The Lords of Salem (2013)

n

nTitle: The Lords of Salem (2013)

n

nWriter/Director: Rob Zombie

n

nCast: Sherri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Ken Foree, DeenWallace, Maria Conchita Alonso, Meg Foster

n

nFrom the very beginning, when I first saw House of a 1000nCorpses (2003), I always thought that Rob Zombie was a horror film directornwith lots of potential. House of a 1000 Corpses wasn’t a perfect film, butnthere was something there that screamed “this guy is promising”. What gives Zombie the edge that othernhorror directors don’t have is that he knows horror inside and out; he’snobviously seen thousands of horror films and genuinely loves the genre.  Add to this the fact that he’s directed manynof his own music videos and you’ve got a guy with the knowledge andnunderstanding of the horror genre as well as the necessary experience behindnthe camera to make a decent horror film. He took a stab at making commercially viablenhorror films with his remake of John Carpenter’s Halloween (2007) and followednthat one with his own thing called Halloween II (2009), but according to RobnZombie himself, making these two films wasn’t exactly the happiest ofnexperiences. Working under the yoke of oppressive movie producers just isn’tnZombie’s style! He needs to let those creative juices run wild and free! Andnso, thanks to Oren Peli and his Haunted Films label well, Rob Zombie was givenncarte blanche to do a movie his way, and so here we finally have The Lords ofnSalem, a true blue Rob Zombie horror film. How was it?

n

n

nThe Lords of Salem revolves around Heidi Hawthorne, a radionDJ whose life begins to take a twist towards the dark side when she receives anmysterious package addressed to her. The package says it comes from “The Lordsnof Salem” a heavy metal band that she’d interviewed on her radio show. Thenpackage is addressed directly to her.  Shensoon discovers it’s a vinyl record, when she plays it out of sheer curiosity, shengoes on a trance, getting these weird visions of witches being burned alive.nWhat’s happening to Heidi? Why is she seeing these horrible images? To make things worse, shenhas a mysterious neighbor who looks at her from the shadows of his apartmentndown the hall. She tries to be friendly to the new faceless neighbor but thenneighbor only slams the door in her face! What gives?

n

n

nI’ve always said that Rob Zombie is kind of like the QuentinnTarantino of horror films. Same as Tarantino, Rob Zombie watches a bunch of movies,nputs them all in a blender and then makes his own thing with them. Take fornexample House of a 1000 Corpses, which was a homage to Tobe Hooper’s TexasnChain Saw Massacre (1974) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II (1986). He tooknelements from both of these movies and mixed them with his own brand ofncraziness, the result was an experience, uneven at times, but an experiencennone the less. For The Lords of Salem, Zombie put an even larger amount ofnfilms in the grinder! First up, Rob Zombie bows down to one of the greatestndirectors of our time, Stanley Kubrick. Many shots on the film have thatnKubrickian perfection to them; for example Zombie has these long shots of a hallway that echoed thosenlong shots on of the hotel hallways in Kubrick’s The Shinning (1980). I mustnsay that this careful attention to constructing a shot was something new for menin a Rob Zombie film; most of the time Zombie’s camera is kinetic and crazy,nmoving about in scattershot fashion. On Lords of Salem you can tell that Zombienwas going for a slightly more elegant horror film, in this way he paid hisnrespects to Kubrick, which I immediately dug.

n

n

nThen we have these crazy dream sequences that looked likenthey came straight out of a Ken Russell film. You ever seen Ken Russell’snAltered States (1980) or Lair of the White Worm (1988)? On these films, Russell’sncharacters always end up having these crazy dreams that feel like acid trips, withnreligious iconography being profaned. Images of goats and crucifixes and nunsnbeing raped and all that?  Well, on Lordsnof Salem you will see these types of tripped out dream sequences, one look atnthem and you can tell Zombie watched a couple of Ken Russell’s films. I’ve yetnto see Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971), but something tells me that The Devilsnwas a huge influence on The Lords of Salem because that film is also aboutnwitches. I also caught similarities with films like Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’snBaby (1968), because of this idea of having a paranoid character surrounded byna bunch of devil worshipping neighbors, and yet another film it reminded me ofnwas The Sentinel (1977), a film about a woman who lives in apartment buildingnthat ends up being a gateway to hell. And if I go deeper, then I can also tellnya that certain scenes, especially those involving the witches and their satanicnrituals reminded me a lot of Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922). Thenscenes with the witches dancing naked in the fire and spitting on babies andnthe such…right out of Haxan in deed. On one scene they put this mask on anwitch, an obvious homage to the opening sequences on Mario Bava’s Black Sabbathn(1963). So the influences on this one are like a Smorgasbord of horror. Whatncan I say, Rob Zombie knows who to borrow from.

n

nWhat surprised me the most about Lords of Salem is that Zombienhas constructed a film that relies more on mood and feel than on words, like annItalian horror film, there’s very little dialog, the film tells it’s story morenthrough images.  Every shot of the filmnis dark, brooding, depressive…Zombie really created a permeating, dreadfulnatmosphere with this one. The film isn’t loud and in your face like House of an1000 Corpses, this one takes its time, building up the scares. Cheap jumpnscares are out of the question on this one. No, with this one Zombie wants’ tonget inside your head, it is more about creating a sense of impending doom,nloved that about it. This isn’t a film where people are running aroundnscreaming and running from a chainsaw, nope, this one is about the slow scaresnthat creep up on you, so in that sense it’s a very different type of Rob Zombienfilm. And yes, it is style over substance, but that’s a good thing in my booknwhen it comes to certain directors. What I mean is that Rob Zombie is annincredible output of artistic energy, the guy is a bonafide Rock Star, stillnpumping out cool tunes to this day (listen to Dead City Radio if you don’tnbelieve me!), the guy has done comics, cartoons, films…he’s done independentnhorror films as well as commercial ones, the guy has even done freakingntelevision commercials! Hell, Lords of Salem even has a novelization! In othernwords, Zombies all about the art, so I like the fact that this movie is not sonmuch about the words and more about the visuals and the mood. And speaking ofnvisuals, Zombie out did himself; at a certain point the film simply turns toneye candy for me, couldn’t take my eyes off. The colors, leaping off thenscreen! 

n

n

nFinal word on Lords of Salem is that it isn’t a film forneveryone, at times it can result truly shocking, especially when it comes tonthose scenes involving witch rituals. Normally, films about Satanism come offnas goofy to me, but when they are done right, it works. And this one pulled itnoff brilliantly. Like Alucarda (1977), this film is all about people hailingnSatan and requesting his presence and all that, which I’m sure will prove to benjust a bit too much for some viewers, especially those of you inclined towards Christianity.nYou’ve been warned! In this movie, there is no hope, it’s all gloom and doom.nAt the same time, I have to tell you guys that this is without a doubt in mynmind Rob Zombies best film; it’s far superior to anything he’s done before andnfor that I salute the Zombie. I believe Zombie can go even further, but thisnone was close to being perfect in my book. So if you ask me, Rob Zombiencontinues to grow and evolve as a horror director, he keeps surprising me and I’mnhappy he’s still making horror films. He’s turned into one of this generationsngreatest horror directors. I’m sure he’ll keep it going, I certainly hope hendoes, which reminds me, there’s hope for horror yet!

n

nRating: 4 out of 5

n

n