy, turning them to devil worship. The perfect mechanism to get Satan’s message to impressionable young minds is through music, a notion that the filmmakers behind the 1988 direct-to-video film Black Roses.
Heavy Metal
Black Roses is a film in which we suppose that the parents in Footloose were the good guys. The movie opens with a scene from a metal concert, the band performing on a stage in front of an arena full of screaming fans. The band, however, looks to be comprised of some sort of demonic creatures who continue to play hard and heavy tunes until the members of the audience undergo horrific transformations that turn them into monsters.
Mocks The Satanic Panic
The film changes location to a small town where religious leaders are rallying against an upcoming Black Roses concert in their town. The typical fear-mongering is screamed from the pulpits and board meetings, with irate old people reading the band’s lyrics out loud and foaming at the mouth about how this musical form of evil is about to invade the town.
Cooler heads prevail, and the band is allowed to play. But is the band Black Roses an ordinary metal band, or are they really a group of demons bent on destroying the Earth town by town? What plays out next is like something out of a Stephen King short story.
Cheesy 80s Horror
Black Roses takes heavy jabs at the paranoid authority figures who rallied against record labels and bands during the 1980s. The special effects are cheesy, the make-up low-rent, and the acting is somewhere south of terrible. In the actors’ defenses, the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, giving the impression that an angsty 8th grader penned it after Mommy took away his Ozzy Osbourne record.
Pokes Fun At Itself
If you like cheesy horror, you’re in for a treat. Black Roses is so bad that it seems to make fun of itself almost as much as it pokes fun at the pervasive paranoia of the era. Overlook the bad acting and predictability, and you’ve got a film with some good laughs that’s worth a look after nearly 40 years. After all, the Satanic Panic never really went away; it just managed to mutate into other cult conspiracy theories like Q-ANON.
Fake Band With Real Rock Stars
Looking beyond the film itself, Black Roses had a solid soundtrack that included King Cobra, Lizzie Borden, and Bang Tango. For the fictitious Black Roses band that performed on screen, an assemblage of metal players from the 80s was made to perfection. The Black Roses were Marcie Free (King Cobra), Mick Sweda (King Cobra, Bulletboys), Carmine Appice (King Cobra, Blue Murder), Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot), Italian guitar player Alex Masi, and keyboardist Elliot Solomon.
So Bad Its Good And Streaming For Free
REVIEW SCORE
Black Roses stars John Martin, Ken Swofford, and Julie Adams. As a film, Black Roses is 1.0/5.0 stars. But if you’re into 80s metal and cheesy horror, you’ll find it an entertaining watch.
You can stream Black Roses for free with Tubi, or with a subscription to Peacock, Troma Now, or AppleTV.
