Studio 666: Did the Foo Fighters really record an album in a murder house?

Even though the horror-comedy Studio 666 is clearly a work of fiction, it’s hard not to wonder if it’s based on a true story. Specifically, did the Foo Fighters ever record one of their albums in a murder house?

For those who may not be, let’s first acquaint ourselves with what the movie’s about. Then we’ll try to figure out what inspired it.

Studio 666 Synopsis

Here’s the movie’s description from its website:

In Studio 666, Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Foo Fighters move into an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock history to record their much anticipated 10th album. Once in the house, Dave Grohl finds himself grappling with supernatural forces that threaten both the completion of the album and the lives of the band.

But to expand on the plot a little bit, unbeknownst to the Foo Fighters, 25 years earlier another band lived in the house. Dream Window was also in the process of recording an album there, until “creative differences” and demonic forces got the better of their lead singer and he slaughtered his whole band.

When Grohl finds one of Dream Window’s tapes in the basement, it unleashes the demonic energy that possesses Grohl and leads history to repeat itself.

Studio 666 Trailer

Studio 666 Inspiration

According to an interview with Variety, it all started when Dave Grohl dismissed an idea a studio had about making a horror movie starring the Foo Fighters. As he told the friend who presented it to him, “That’s the stupidest fucking idea I’ve ever heard in my entire life.”

Except, it ended up being a kernel that eventually germinated into an actual movie —as well as an album, which is called Medicine at Midnight but was recorded as the fictional band Dream Window.

Grohl decided to build a temporary studio to record what was just going to be the next Foo Fighters album. He started looking around for properties, and as fate would have it, around that same time a former landlord reached out. He wanted to know if Grohl would like to buy part of a property he was thinking of subdividing. The land included a house that Grohl had lived in 10 years before while he remodeled the house he now lives in.

As related in the Variety interview, Grohl said, “Oh shit, I’m already in this big creepy old house. We might as well not only make an album here but actually act on that really stupid idea from a year and a half ago.”

So that’s what they did. And the result is a fun modern-day horror comedy with a distinct 80s horror feel.

But was anyone ever murdered in the house where they both recorded their new album and filmed the movie? Or in any other houses they recorded in for that matter? It doesn’t appear so, no. That was just a storyline the writers came up with.

Studio 666 Music

Blabbermouth included this quote from an interview Grohl had with Howard Stern: “And there’s this song that, if recorded and completed, the fucking demon in the house is unleashed, and then, whatever, all hell breaks loose.”

Grohl was talking about the Dream Window tape he finds in the movie. It made me think of guest contributor Chaz CMP’s post about chaos magic. Even though Dream Window and their music are fictional, they are a metal band and what they had been trying to accomplish was fame through chaos magic. At least until “creative differences” (and demons) interrupted the process.

Studio 666 Review

I’m not going to comment a lot on the movie, other than to say that it was fun to see the Foo Fighters in this light. They always seem like cool dudes who really enjoy making music together. In this case, we get to see them doing some of that, but it also seemed like they had a lot of fun making the movie too.

It was also fun to see the rock band make metal, but it was even cooler learning they released that music as a real new album, albeit in the name of the fictional Dream Window band. The only thing that might’ve made it better is that instead of their 10th album release, the Dream Window album was actually the Foo Fighters’ 13th album. But, hey, it still works.

There were two things that were hard to stomach while watching this movie though. The first was all of the gore. It’s definitely reminiscent of some of the cheesy 80s B horror films. (And for some reason I kept thinking of two of the students in the 1987 movie Summer School. They loved horror movies and were always experimenting with special FX to freak out their classmates. It felt like they grew up and were the ones hired to do the FX for this movie.)

The other hard part was knowing that in a way Studio 666 was both Taylor Hawkins’ horror movie debut and his swan song. At least he got to see the movie released, and entertained fans with his musical talent for over 20 years as a member of the Foo Fighters. I hope they all had a lot of fun celebrating the premiere of their movie on the big screen. (Which happened a month before Hawkins died on March 25, 2022.)

Where to Watch

Studio 666 released in theaters on February 25, 2022.

It’s currently available to stream or rent via places like Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play Movies & TV, and On Demand.

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