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Heavy Metal
1981 90 min Canada, United States of America R 18+
★6.5
Animation, Science Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy, Music
Director: Gerald Potterton, John Bruno, John Halas
Trailers
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Teaser
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Description
The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.
Budget:
$9.3M
US Gross:
$546,545
Worldwide:
$20.12M
Starring
Richard Romanus
Actor
John Candy
Actor
Joe Flaherty
Actor
Awards
Saturn Awards 1982
— Best Science Fiction Film
Key opinion
Heavy Metal is an ambitious, visually distinct animated anthology that functions as a provocative time capsule of 1980s adult comic culture. While its aesthetic influence and iconic rock soundtrack remain highly regarded, the film's fragmented, episodic narrative structure leaves many viewers feeling disconnected from the individual stories.
| animation | The hand-drawn animation is widely lauded for its ambition, technical scale, and lasting visual influence on subsequent science fiction cinema. | |
| Score | The soundtrack, featuring iconic rock and metal tracks, successfully anchors the film's atmosphere and remains a standout element for many viewers. | |
| Screenplay | The episodic, anthology-style structure results in inconsistent narrative quality, with many finding the individual stories to be disjointed, clichéd, or underdeveloped. | |
| Theme | The film's use of explicit content, including nudity and extreme violence, is viewed by some as a bold, authentic adaptation of its adult-oriented source material, while others find it to be immature, performative, or lacking in deeper substance. |