Dethstars

"Dethstars" is the nineteenth episode of Metalocalypse. It aired on December 10, 2006 on Adult Swim.

Synopsis
Dethklok makes a movie, but it looks like it's going to be a huge critical and financial flop.

Plot
The episode opens with a TV comedy show called "Dating Penelope" in which Murderface is a guest star. He recites a couple of jokes about a dead dog and he gets a fake audience laugh track.

Blood Ocean Production
Senator Stampingston tells the tribunal that Dethklok is trying their hand at becoming professional actors and calls on their resident acting expert Dr. Chazz Fazzledopenhoffer. Dr Fazzledopenhoffer is concerned, since the tribunal and the powers it controls have worked hard at making movies and television bland and manipulative to better control the masses. Dethklok could awaken the imagination of the public because they have charisma, "it" and zazz. General Crozier asks what the worst-case scenario is if Dethklok manages to make a successful movie, the doctor replies that it would be independent thought returning, creative control going back to the artist, actors being seen as smart and cool, movies becoming thoughtful, endings becoming hard to figure out and (worst of all) people going to theatres and interacting with each other; thus making the populace entirely harder to control.

Dethklok minute announces that the highly anticipated movie Blood Ocean has been 13 months in production. No footage has been leaked but it is already one of the biggest budgeted movies in film history. The movie is being made in collaboration with Behemoth Productions. The plot is being kept tightly under wraps, but the public knows that the movie will have space Vikings, serial killers, murder and millions of dollars of special effects.

Problems on set
Grishnackh is watching the Dethklok Minute and orders his assistant to turn off the TV. The assistant congratulates him for working with a hugely popular and successful band but he slaps her, yelling about how much money has gone into the movie already and there's not end in sight. She tearfully replies that everyone seems happy and he slaps her repeatedly before demanding a drink.

The scene cuts to Dethklok filming their scene in studio 48. Things are not going well as Nathan is reciting his lines with bad inflection and saying things like "your turn" and "you go" and Skiwsgaar hardly remembering his lines. The plot seems to be about Space Viking Skwisgaar finding his father that he has not seen in a thousand years. The director finishes the take and tries to tell Skwisgaar nicely that he's really hard to understand. Skwisgaar replies that it's the best he can do looking rather offended. The director offers a compromise to work harder if Skwisgaar works harder, but he get interrupted by Pickles who reminds him that under their contract that he can't direct, note or berate the band because it sickens them. Pickles tells the director he's fired for approaching Skwisgaar with instructions and the whole band agrees, with Toki even quips that he should commit suicide, a suggestion that the meek director actually follows. His suicide makes the headlines as the movie now needs a new director.

After a much-publicized search, the new director is found: legendary actor J. F. Amarath. Dethklok Minute interviews Amarath and he begins giving a heartfelt speech about acting and film as an art but his audio is constantly interrupted by Dethklok fooling around with a forklift on the background and ends with him being accidentally impaled by Pickles trying to park the forklift. His last words to Dethklok are "I'll see you in hell!"

The final reel
A confusing trailer for Blood Ocean plays, revealing little more about the movie with this narration: "In a world with no laws, the planets are being pillaged by space vikings; there lies a secret to a [unintelligible] father maker who knows the identity of a serial killer. And the oil rig with a haunted crypt on [unintelligible] lies. And the love where it happened to death."

Dethklok watches the trailer while wearing Blood Ocean hats and congratulate themselves on being great. William says that they are better than Meatloaf and Pickles says "that was just the trailer, imagine what the movie is like", indicating that Dethklok has not yet seen any finished footage of the film they starred in. Charles approaches the band and Dethklok gets annoyed, Nathan even asks the CFO not to ruin their fun as they are happy right now. Charles tells them that Grishnackh has been dodging his calls and it could indicate that the movie is very bad. Skwisgaar says that they don't care but Charles explains that the movie industry pulls a lot of weight and a bad movie could ruin their image. Skwisgaar struggles with the word and Charles bluntly tells him that the public will stop liking them and stop buying their music, effectively ruining Dethklok.

Escaping the box office bomb
The Blood Ocean premiere is held at an oil rig, presumably the same one from the movie. Dethklok watches their own bad performances with increasing embarrassment, with Nathan and Murderface having an incredibly monotone delivery, Skwisgaar with his lined dubbed over and Pickles with wrong inflections. They cannot stand to watch it and leave to talk about how bad it is and agree it cannot be released, not even on DVD. They tell Grishnackh they don't want the movie to come out, but Grishnackh says that there's too much money riding on the project and he doesn't care if their careers are ruined. He tells Dethklok that they have to keep smiling despite how bad it gets and that he paid money for positive reviews. Dethklok exits the theatre amid the many newscasters praising their movie. They pile into their Dethcopter and as it takes off it slices a worker and an oil pipe, spilling crude petroleum everywhere. Grishnackh drops his cigar in surprise, which causes it to ignite and burn the platform, destroying the movie and all the people who had watched it. The final shot of the episode is Grishnackh burning, presumably to death.

Songs featured in this episode

 * Blood Ocean (song)

Guest Voices

 * Andy Richter
 * Laura Silverman

Trivia

 * Corpse count: dog (cut in half by Murderface); J. F. Amarath (impaled by forklift); oil rig worker (sliced by the Dethcopter's rear blade); 19 people (incinerated in an oil rig explosion) and James Grishnackh (incinerated in an oil rig explosion).
 * Grishnackh has a gap in his teeth and a lisp similar to Murderface's.
 * It's unclear whether Grishnackh's assistant is actually his daughter or he refers himself as "daddy" as part of their abusive relationship.
 * The meek director's name is revealed to be Adam Nergal in the news items following his suicide.
 * As J. F. Amarath is slowly and painfully dying, he screams "you're tearing me apart!", a possible reference to The Room.
 * Behemoth Studios makes mostly remakes, even of snuff films (mentioned in the DVD extras).