Music Store Massacre
Supernatural horror is kind of a tricky thing to get right. That’s especially true if you’re dealing with the possession of an object. Yes, “The Ring” and “Evil Dead” showed that it can work, but if done improperly, the whole thing gets silly. Gordon Price’s “Music Store Massacre” doesn’t quite reach the heights of those two films, but it’s got a great hook that makes up for some low-budget effects limitations and storytelling contrivances.
The film starts with the image of a priest doing some dark rituals, with words of damnation and torment heard, discussing soul transference. A creepy looking guitar is nearby, and the priest begins self mutilation. Then we see two cops as they’re getting ready to leave a convenience store– one of them is the priest’s sister, and they go to look in on him. When they get there, gunfire and death occur, and the priest and his sister are dead. Ten years later, the guitar resurfaces at the scenes of further death, and the cop (Dave Meadows) has been partnered with someone else who is a bit of a prick. He senses the pattern of that guitar being involved in the crimes, but has to dig into the history of his former partner’s priest brother (Frank Bliss) to do so. Meanwhile, the guitar makes its away around town, leaving a body count as it is past from one person to another. Will everyone it comes in contact with become a killer?
The title, “Music Store Massacre,” comes from a key moment about 30 minutes into the film, when a music store owner (played by writer/director Gordon Price) plays the guitar, and goes on a killing spree. It is the most unifying part of the film’s narrative in terms of one moment leading to many others. There are a lot of coincidences that occur in the film that feel hard to believe, along with some moments that don’t seem to have much to do with any through narrative. At times, the film is simply a string of tangential vignettes than a story. I guess that works, since the biggest connector in the film is the guitar, which feeds off of the hateful impulses of the people who play it, leading to much bloodshed. In that way, it is a morality tale, but it’s a bloody good horror exercise, as well. Price has a basic idea he’s exploring, and a particular way he’s doing it, and he does it very well. The “Evil Dead” reference in the beginning was intentional, because as the film’s 98 minutes commenced, that was the film I thought most of. This film’s gore factor and supernatural evil is very much inspired by that Sam Raimi classic, and to top it off, there are several moments of dark, gallows humor that put the icing on the cake of that comparison. To simply compare “Music Store Massacre” to other films, though, is to do it a disservice, because there’s some genuine original thought here that allows it to stand on its own. Whether you will be able to stand after the film depends on whether the guitar has some negative impulses to feed off of.
