I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s screening of Electric Jesus at the Indie Street Film Festival in Red Bank, N.J. The film’s writer/director Chris White introduced the movie, and the movie’s music composer Daniel Smith (Danielson Famile) performed three songs. The two did a fun Q&A afterward.
The movie follows a fictitious up-and-coming ’80s Christian metal band called 316 (think Stryper, Petra), their sound man, a groupie, and uproarious manager Skip Wick. This character is played wonderfully by Brian Baumgartner (Kevin from The Office). The film gets some ’80s sparkle from Judd Nelson, who in 1985 was John Bender in The Breakfast Club.
Call Electric Jesus a docucomedy if you must. Here’s the official “back of the movie box” description from IMDb: “Alabama preacher’s daughter runs off with a touring Christian hair metal band during the summer of 1986.”
There is plenty to love here, including the parodic band caricatures, tongue-in-cheek song lyrics, and playful jabs at the born-again evangelical dialect of the time. The whimsical storytelling allows for a trenchant analysis of its subject matter without cutting too sharply.
Electric Jesus has plenty of fun with the born-again evangelical idioms and oddities of the ’80s. And anyone who grew up listening to ’80s Christian metal will appreciate the film’s attention to detail. There are gigs in churches and roller rinks. A Steve Taylor poster hangs on a bedroom wall. Amy Grant is referenced throughout.
‘I was raised by devout Southern Baptist parents and fully immersed in (and committed to) Evangelical Christian youth culture—which included Sunday School, Bible studies, summer camps, retreats, choir tours, ski trips—all of it set to an ’80s Christian rock soundtrack. Honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I revisit that time in my mind, but either way, there’s no looking away.’
-Chris White
Electric Jesus writer/director
In a memorable scene early on in the film, Erik the protagonist, (Andrew Eakle), interviews for the sound man job with the band. When one of the 316 members asks him what kind of music he likes, Erik rattles off an enormously long list of Christian bands and artists from the ’80s. This is a scene White referenced in the Q&A after yesterday’s screening. He said the film’s music supervisor, John J. Thompson, dropped the knowledge there. Eakle only had one day to memorize the entire list, White said.
The culture represented in the film would’ve been very familiar to your average Christian camp kid from the ’80s. And as it turns out, those were precisely the sort of bunk beds White was sleeping on back then.
“I was raised by devout Southern Baptist parents and fully immersed in (and committed to) Evangelical Christian youth culture—which included Sunday School, Bible studies, summer camps, retreats, choir tours, ski trips—all of it set to an ’80s Christian rock soundtrack,” writes White on the Electric Jesus website. “Honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I revisit that time in my mind, but either way, there’s no looking away.”
The movie should slot in nicely in the pantheon of band movies like This is Spinal Tap and Almost Famous. White said one of his favorites was The Commitments from 1991. And while Electric Jesus casually borrows some battle-tested storytelling motifs from rockstar movies, it’s not so indulgent. The other thing worth noting is that the subject matter explored here is uncharted movie territory, White pointed out.
Check out Electric Jesus! Visit the movie’s website or social media channels to learn more. Also, go listen to the Electric Jesus soundtrack and some Danielson Famile!
Photo: Electric Jesus movie screening at the Indie Street Film Festival in Red Bank, N.J. on Sept. 12, 2021 at Two River Theater. The film’s writer/director Chris White is center and the film’s music composer Daniel Smith (Danielson Famile) is right. (Photo by Jai Agnish)
Great write up. I saw the movie in Chicago for that premiere. As someone who came to Jesus in 1979 (16 y.o.) I was fully immersed in the culture. The venue was perfect as I was able to visit Glenn Kaiser if Resirrectuon. Band who happened to live across the street from where the movie premiered.
Thank you so much! I enjoyed writing about it. Wow, you definitely experienced the whole ’80s. I did listen to my share of Stryper and Steve Taylor because of older brothers and cousins. I even went to some Christian music festivals like Creation and Cornerstone, but that was more in the late eighties into the nineties.