Credit: Neil Zlozower
Later this week (December 8) Magnet Releasing will release the horror film Lord Of Misrule to theaters and on-demand outlets. “Horror film? What does that have to do with Van Halen?”
Lord Of Misrule was directed by William Brent Bell (The Boy, Orphan: First Kill, Stay Alive, The Devil Inside, Brahms: The Boy II) and written by Tom de Ville (The Quiet Ones, Urban Gothic). When gearing up to interview Bell as part of a recent junket, Van Halen News Desk reader — and author of the forthcoming book DLR Book: How David Lee Roth Changed The World — Darren Paltrowitz found the following Instagram posting published by Bell on October 7, 2020:
This was the only tribute or obituary posting seen within Bell’s Instagram account. Paltrowitz decided to ask Bell about this posting during their November 2023 conversation on his show Paltrocast. He initially asked Bell if he’s ever considered licensing a Van Halen song for one of his films:
“Usually the movies I’ve done, they don’t lend themselves to that type of music,” responded Bell. “Orphan: First Kill we had ‘Maniac,’ that was fun to be able to use that song.”
Paltrowitz then mentioned “Mean Street” to Bell as possibly being an appropriate fit for a horror film. Bell responded: “That’s what I was looking at yesterday… That’s maybe the hardest lick he [Eddie] ever created.”
Bell was referring to himself “looking at” the recent appearance by Sammy Hagar on The Howard Stern Show, in which Joe Satriani discussed the difficulty of playing the “Mean Street” guitar lick.
Bell said: “They’re very unique pieces of work [by Eddie] that all stemmed from a classical background, so being able to pull those in to a modern movie like Lord Of Misrule, the way that people have done that with like Westworld and pulling in Nirvana, it’s an exciting thing to do. It’s expensive, so it has to count. ‘Maniac’ was worth it in Orphan: First Kill.”
After Bell further discussed how music inspires his work on films, Paltrowitz also clarified whether Van Hagar has ever inspired his craft.
“It’s always classic Dave Van Halen,” responded Bell.
With two new feature films slated for release in 2024, VHND readers may have to wait a bit to see if Bell’s next work features anything by Van Halen.
What other Van Halen songs would make for a great horror movie song? Let us know in the comments below!