The Lords of Salem

From a technical standpoint Rob Zombie knows how to make a fuckin’ movie.  The Lords of Salem is executed very well.  The problem is the material that Zombie is shooting is not very good.

Witches, that’s what this one is about.  A coven of witches in Salem, Mass fuck with this radio DJ named Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie (Rob Zombie’s other films)).  She listens to a transcendental record and has visions of some weird stuff like a mutant baby and her giving head to a priest.  I guess the purpose of this is the witches want to ravage the town’s women and they see this as the best way to go about that.

All of the performances are very good here.  Sheri Moon does a bang up job as a person going through this hellish change and being tortured and confused and all that.  The picture hinges on her and she pulls it off no problem.  The supporting players are great too.  I liked Bruce Davison (X-Men) in particular.  He plays a lame witch expert but his character feels like a real person.  Everyone seems very natural in their roles and with the dialogue.  That’s so hard to achieve usually.

Zombie did an excellent job shooting this thing too.  I remember some folks saying it’s Kubrick-y and I can see that.  But at the same time it feels more influenced by Kubrick than, say, just copying him without understanding the technical and artistic knowhow behind it.  Zombie composes his shots in a manner where he looks like he knows what he’s doing.  I’m not sure if you can put together a film this skillfully by accident.  I mean his other movies are made with competency for sure but his chops grew quite a bit with The Lords of Salem.

The thing that’s really unfortunate is the script isn’t strong.  I’m not against abstract surreal films but it’s tricky to navigate that route.  If you’re not careful it could seem haphazard and turn into an apparent mess real quick.  Also, it’s a personal preference thing.  You see, 2001 worked for me because I love space and all of the imagery that comes with it but The Lords of Salem didn’t totally suck me in because I don’t care about witches.  They’re pretty weak horror material, or really just any kind of material, in my opinion.  Worshipping the devil and babbling about shit around a fire doesn’t interest me that much personally.  If you like that kind of stuff then you’ll probably get more of a kick out of this.  With presenting an abstract piece of art either you’re gonna dig the subject matter that the artist is turning on its head or not.  It’s not straight up so it’s going to be more difficult than it would normally to accept what’s being offered.  Again, if you’re into witches, devil worshipping, etc., you’ll probably like this. 

This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the film.  Some of the stuff that Zombie puts out there is cool.  I liked the creepy crumbly faced creatures that show up a couple of times and my favorite part was when Heidi walks into this extravagantly designed and decorated church/theater/museum place.  It looks amazing, the music is stunning (Mozart’s Requiem that he composed while on his deathbed) and that mutant baby thing is just great.

So overall I had a mixed experience.  On one hand I was happy to see that Rob Zombie has grown tremendously with his filmmaking skills.  And it looks like he’s trying to grow creatively as well by branching out beyond the slasher/crazy family horror type picture.  This is definitely the least straight forward movie he’s made to date.  Good for him for trying something different.  I appreciate what he’s done here.

On the other hand I don’t give a shit about witches and don’t buy the music can drive you crazy angle.  It’s a mood piece that slowly plods along.  I think this movie caught me on a good day because I could easily see myself becoming very frustrated and maybe not even finish it.  But that didn’t happen so it’s all good.

It’ll be interesting to see what Zombie does next.  So far he hasn’t been able to top The Devil’s Rejects.  The Lords of Salem is actually extremely encouraging though considering he’s coming off of the absolutely terrible and unnecessary Halloween reboot and its sequel.  So things are looking up for the ol’ Zombie.