Heavy Metal (1981) poster
1981 · sci-fi · animation · fantasy

Heavy Metal

Directed by Gerald Potterton, John Bruno, John Halas, Julian Harris, Jimmy T. Murakami, Barrie Nelson, Paul Sabella, Jack Stokes, Pino Van Lamsweerde, Harold Whitaker1h 30m1981
ElsewhereIMDb6.641kRT66%Metacritic51TMDB6.5794
  • brisk
  • intense
  • surreal
  • cold
Movie DNA

Neutral, breathless, extreme sci-fi / animation, surreal in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.

Our read · Heavy Metal (1981) reads as a neutral, breathless, surreal sci-fi · animation · fantasy entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Heavy Metal

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want pulpy adult animation, heavy riffs, and midnight-movie excess.

ends ambiguousyou’ll be fine aftera rollercoastergrips from the openattention 3/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upnudityexplicit sexgraphic violencedrug use

Skip it tonightYou are uncomfortable with cartoon nudity or need one coherent story.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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