Belzebubs

Belzebubs is a thirteen-part animated sitcom geared towards young adults about a black metal cultist family’s dreams and relationships. The father of the family, Sløth (Martti Manninen), tries to push the band towards stardom and success whenever his stay-at-home father duties allow.

The fiery mother, Lucy (Krista Kosonen), struggles with her career choices, and their daughter, Lilith (Viivi Tamminen) – who is in the throes of a teenage hormonal storm – develops an obsessive crush on her classmate, Sam (Elias Salonen). Leviathan (Kosmo Salminen) is the family’s endearing and kind youngest child.

The everyday life of the satanic family is impacted by financial worries, the challenges of raising children, various cult expenses, a spirited grandmother (Carla Rindell), an undead grandfather (Vesa Vierikko) and other typical situations associated with the busy years of raising a family. Belzebubs – based on Tampere native JP Ahonen’s webcomic of the same name – connects mundane humour and relationship drama with supernatural and occultist elements while referencing pop culture, metal music and Lovecraftian horror. Belzebubs has evolved from a small-scale webcomic into a global, multimedia phenomenon with thousands of fans online around the world.

In addition to the animated series, the concept covers comic collections that have been translated into over fifteen languages, as well as a real-life incognito band with a multi-record deal with the world’s largest metal music record label, Century Media. Furthermore, their music videos have garnered millions of views on Youtube.

Three episodes selected by JP Ahonen, “Limbo,” “Vika hitti” and “Pohjanmaan kautta”, will be screened at R&A.

(translated by Tara Tuchyner)