Film Name: Until The Light Takes Us
Source: Netflix Instant Watch
Rating: 4/10
Until The Light Takes Us was a disjointed and poorly edited film about something I know absolutely nothing about, Norway's Black Metal scene in the 1980's and through the 1990's. I know nothing about this or it's key players and founders, so I did have some curiosity. I found this movie so poorly edited and strung together that I literally Wikipedia'd everyone in it after I watched it. It was a shame that movie was strung together in such a way because the people that were interviewed were honestly very articulate and honest, but their backgrounds and views were obscured by shitty production.
The movie's key subjects are Fenriz who is in the band Darkthrone. He seemed very sincere and earnest and wanted the story of his life's work to be told. And then we are also introduced to Varg Vikernes of the band
Burzum. Vikernes does alot of talking about life in Norway. He felt he grew up in an ideal world with not many social problems. As Varg grew he began to feel some disdain about his world when his opened so to speak. He did not approve of Christian churches that were built on ancient Pagan sites around him and he did not approve of the McDonald's that sprouted up around him. He was young and rebellious and wanted to do something more with his life so he began to wait for the time when all the old regimes so to speak could be destroyed and something new would take shape. I enjoyed listening to his views even though they were different than mine because he came across as a very intelligent person.
Then we hear the story of a Black Metal pioneer. "Dead" Ohlin of the band Mayhem, who used corpse paint on his face but was nothing like Kiss or Alice Cooper at all. He was a young guy that was working hard to present new ideas about how music should be made and how to best perform that music. "Death" was covering new grounds as far as performance art and music should work together, and as interesting as his concepts were they were just not well presented in this movie. That's a shame to me. I think when you watch a film that is kind of about a peculiar niche story, you should be left wondering if the movie was somehow unfinished or how you can learn more. Regardless "Death" and his fellow musician and black metal hero Euronymous live together and one day Euronymous comes to find "Death" has done himself in with a shotgun. Euronymous retrieves a camera and takes some photos of his friend before calling anyone. Rumors fly that Euronymous has also rearranged things and has even taken a few souvenirs from his room mates cadaver.
Euronymous goes on to open up a record shop and his peers and fans hang out in it and philosophize together. At some point, people that are opposed to Christian Churches that have absorbed Pagan holidays and land for themselves have blotted out the ancient cultures of Norway and they have a right to take it all back similar to Native Americans. I was interested in this point of view. I have asked some one from Eastern Europe how it came to be that they were Muslim and they told me it was because long long ago, Muslims conquered their homeland their ancestors converted to Islam and it was no part of their culture and history and they are still practicing Islam in the family to this day. I had mixed feelings about that, would I want a religion that at one point had conquered a nation. I never truly thought of Christianity in that light, but it gave a some new perspective to be honest. Churches started to burn in Norway. At first it was by people in their twenties that wanted to draw attention to their sincere political and religious beliefs that their land had been bastardized by a church they did not want. But of course like any hot topic ignoramuses got involved. Young teenagers started to burn churches too and in their misguided youthful exuberance started leaving Satanic graffiti around the scenes. These kids had no idea why they were doing what they were doing only that they thought it was the cool thing to do. Thus over 50 churches burned in the early 1990s in Norway and the media played up this entirely exaggerated myth of Satanic Panic over there just like what happened in the in US in the 1980's. Hysteria sells. I myself don't ever feel it is acceptable to burn down anyone's place of worship ever no matter the circumstances, that it's a hate crime, but I also know what it's like to be young and foolish and full of good ideas with no outlet for intentions that one believes are noble.
A panic floods across Norway what will happen next? Well one of the youngsters in the scene does a terrible murder in a forest. And then things kind of spin farther down from there. Eronymous and Vikernes have a feud. Vikernes claims he hears a threat from Euronymous that he intends to abduct him and torture him in a deep, dark forest and film the entire thing for some kind of black metal snuff. Vikernes meets with him but feels it is a trap and murders him by stabbing him in the skull. Vikernes goes on trial and it is televised and expounded on by the media in Europe. He receives a little over 20 years, maximum sentence in Norway. He smiles in open court with his long hair and metal t shirt.
The black metal scene that is no became infiltrated with posers and journalists is now all but over. Many bands still play music including Blackthrone who still has a big following to this day but it far more on the fringes that was years ago and during a phone interview that is filmed is accused of being less provactive. And abruptly the film ends and there is no epilogue and no updates.
I felt this was a shame, after further research online I found out so many more interesting threads that were not followed at all. Weather the characters in the film were sympathetic or not they deserved to be heard properly, and if even you could care less about the music, it and it's fans deserved a better portrayal on film. I would liken the youthful rebellion of the music the 1960's US, where ugly things popped up that not only shaped the pop culture they overshadowed it in the end. This was simply some potentially great stories that were lost in very bad film making. I hope some one else comes along and gives these guys an opurtunity to tell their side of it a coherent and watchable way.
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