Heavy Metal Parking Lot + HMPL Alumni: Where Are They Now? (1986) (2006)

Directed by John Heyn and Jeff Krulik
Starring Zebraman and other random stoners
Runtime 17min. - Not Rated
4 Stars (out of 4)

Heavy Metal Parking Lot and it's follow-up HMPL Alumni: Where are they now? are both available for FREE on SnagFilms.
It goes without saying that this is part of my Quirky Documentary series.

Hey kids, listen up. These are your parents. In a related story, this is why your parents don't trust you to go to concerts on your own. Have you ever felt like your parents may be hiding something from you? Like maybe they were into some pretty gnarly stuff they don't want to tell you about? Or maybe you've thought your parents may have something wrong with them, like they took a bunch of drugs when they were younger. It's quite possible you are right.


Filmed in 1986, "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" is about 15 minutes long. It's got to be one of the shortest films ever to achieve cult status. I imagine that the film gets more interesting with each passing year. The year after it was made it probably had little impact on viewers. But now, 25 years later, it's the closest thing you'll ever find to a working time machine.

As a documentary, it's actually pretty lame. It's not like we're following some heroic person on an epic journey. The filmmakers simply drift around a parking lot outside of a Judas Priest concert and film whoever is willing.

The results of the experiment turn up some strange characters. They range anywhere from slightly buzzed to having "dropped acid". Even the soberest of the attendees are in a dimension of their own. The most vocal fan we meet is known by fans as "Zebraman". He grabs the microphone and screams about his love of Judas Priest and offers up garbled profanity for anyone who disagrees; more on Zebraman in a moment.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot Alumni: Where are they now?
2 Stars (out of 4)

This film isn't nearly as interesting as it's predecessor. The filmmakers were only able to track down a few of the folks from the original masterpiece. The good news is this film is only about 15 minutes long as well.

Many of the people they track down had only recently found out about their fame. Others know about, and embrace it. The first couple of folks we meet didn't leave me with much hope for progress. One of them had graduated from being a groupie and actually married a guitarist for a metal band. Another guy had his own metal band now and they wrote a (terrible) song about Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

Thankfully, there were some alumni who had evolved from their early days. Notably, Zebraman was no longer a "metal-head". These days he lives in a nice house and listens to country music. He had never even heard of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" until the filmmakers contacted him. His reaction to seeing his younger self clad in leather stripes and sporting shoulder length hair was simply to laugh. That was my reaction too.