26. A moment for tender hearts (Queen Of The Damned, 2002)
Critically mauled but underrated, this very loose adaptation of Anne Rice’s vampire-as-rock-star novel boasts an absolutely slamming soundtrack. As the industrial heaviness of the Jonathan Davis-sung System pulsates through a club full of vampires, Aaliyah’s titular queen casually rips out a vampire’s heart, eats it and then proceeds to slay the entire club. Metal on so many levels. JD
27. Mickey Rourke Vs The Metal God (Spun, 2002)
In this black comedy, director Jonas Åkerlund cast Rob Halford as the manager of a porn store – a job he once had in real life. In his brief but memorable cameo, Halford takes to the role with aplomb, first flirting with Mickey Rourke, then deciding to call the cops on him for violently rejecting his advances. SH
28. Hammer of the gods (School Of Rock, 2003)
Led Zeppelin never licensed their music to Hollywood before School Of Rock, but an impassioned plea from Jack Black and the film cast swayed opinion, and resulted in a triumphant scene where Jack sings rampaging proto-Viking metal anthem Immigrant Song to celebrate getting into the film’s climactic battle of the bands. Thor who? RH
29. Lars loses his shit (Some Kind Of Monster, 2004)
Self-lacerating portrait of a band in crisis or unintentional workplace comedy? Either way, the most Some Kind Of Monster-ish bit of Some Kind Of Monster comes when Lars Ulrich discovers James Hetfield has walked out of the band mid-session. Cue an apoplectic rant directed at the filmmakers: “He fucking left the band! He fucking left the band! Period! Exclamation point!” DE
30. Anvil's redemption (Anvil!: The Story of Anvil, 2008)
One of the greatest ever comeback stories in metal. The Story Of Anvil shows these 80s metal footsoldiers at their very lowest ebb, but, after refusing to give up, the band are invited to play the Loud Park festival in Japan and are greeted like returning heroes. A true feelgood triumph against the odds. SH
31. Iron Man Trailer (Iron Man, 2008)
Sure, we’re cheating a bit here with a trailer, but come on – AC/DC and Audioslave, all capped off with Iron Man blowing up an enemy tank to the Sabbath song of the same name? How could we not include it?! DE
32. Iron Man (2008)
Tony Stark is listening to AC/DC’s Back In Black when the armoured car he’s travelling in is hit. Nasty, but what a metal way to go. DE
33. Iron Man 2 (2010)
AC/DC again: this time it’s 1980 classic Shoot To Thrill soundtracking a lavish party-cumbeauty pageant. A pretty metal kinda hang. DE
34. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Honorary mention for the musclebound Norse god, as he wastes a bunch of enemies on the Bifrost Bridge to Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song. Jack Black who? DE
35. Kill 'em all (Zombieland, 2009)
How does the zombie apocalypse start? In killer zom-com Zombieland, it kicks off with Metallica’s epic For Whom The Bell Tolls playing over a slo-mo montage of undead carnage. So cool they repeated it in the sequel with Master Of Puppets. DE
36. A 200-foot troll stomps Norway (Troll Hunter, 2010)
Scandinavian metal bands love trolls, and in 2010 we finally got the movie of Mortiis’s dreams in the form of a found footage mockumentary capturing these folklorish monsters in their ‘natural’ state wreaking havoc. Kvelertak shrieking over the end credits was the moment where that band truly arrived. PH
37. Chester plays Jigsaw's game (Saw 3D, 2010)
Saw and metal have been bonded since former Nine Inch Nail Charlie Clouser put his industrial stamp on its iconic soundtrack, but Chester Bennington’s cameo in the seventh instalment was a delicious surprise, the Linkin Park frontman starring as a racist thug who gets his grisly comeuppance. SC
38. Raining Blood. Literally (Evil Dead, 2013)
The Evil Dead franchise has provided inspiration for metal since Sam Raimi’s first film, but the remake really upped the ante when its climax dumped 50,000 gallons of fake blood from the heavens, bringing a Slayer lyric to life. Chainsawing a deadite’s head in half didn’t hurt either. PH
The price of greatness (Whiplash, 2014)
Whiplash takes its name from the fiendishly difficult composition (no, not the Metallica track) that becomes the obsession of jazz drummer Andrew in this study of ambition and dedication. The brutal, bloodletting practices that drive Andrew to near-collapse and worse will make any musician, amateur or otherwise, squirm. SC
40. The doof warrior (Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015)
Mad Max: Fury Road would obviously still feature in this list without this absolute champ, but the moment this Devin Townsend-lookalike appeared ripping sick riffs and shooting fire out of his guitar while strapped to the front of a humongous truck seemingly for the sole purpose of hyping up his fellow road warriors, his place in metalhead history was well and truly sealed. Meet iOTA, the actor, musician and performance artist behind The Doof Warrior. PH
41. I see you! (Deathgasm, 2015)
This jaw-droppingly violent splatter comedy features a group of misfits attempting to start a black metal band, but they accidentally kick off the Apocalypse instead. In one of the movie’s pant-filling jumpscares, Nunslaughter’s Looking Into The Abyss rips through the speakers as the musicians fend off a lethal attack from one of their eyeless, mutated parents. Bloody good fun. JD
42. Cage rage, metal style (Mandy, 2018)
Nicolas Cage may be our most metal actor, and his most metal movie is Mandy – specifically his psychedelic revenge freakout with a drone metal score that sees him forging a mighty battle axe and then chainsaw-duelling his way to his target. Bonus metal points: the axe is modelled on Celtic Frost’s logo. Cred. PH
43. Finns just want to have fun (Heavy Trip, 2018)
Mistaken for terrorists, chased by authorities and carting around their dead drummer, Finns Impaled Rektum finally arrive to play a set at Norway’s fictional Northern Damnation festival, only for their singer to puke on the front row with nerves. They persevere nonetheless, and the crowd goes wild as heavy metal Vikings clash with riot cops in the background. RH
44. Every metalhead's worst fear (Sound Of Metal, 2019)
Years of playing drums as part of avant-garde metal outfit Blackgammon has come at quite a cost for Ruben (Riz Ahmed). We don’t just mean a hand-to-mouth lifestyle, either: Sound Of Metal charts Ruben’s harrowing ordeal with creeping deafness, a warning that will cause every music fan who sees it to have sleepless nights. SC
45. The ultimate festival nightmare (Midsommar, 2019)
So taken were Spiritbox with this tale of cult worship’s dreamlike technicolour look that they paid homage to it in the Holy Roller video. Thankfully, they stopped short of recreating the movie’s heavy metal carnage, which includes a blood eagle sacrifice and a man burned alive inside a hollowed-out bear. SC
Naked viking volcano duel (The Northman, 2022)
Robert Eggers’ Viking revenge saga plays like Amon Amarth’s ultimate wet dream, but its apex is the climactic face-off where two hulking Norse warriors strip off and engage in brutal one-on-one combat atop a fiery active volcano. Pray we see its like again. PH
47. Kerry King spills the blood (Studio 666, 2022)
Cast as a grizzled roadie in Foo Fighters’ comedy-horror Studio 666, Slayer guitarist Kerry King meets the angel of death after a demonic spirit enters the Foos’ mixing desk and electrocutes him while he’s setting up. It’s a gruesome frying for Kerry, and the most memorable death scene in a movie full of ’em. SC
48. I'm just Ken (Barbie, 2023)
Ken might be an unwitting avatar for the patriarchy, but he’s also Barbie’s beating metal heart – check out our (anti-)hero’s Metallica-inspired belt pack. But the capper is I’m Just Ken, the epic, 80s-inspired song-anddance number/ultimate Ken-off that features a ripping solo from Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash – a stunt he’d repeat with Ryan Gosling IRL at this year’s Oscars. DE
49. Bloodywood bring the beatdown (Monkey Man, 2024)
Vastly outnumbered, it looks like our hero, Kid's (Dev Patel), bloodsoaked quest for vengeance will be cut short. However, as he faces down a roomful of goons, he’s backed up by a colourful army of hijra – India’s intersex and gender-nonconforming community – for a spectacular, massive battle soundtracked by Bloodywood’s Dana Dan. RH
50. Danzig vampire ballet (Abigail, 2024)
In maybe the best vampire movie in a decade, kidnappers abduct a young ballet dancer with a dark family secret, with some of them getting turned into vampires with huge, grinning chompers. After much bloodshed and mayhem, the newly turned undead indulge in a balletic dance as the gothed-out strains of the Evil Elvis’s sanguine power ballad Blood And Tears hit your ears. Exquisite. PH
