Trailer1

 

Trailer2

The Concept Video 

Synopsis

Synopsis

Heavy Metal Parking Lot is considered one of the greatest rock & roll movies of all time, although it's actually a hilarious documentary tribute to rock & roll's greatest fans. Filmed in 1986 at a Maryland concert arena parking lot before a heavy metal show, HMPL is an unvarnished anthropological study of American metalheads in their mid-'80s glory. It is the quintessential '80s magnum opus, made complete with a vast display of muscle cars, spandex, bleach-blonde frizzy perms, bare-chested dudes, Mullets From Hell, faded denim metal chicks, and the largest collection of late '70s Camaros ever seen in one location. Virtually unknown to mainstream audiences for two decades, HMPL was a VHS bootleg favorite among musicians, movie stars and cult-video fanatics worldwide. This limited-edition DVD features a pristine digital-video transfer of the original uncut 16-minute documentary, plus over two hours of exclusive content! Extra content includes sequels, parking lot alumni interviews, karaoke subtitles, Dub-O-Vision and more. (Synopsis: FilmBaby)

Reviews

The critics weigh in on "HMPL":

Hilarious homemade video has become an underground juggernaut.

-Gentlemen's Quarterly, July 2001

 
A mini-documentary that has enjoyed a surprisingly long shelf life.

-New York Times, 9/4/05

 
As sublime as it is simple...evokes nostalgia for this magical time before irony.

-Blender's 100 Greatest Rock & Roll Movies of All Time, October 2005

 
It's good satirical sociology. It's been examined to death by everybody,

and it will always be there, won't it?

-Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Washington Post, 6/17/05

 
Will frighten you more than anything David Cronenberg or Dario Argento could possibly imagine.

-Time Out New York, 4/25/02

 
Stupefying footage...this is the film that NASA should have sent up with the Voyager probe.

-Seattle Times, 7/19/02

 
I could have watched hours of this stuff.

-Ain't It Cool News, 6/25/02

 
Unintentionally hilarious and the perfect gift for connoisseurs of the absurd.

-Entertainment Weekly's 2002 'It' List

 
A "real" documentary...suggests that SPINAL TAP might have understated the case.

-SPIN, September 2002 (The Metal Issue)

 
'Anthropological genius.'

-actor Edward Norton, Premiere Magazine 8/99

 
'Heavy Metal Parking Lot...basically Rock 'n' Roll 101.'

-Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters

 
A microcosm of what happens at every metal show...it's just a really cool thing to check out.

-Rob Halford, MTV Headbangers Ball, 2004

 
A time capsule...stoned worshippers at the shrine of their own bewilderment.

-Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times 6/28/02

 
A 15-minute video record of drunk, messed-up metal heads...it's mind blowing.

-Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide

 
It's bizarre, creepy, sad, and for anyone who experienced heavy metal

in the late 1980s, gut-bustingly hilarious.

-PopMatters.com 6/21/02

 
Guaranteed to amuse you & your friends.

-Penthouse, December '99

 
A wonderfully wacked-out 15-minute dive into escstatic pre-concert chaos.

-San Francisco Weekly, June 2002

 
There are allegedly more bootleg copies in existence than the Tommy and Pamela sex video.

-New York Press, 8/8/00

 
A masterpiece, and is as indispensable to the rock cinema pantheon as the ever-popular SPINAL TAP.

-TheSleaze.com March '99

 
The resulting 15-minute film captured mid-80s suburban metal mania so accurately,

affectionately and hilariously that it became a word of mouth classic.

-Baltimore City Paper, 5/13/98

 
Heavy Metal Parking Lot: Anthropology for the Ages.

-Village Voice, 3/24/98

 
Ranks among the all-time essential rock 'n' roll movies.

-Boston Herald, 11/15/02

 
Destined to be added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

-Washington City Paper, 1/16/98

 
One of the finest pieces of documentary embarrassment the 20th Century has seen yet.

-SF Weekly, 1/8/98

 
A film that, without formal distribution, has endured for over 10 years

through bootlegging and word of mouth circulation by record company heads,

rock bands and cultish cineastes.

-Images Festival of Independent Film and Video Toronto, April 1997

 
As pure and lucid a portrait of teenage wasteland as I've ever seen, and funny as hell.

-SPIN Magazine, September 1994

 
'Heavy Metal Parking Lot' offers a bracing glimpse into the heavy metal subculture

--and in this case you can emphasize either the 'sub' or the 'culture.'

-Washington Post, 9/30/87

 
A bitchin' trip back in time to 1986.

-Madison, Wisconsin ISTHMUS, August 2002

 
It gave me the creeps.

-(postcard from) John Waters, 1987