This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock music mockumentary written, scored by and starring Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as the fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap. Directed by Reiner, the movie satirizes the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of hard rock and heavy metal musical bands, as well as thehagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries of the time.