The Lords of Salem (Rob Zombie)

[Rowland]

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731697/)

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn52/drowland811/the-lords-of-salem-poster_zpsd3ed3226.jpg

[Rowland]

A four-star review (http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/the-lords-of-salem) from Nick Schager at Slant!

[B-side]

Can't wait to see this.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I really enjoyed this one. Aside from a few weirdly cheap effects in the climax, I thought this was easily Zombie's most confident film, a film unapologetic in terms of influence and honesty, free-associative without ever feeling arbitrary. Nods to other artists abound, as is usual for his style, as he gleefully steals from the altars of Kubrick, Polanski, and Argento (and Black Sunday and Haxan (and Lovecraft)), but the end product feels undeniably unique, and at its best, singular. It's a slow crescendo of dread, in some ways the opposite of the frenetic kineticism that infuses The Devil's Rejects. Maybe the most frustrating element is that the heroine, Heidi, ably played by Sheri Moon Zombie, devolves too quickly into hazy, drugged-out passivity. I suspect the film would've felt a little more engaging if she had even half the spunk of Rosemary Woodhouse.

Even considering that, this is imperative viewing for genre fans.

[megladon8]

Is it really about a Satanic rock band?

Because that's what the book is about.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Is it really about a Satanic rock band?

Because that's what the book is about.

The main character receives a vinyl record. It plays music that sounds nothing like heavy metal. That is the extent of the "Satanic rock band" factor.

Fair warning: most everybody else is calling this a misfire.

[megladon8]

The main character receives a vinyl record. It plays music that sounds nothing like heavy metal. That is the extent of the "Satanic rock band" factor.

Fair warning: most everybody else is calling this a misfire.


Well, I hope you take it as a compliment that your liking it made it an instant "must see" for both Jen and I!

[Dead & Messed Up]

Review from blog, re-posted. I don't think there are any spoilers, but just to be sure:

Heidi sleeps beneath an enormous painted moon, the infamous man-in-the-moon from George Melies' silent classic "A Trip to the Moon." Hanging above her bed like a dreamcatcher, pierced by a rocket, the moon classically symbolizes women's fertility, their monthly cycle, and one of the fundamental ideas of witchcraft was that post-menopausal women made salacious deals with the Devil. If they were the moon, he was the rocket. He excited sensations thought to be dormant, and he stoked the women's jealousy and hatred of the fertile by encouraging the sacrifice of the newborn. The fact that none of this was ever witnessed outside of shaky testimony has failed to diminish the potency of centuries-old iconography. Like the vampire, the werewolf, and the onryo, the witch is now canon, a classic terror in the collective nightmare.

Like the vampire, the werewolf, and the onryo, the witch can too quickly become cliche and hackneyed. A statue in the center of Salem depicts a cheerful woman on a broomstick, a cartoon crescent moon suspended behind her. Is this what it's come to? Is this the trite legacy of a town once drenched in truly horrific paranoia, torn apart by intimations of the literal demoniac? Writer/director Rob Zombie has no patience for such timid images. He opens The Lords of Salem with an unnerving depiction of a witches' sabbath, as such an event might have existed in the darkest, wettest pit of Puritan imagination. The blasphemous women grin through smiles of black teeth. They disrobe, cloaks falling to the earth in the black of night. Wearing only the flaccid skin of old age, they scream and chant, holding hands, dancing in a circle around firelight.


Their descendants litter the town of Salem, and one of the legacies of Salem's past is Sheri Moon Zombie's Heidi Hawthorne. A heavy metal shock-jock with a love for silent cinema (a genre much of the film could occupy), she lives in an apartment likely re-built on the foundation of a ruined Victorian mansion, no doubt topped with gables. Now it is a building where bricks meet firmly and doors are sensibly shut. Except for the black door at the end of the second floor hallway, a monolith that sits in the center of the movie screen, daring viewers to consider its secrets. The door creaks open, and the room's sole ornament is a fluorescent cross, or maybe not. A specter - one of the witches burned at the stake? - wanders silently. Deeper still, something hulking and lupine lurks just out of view, and late in the film, a swarm of rats skitters out of the room, into the rest of the witch-house.

One of the film's witches, disguising her power as quaint palm reading, makes a distinction early on between destiny, in which free choice can still play a role, and fate, when forces local and cosmic mock our decisions. This doesn't quite excuse a feeling of passivity that arrives too soon, as Heidi falls into trance-like behavior after playing a hypnotic record that's hardly metal but enrapturing nonetheless. Lethargic, sleepy-eyed, she wanders from one disturbing image to another, through dreams and reality. The problem lies not with Sheri Moon Zombie, but with Heidi herself, who lacks the fighting spirit of Rosemary Woodhouse. In her own way, Rosemary was as bound to fate as Heidi, but that never stopped her from trying to halt the wheel of fortune. In a film as methodical and influenced as The Lords of Salem, yes, the ultimate destination may be a foregone conclusion, but must Heidi accept it so readily?


Occasionally, she sacrifices the spotlight to a likable, paternal figure named Francis Matthias (Bruce Davison), who offers smiles and bemused guffaws when confronted with the possibility of genuine witchcraft. His attitude adds immeasurably to what is at heart a role built on function instead of character. As a scholar on Salem's past, he provides vital plot information, and although he surrounds himself with shelves full of old, dusty tomes, Francis (a possible reference to Francis Dane, Salem clergyman and skeptic) makes his most significant discovery on a convenient family tree website. The information he learns grants the film some semblance of logic, which Zombie metes out just enough to allow for a theatrical release. This all makes sense, the film declares, and cackling can be heard behind the insistence.

How does a sleazy priest in a small chapel fit in? What of the enormous, gold-covered church with the loathsome, slimy specter at the top of the stairs? Zombie suggests instead of informing, his style confident enough that the baroque visuals feel as though they must be meaningful. Otherwise, why the attention? Why the devotion? The entire film becomes sacramental, ritualistic. Rhythmic. Perhaps too rhythmic in the climactic final moments, which substitute the slow-burn confidence for manic, music-video editing and digital effects. These images frustrate, evoking memories of MTV better left buried, but the climax is hardly the point. It's an obligatory requirement. The real story is the sequence of images. The message is the mood. Best to embrace the tableau. The fevered imagination of The Lords of Salem steamrolls hero and viewer alike with controlled cruelty and nightmarish implacability.

RATING: B

[Rowland]

I just realized this is playing near me... well, about half an hour away, but that's near enough. I may try to make it a double bill with the new Evil Dead. Considering everything I've seen and read, I feel like this is one I'm destined to love, but I'll try to be objective.

[Ezee E]

Is there any director that has shown more potential then Zombie, but continues to end up failing in the end? Outside of Devil's Rejects, his movies have all been negative to me.

The Lords of Salem is no different, but it also showed more potential then any of his movies, including Devil's Rejects, it just collapses at the end. Rob Zombie channels the horror side of Polanski here as a former drug addict becomes hypnotized to a mysterious vinyl album that shows up at her radio station. She descends into madness each time the song play and controls her. And then it just gets plain odd.

Zombie has images that are quite haunting in the first half. Whether it be the people in the vacant room 5, the unseen dead witches hanging in the apartment, or the incredible soundtrack, it certainly was on its way to something great. In the end, it seems to be something that the Historian (Bruce Davison) jokes about in the beginning with "actual witches." That it's just a form of psychosis.

Another disappointment is that Zombie continues to cast his wife, Sheri. This time, it's the lead role. She's at her best (let's not get carried away here) because she isn't the overblown, crazy, and peppy character that she is usually cast as. Heidi is a timid girl that we never really get to understand what went on in her past or the extent of her relationships. This is fine, but a finer actress would've been a better option still.

So disappointing to end that way.

[Grouchy]

Marginally yay for entertainment value. But yeah, I keep expecting Zombie to direct a great Horror classic and I keep getting disappointed.


Maybe the most frustrating element is that the heroine, Heidi, ably played by Sheri Moon Zombie, devolves too quickly into hazy, drugged-out passivity. I suspect the film would've felt a little more engaging if she had even half the spunk of Rosemary Woodhouse.
This is a problem. Her character doesn't even fight the possession. In fact, there's no conflict or tension to the film because it's quite clear from the start that the witches will carry on with the phrophecy and none will stand on their way. The whole Bruce Davison role makes no sense as a result.

[Dukefrukem]

Oh boy.. where to start with this one...?

[Dukefrukem]

Ok.

Sheri Moon Zombie cannot act unless her character is psychotic. She does nothing to fit into a drug addict, she does nothing to fit into her celebrity radio personality, and even with casual conversations with other people it makes me feel like she knows there's a camera on her. This is the biggest problem with the movie obviously because the film revolves around her character.

Yes, Rob Zombie proves again he has the ability to recognize the perfect onscreen tone and the color pallets fit so well with the terror he wants to portray. The hallway scenes, the red lit cross, the flashbacks to the witch fires, all fantastically conceived, but it does nothing to prove to the audience there's something to fear. Great start with having the Salem women being cursed... but what do I care? Where is the payoff? The climax? I thought something was really going to turn into the professor putting the pieces to gether... but no. So what happens next?

PS- fantastic church bj scene

[Scar]

Sweet mother of God, nay. A big, fat NAY.

Give me Zombie's Halloween's any day of the week and thrice on Sunday over this.

[MadMan]

My overdue, rambling review (I thought this film was great btw): http://madman731.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/horrorfest-presents-the-lords-of-salem-2012-rob-zombie/

[number8]

This is a problem. Her character doesn't even fight the possession. In fact, there's no conflict or tension to the film because it's quite clear from the start that the witches will carry on with the phrophecy and none will stand on their way. The whole Bruce Davison role makes no sense as a result.

The difference between destiny and fate.

I liked this.