Idle Arms is a kind of horror films that, regardless of objectively not being good, is nice.
A teen bIack comedy, directed by Roger Corman protégé Rodman Flender (uncle of Timothée Chalamet, trivia followers!), it follows Anton (Devon Sawa), a slacker whose hand turns into possessed and begins killing folks, even when he cuts it off. Assisted by the 2 mates he simply murdered (Seth Inexperienced and Elden Henson) and his bassist neighbour (Jessica Alba), he tries to cease his disembodied hand from killing much more folks. It’s… fairly foolish.
Close to the movie’s climax, which takes place at a Halloween dance at Anton’s faculty, comes one of many best rock band cameos of all time. Pop-punk arena-fillers The Offspring play on the dance, first performing I Wanna Be Sedated, then Beheaded, then get brutally murdered, with the highest of frontman Dexter Holland’s head being ripped clear off. This too, granted, is fairly foolish, nevertheless it’s additionally lots of enjoyable.
Look!
Lets vastly overthink this? Sure! Sure we will.
On the time of filming, June 1998, The Offspring have been making ready to head again right into a recording studio after touring their report Ixnay On The Hombre. The album they subsequently made, Americana, would go on to be monumental, shifting ten million copies (virtually as a lot as their breakthrough Smash, which stays the biggest-selling impartial album of all time.
To be able to change into a part of cinematic historical past too, he band spent three nights taking pictures their scene, filming from 9pm to 5am. In 2021, Dexter Holland shared his reminiscences of the expertise with NME: “That was a goof,” he associated. “I used to be requested: ‘How would you prefer to play a rock band and get your head lower off in a film?’ That ticked all of the packing containers for me! It received lots of mileage. Individuals nonetheless come as much as me saying: ‘Dude, I noticed you in Idle Arms. That was nice once you received killed!”
Let’s now take a second to consider the music principally featured right here. I Wanna Be Sedated is, in fact, a punk basic, one of many Ramones’ best-known tunes and a reasonably simple music to be taught, making it a preferred alternative for garage-level bands. Ramones have been one in all Holland’s favorite bands rising up (together with the Intercourse Pistols and native Cali heroes The Adolescents and Social Distortion), so it appears an apparent alternative. The monitor was additionally featured on a Ramones tribute album.
However wait, there is likely to be extra to it than that.
Dexter Holland, pop-punk celebrity, can be a scientist, suspending his PhD in molecular biology for a number of many years after the band took off, however efficiently finishing his research in 2017. He would subsequently know {that a} affected person present process a craniotomy, during which the cranium is opened to show the mind — the closest medical process there may be to the grotesque method he’s murdered right here — can’t be put underneath a common anaesthetic. They are often partially sedated, however not totally.
Is there a deliberate irony occurring right here? A little bit of light humour for a person of science? Who is aware of?
In addition to the Ramones cowl, the Offspring re-recorded the music Beheaded from their self-titled debut album for the film’s soundtrack. The music primarily entails the narrator beheading everybody round him, reasonably than being beheaded himself as Holland sort-of practically is within the film. One line nevertheless, ‘Wrap a towel across the bloody stump‘ pretty aptly describes a scene earlier within the movie after Sawa cuts his hand off, though the movie provides the additional step of cauterising the wound with an iron.
This was not Holland’s first scalping. Oh no. For years, The Offspring’s frontman had lengthy braids, which he lower off in favour of the coiffure he has right here. The Offspring recorded Ixnay On The Hombre from June to October 1996, and Holland was nonetheless sporting braids in late August after they performed the Studying Competition. By 1997 and Ixnay’s launch, his hair was quick and spiky. Recording the 2 songs for Idle Arms was — assuming we’ve performed all of the maths proper — the primary time Holland went right into a studio with out his three-foot braids.
Now, keep on with us right here. There’s an argument to be made that you could tidily break up the band’s profession into two phases — part one outlined by Smash (no-frills punks who in some way offered thousands and thousands), and part two outlined by Americana (a slicker, extra MTV-friendly providing). Holland’s hairstyles sort of line up with this — is there one thing symbolic in his de-braiding, echoed in his Idle Arms scalping, representing the shedding of 1 for one more? Or did he simply, you already know, get a haircut?
(There are rumours on the web that the haircut got here after an altercation with Axl Rose during which a number of of Holland’s braids have been ripped out, necessitating a shorter haircut, however this appears to be a misinterpretation of Holland claiming Rose “ripped off”, i.e. copied, his braids.)
Whereas guitarist Noodles, bassist Greg Okay. and drummer Ron Welty are credited as The Offspring, Holland’s official credit score in Idle Arms is Band Lead Singer. He’s the one lead singer that The Offspring have ever had (which isn’t true for every other position within the band — there have been a couple of lineup modifications through the years), so he’s most likely taking part in himself, however you could possibly most likely argue that he wasn’t should you actually needed to.
If he’s, in fact, then the mind that will get uncovered is a reasonably spectacular one crammed with details about molecular biology. The film additionally options transient cameos from Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge and Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass, and there may be an virtually definitely unfaithful hearsay — which appears to stem from a joke on the DVD commentary — that Ricky Martin seems as a barely-seen further.
You need extra shinfo? Effectively, alright. Eager-eyed viewers shall be alert to the truth that Holland sports activities an AFI shirt. On the time of filming, AFI have been signed to Nitro Information, based by Holland and Greg Okay, and Holland offered backing vocals on their 1999 album Black Sails In The Sundown. The Offspring later lined the AFI music Totalimmortal for the soundtrack to a different goofy comedy, 2000’s Me, Myself & Irene.
Now, the particular results listed below are, in fact, disgusting. Idle Arms featured an extremely spectacular line-up on the consequences crew. Make-up legend Greg Cannom has 5 Oscars to his title and has labored on films famed for his or her iconic make-up — The Masks, Hannibal, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — and tons of extra. Barry R. Koper has labored on just about each main horror and sci-fi franchise there may be, from Hellraiser to Star Trek, whereas technician Jason Hamer did the hair on The whole lot All over the place All At As soon as, certainly a dream gig.
Rodman Flender was delighted with the band’s efficiency within the film, in addition to the additional increase it gave their film.
“They did very well within the movie,” he informed MTV on the time. “And Dexter Holland – I do not know if he knew what he was in for when he agreed to do that. He was in make-up loads, he needed to act, he had do a efficiency, and he delivered. He did an awesome job. […] Then when Americana got here out, an awesome album, and it was like primary, quantity two on the nationwide charts. It was like a blessing. It was wonderful how fortunate we’re [and] how nice they’re.”
So, let’s recap: it is an awesome, foolish second in an awesome, foolish movie, the violent publicity of one in all punk’s favorite brains and a goofy Halloween basic. Nice occasions all spherical.
Seize some popcorn, we’re going again in…
