It all starts when a toothy vampire (Dimitri Coats) wanders into a club to catch a set by a broken down bar band called (ironically) The Winners and decides that bass playing babe Jennifer (Jessica Pare) is just his type. Blood type, that is.
Jennifer disappears for the night and when she comes back she has a provocative new look and an attitude to match. Soon the band is starting to look like something out of a bad version of Twilight. The group becomes hugely popular but they pay a heavy price for their success.
It’s Got a Good Beat and You Can Scream To It
Toronto based B movie auteur Rob Stefaniuk is obviously from the “throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks” school of filmmaking.
There’s campy horror, snappy dialogue, stunt casting, stop motion animation, meticulously posed facsimiles of iconic LP covers and bloodcurdling original rock and roll.
In addition to writing and directing, Stefaniuk also stars as Joey (the leader of the Winners) and co-wrote (with John Kastner) the songs performed by the band in the movie.
He must have a lot of friends in the business and/or the snake-charmer skills of a seasoned pitchman because he has managed to talk a lot of people who should know better into participating in this low budget production.
In addition to French Canadian beauty Pare (Lost and Delirious, Hot Tub Time Machine), the cast includes Kids in the Hall alumni Dave Foley as the band’s fast-talking manager and Malcolm McDowell (yes, the star of Clockwork Orange ) as an eye patch wearing, crossbow wielding vampire hunter.
Alice Cooper plays the bartender of a scuzzy Goth rock joint. (That’s Alice’s daughter, Calico Cooper, playing a barmaid.) Iggy Pop is the rifle-toting owner of a ramshackle recording studio. Henry Rollins is a Howard Stern type shock DJ named Rockin’ Roger. Moby is the leader of a hardcore metal act called The Secretaries of Steak. Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson has a cameo as an American border guard. (Some viewers may recognize Coats from his other incarnation as leader of Philadelphia indie rock heroes The Burning Brides.)
It’s a Wrap!
Stefaniuk’s screenplay and direction almost makes up in gleefully anarchic energy what it lacks in production values. In the end, though, it is the cameos that give the film a certain curiosity value.
“I would say you’re 30 pounds of junk food and a retail job away from killing yourself,” Alice Cooper tells Joey, with his patented sardonic delivery.
The veteran rockers must have enjoyed the gig because they also take time out to appear in the DVD extras. Lifeson views the movie as an extended metaphor for what musicians are willing to do to become famous and what can happen when they achieve their goal.
“I suppose in the world of rock and being in a band there is a price that you do pay. It’s different for everyone,” he says in a DVD interview. “You lose a part of your identity or it is increasingly more difficult to maintain who you are and what your identity is.”
Read more at Suite101: “Suck” 2009 DVD – Sex, Blood and Rock and Roll | Suite101.com http://richard-goertz.suite101.com/suck–2009-dvd–sex-blood-and-rock-and-roll-a394790#ixzz1odFKZ7kF