Heavier Trip
Written and Directed by Juuso Laatio & Jukka Vidgren
Starring Johannes Holopainen, Max Ovaska, Chike Ohanwe, Samuli Jaskio
Unrated
Runtime: 96 minutes
In theaters and on digital November 29

by Clayton Hayes, Staff Writer

Fans of 2018’s under-the-radar hit Heavy Trip will be delighted to hear that its sequel Heavier Trip, appearing in theaters and VOD services November 29, is even more enjoyable than the first. Returning are writing and directing team Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren along with all four members of symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal band Impaled Rektum: lead singer Turo (Johannes Holopainen), bassist Xytrax (Max Ovaska), drummer Oula (Chike Ohanwe), and guitarist Lotvonen (Samuli Jasiko). Also returning are the more anarchic sensibilities of Heavy Trip’s third act, meaning that the more subdued tone of the earlier film has been left in the rear view mirror.

The setup is almost absurdly traditional: Impaled Rektum need to find their way to Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival, a metalhead mecca, in order to save the Lotvonen family slaughterhouse. In fact, the story beats should be familiar to anyone who has seen a movie about a band: Turo gets seduced by the glamor of the rock star lifestyle, loses sight of what’s truly important, and has to reconcile with his friends and bandmates to save the family farm slaughterhouse. What allows Heavier Trip to transcend its somewhat cliched plot structure is the clear sense that everyone involved was focused on making the film as much fun as possible. The result is a deeply silly movie, and I mean that as a compliment.

What’s more, even though Turo is ostensibly the main character of the film, each member of the band has their own character arc. It gives some of the characters a dimensionality that was lacking in the first film, especially Xytrax and Oula. The joke of Max Ovaska’s Xytrax in Heavy Trip was that he was coded as being autistic. His general lack of awareness around social norms and encyclopedic knowledge of metal music remain, but Heavier Trip delves into the character’s obsession with image and being “true” to the spirit of metal music. Oula is nearly an entirely different character from the first film’s barely vocal bundle of violent rage, and mercifully so. He’s now the band’s voice of reason, and attempts (unsuccessfully) to steer his bandmates away from their more outrageous choices.

Unfortunately, Oula has gained a sort of rage monster alter ego that erupts under certain circumstances. It hearkens back to his character from the first film but, considering that Oula is played by Nigerian-Finnish actor Chike Ohanwe and is the only character of color in the entire film, it’s a superficially fun idea that ended up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The film is also overwhelmingly male, echoing a view of metal fandom that is popular if not accurate. Heavier Trip does include one woman in its fictional band Bloodmotor and brings back Helén Vikstvedt as gun-crazy Dokken, and also includes a cameo by Japanese metal idols Babymetal, but it’s not really beating the allegations that male metal fandom tends to exclude women.

Still, despite those few faults, Heavier Trip is likely to be a crowd-pleaser, especially in a cinematic landscape where true comedies are few and far between. It has some truly delightful bits, like when Impaled Rektum find themselves in a rock memorabilia shop filled with some pretty unlikely souvenirs (including Dave Mustaine’s actual hand). Or Rob, the lead singer of Bloodmotor, whose voice is so brutally low that he’s often unintelligible. It’s the sort of unapologetically silly film that you might have assumed just doesn’t get made anymore. It’s a real breath of fresh air when most comedies that don’t leave you in deep depression are obscured under a heavy layer of self-referential irony and winks at the audience.

And finally, for those of you who feel unfamiliar with Finnish metal culture or who haven’t seen Heavy Trip, rest assured that won’t interfere with your enjoyment of the follow up. There are a few metal in-jokes and the previous film is used as its jumping-off point, but otherwise Heavier Trip operates as a standalone film with a sense of humor that will land well regardless of an audience’s knowledge of metal music.