The chilling horror movies Taylor Hawkins wished he could “unsee”
When Foo Fighters released their first feature film, Studio 666, in 2022, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins and the group’s love of cinema was made readily apparent. The project boasts a retro-feeling title that tells the tale of a mansion haunted by the 1993 murder of the band Dream Widow. Duly, the composition of the feature heavily inferred that the band are lifelong fans of cinema, with the influence of the gory horrors of the 1960s and 1970s readily apparent.
From gruesome deaths to well-established cinematic tropes, Studio 666 contained numerous familiar – and perhaps overworn – aspects of old Hollywood styles. The inclusion of these features made it easy to imagine that if the film had been released 30 years ago, it would have become an instant hit among those who congregated at local video-rental stores.
With Studio 666 making $3million at the box office but struggling for a particularly strong reception from critics upon release, it appears that Studio 666 might well be on the way to becoming a cult title like the ones Foo Fighters digested when young.
Whilst all of the band love movies, their late drummer Taylor Hawkins – who passed away in March 2022 – was perhaps the biggest fan of the form. Notably, in the run-up to Studio 666‘s release, Foo Fighters appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and frontman Dave Grohl revealed that Hawkins didn’t learn his lines for the film. In response, Hawkins admitted, “I’m not much for book learning”, with his love of kino then making much sense.
A little earlier, Hawkins spoke about movies across his career during a past interview with Kerrang, and he revealed the titles of two horror movies that he desperately wanted to “unsee”.
Acknowledging the chilling horrors of the 1960s and the 1970s, Hawkins mentioned 1975’s The Devil’s Rain – which featured a young John Travolta – and the following year’s Burnt Offerings, starring Oliver Reed and Bette Davis as the two he wishes he could have had wiped from his memory. Hawkins said: “There are a lot of fucked-up horror movies I wish I could unsee, but only because I love them and would like to see them for the first time again! I love being traumatised by them”.
The drummer concluded: “The creepiest ones are the old ’60s and ’70s ones that people tend to forget about. There’s one called The Devil’s Rain [1975] with John Travolta in it, and that one really messes with you, and an Oliver Reed one called Burnt Offerings [1976]. When you’re a kid, that will mess you up for life!”
