The Lords of Salem

went and caught a late showing of lords of salem the other night, and i was rewarded for my efforts, as I absolutely adored it. there were five other people in the theater, which kind of surprised me, and two of them left mid way through. I think that kind of sums up how esoteric a movie it was, and I'm amazed something so specific and particular can still get made. it was disturbing, beautiful, blasphemous, and, strangely, it left me feeling kind of upbeat.the story is basically about immolated witches using what looked like a 78 rpm record in the present time to crack the doorway open for their return via the descendants of their executors. the vehicle for their musical transmission is local salem deejay Heidi hawthorne, played by sheri moon zombie, who really does a nice job, i thought. not perfect, but alternately energetic and morose, and always working hard. in her alone moments, i thought she was most effective, conveying simultaneously what recovering from addiction must be like, as well as what demonic entities entering her head must be like. she's lost, and nothing helps you get found like a coven of modern-day practicing witches. this film, less than zombie's others, is filled with more seemingly normal people, though many turn out to be not so. i really thought judy geeson, patricia quinn, and (especially) dee wallace were awesome as the coven of witches lurking under heidi's nose. they worked well together, were funny and dark, and, by the end, were very much who I was rooting for. bruce davison in full jeff bridges regalia was awesome as always, and ken foree and jeff Daniel Phillips were their usual, hardworking, effective selves. special mention must be made of meg foster, who is sublimely uncomfortable as the crone witch leader of yore.i was sad that parts such as Barbara crampton's were excised from the film, as well as, i imagine, more of sid haig's and Michael berryman's. i suspect, while editing, rob knew some of his vision had to be shortened and focused. i hope the dvd will have a lot of the deleted scenes, so we can see more of lords. but he was wise to keep this movie at around one hundred minutes. it felt the perfect length.i'm so glad I caught lords of salem before it was driven from theaters, as it really demands a theater to be best appreciated. brandon trost's lens is wide and sweeping at times, saturated with bright, bleeding colors, deep tones and textures. he captures the grey that is massachusetts to perfection, and he adds weight to every interior shot in the movie..as has been talked about, there are moments that feel very kubrick-y, and others that recall roman polanski or dario argento. ken russell's presence is also felt, and i think there's definitely some strong david lynch and david cronenberg vibes floating through this delightful movie. but make no mistake, rob is flexing his talents and artistry, and it's all his. lords of salem is his auteur masterpiece. gone are the seemingly derivative homages, and what stands is more subtle, or more overt, or more streamlined into the movie, both in terms of the story, as well as its' visuals. I'm not saying I mind the rest of rob's work, cus I don't, I love it, but the man is progressing. I've heard he's gonna leave horror for a bit. that's fine, but I hope it's only temporary. His work is such a beautiful and courageous and ferocious amalgam of of images and ideas, it would be a shame for our genre to lose him, especially has it has been very much hordes of reactionary and angry horror fans who direct venom his way. but it is the polarizing nature of his work that contributes to what makes him an awesome and integral filmmaker, adding to his skill, his love--really, really informed and ardent love--of the genre, and his irreverence. he provokes conversation, passion, emotion, energy, debate. just like good art should. I love him, and happily paid for my ticket. I wish I could have paid more.the music is perfect and the use of the velvet underground's venus in furs and all tomorrow's parties fits it like a glove; twas good to hear in booming theater sound. The final sequence is one of the best uses of music at the end of a movie that I have ever seen. It's been in my head all day. rob has shown a real evolution in his dialogue, and it was pleasant to hear conversations free of insane expletives. cleverly, he is still able to elicit disgust in much of the dialogue, simply by being smart and describing awful things well, or benign things horribly. the set design was fantastic, the lighting noticeably brilliant, and the outfits had an argento-esqe level of thoughtfulness and appropriateness. i also must admit that I loved the amount of smoking in the movie (real people smoke, dammit, especially when they are stressed). whenever tense moments in movies occur, and no one smokes, it loses credibility for me. I also love that, in a rob zombie movie, you can count on people watching old, black and white movies in every background teevee. even the wonderful elizabeth montgomery manages to find her way into the film, which made my heart sing a bit.finally, i hafta mention how gloriously irreverent religiously it was. it was almost gleeful in it's satanism, and really kind of poses questions like "why do we just assume satanism is worse than and more barbaric than christianity?" man, go satan! it's too bad lords couldn't have gotten enuf pub or a wide enuf release to get on the radar of and start offending religious groups. that might have brought more folks to the theater.as always, i come away from a rob zombie movie feeling strangely uplifted, and appreciative of how good life can be, how beautiful and wonderful. this is kind of a nice effect his movies have on me, and seems antithetical to their content. but lords of salem was no exception, and, by it's end, I was smiling ear to ear.**********just a quick word on the blu ray: it's absolutely gorgeous. if you weren't fortunate enuf to see this on a big screen, it really demands to be seen in crisp, beautiful blu. this movie is, above all else, extremely visual, the sets, the color palette, the salem scenery. i watched slack jawed as i immersed myself in the textured, sumptuous visual amazingness. unfortunately, the blu ray, while beautiful, is pretty bare bones, practically no extras of any kind. let's get a version of this with extras, man! deleted scenes! commentaries! making of featurettes!

If Stanley Kubrick, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci got drunk and decided to make a horror movie together, Lords Of Salem would probably be close to what you’d get. Even back in the White Zombie days, rocker/director Rob Zombie has always shown a heavy influence from movies, especially horror so, it’s no surprise to see such influences in his films. And this time, Zombie sheds the 70s grind-house style that his earlier films have had and goes for something that evokes the work of the previously mentioned filmmakers and also some of the 70s occult themed flicks like the infamous Mark Of The Devil. To a degree, it is Zombie’s most solid effort as director but, also his most experimental as Lords gets downright head trippy and surreal at times, especially in it’s last act. If you liked his dream sequences in Halloween 2, there’s lots more where that came from. Today’s impatient audiences weaned on cookie cutter horrors and endless sequels may not appreciate what Zombie has done here but, to me it was a disturbing breath of fresh air. In a time of CGI phantoms and overused jump scares, I really like that Zombie had the courage to make something that aims to simply unsettle and disturb you with it’s atmosphere and imagery and doesn’t rely on cheap scares and elaborate post production hocus-pocus. Lords tells the creepy story of late night Salem DJ Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie) who receives a wooden box with a record in it from someone referring to themselves simply as “The Lords”. When she plays the vinyl album she suddenly starts to have increasingly disturbing hallucinations and her life starts to spiral out of control. When author Francis Matthias (Bruce Davison) begins to investigate, he finds that an ancient evil in the form of a devil worshiping witch coven, once burned at the stake, may be returning to Salem and Heidi might be key to their vengeance. Director/writer Zombie tells his disturbing tale with a deliberately slow burn yet, never at any moment does he ease up on the atmosphere that something sinister and very wrong is going on here. Whether it’s the haunting visuals that he fills the film with or the excellent use of Griffin Boice and John 5′s score… which evoked Fabio Frizzi and Goblin at times… the film oozes atmosphere and keeps us involved even if the film’s narrative flow doesn’t always follow a tradition path. And as for the visuals, they range from haunting to shocking and as disturbing as they can be, they are also beautiful. This is certainly, at the very least, a visually striking film. And despite all the shocking imagery, I actually feel Zombie showed some restraint at times which made the horror elements all the more horrifying when they arrive. And Rob is not the only Zombie to watch here, Sheri, who proved she had some acting chops as Deborah Myers, is again very effective here as Heidi, a woman with emotional troubles and past bad habits who is being drawn into a living nightmare that she is not equipped to fight. Jeff Daniel Phillips is also good playing one of the two Hermans who DJ with her, a man with feelings for Heidi who tries to help her without knowing the true cause of her emotional down-turn. And Zombie also peppers his film with genre vets like Ken Foree (the other Herman), Meg Foster, Sid Haig and the effectively spooky trio of Dee Wallace, Patricia Quinn and Judy Geeson as Heidi’s neighbors, who are more then they appear. Overall Zombie has created his most interesting work yet and one that won’t appeal to everyone. It evokes a type of horror in the vein of Argento’s early films or Fulci’s The Beyond, that they don’t make anymore. But, that’s why I liked it so much. Zombie remembers a time before the MTV generation when horror films took their time to draw you in and had loads of atmosphere. He also knows, like those films, that there is a time to shock you too, and he does that well. And finally, he knows that sometimes the best way to make sure you leave the theater spooked is to not wrap everything up in a neat little bow and thus leave you looking over your shoulder when you are home at night. I would recommend this film highly for those who don’t mind a slow burn and a splash of avant garde with their horror. Not perfect but, a really spooky flick for those that can appreciate it.

De toda la filmografía de Rob Zombie, en mi opinión está es la mejor que ha realizado y la que menos atención recibió.Desde un Soundtrack espectacular, el score y especialmente la melodía de los Señores de Salem es -de verdad- tétrica, y una historia interesante sobre el aquelarre.Zombie siempre escribe los guiones con diálogos llenos de pura grosería y puro grito y caos, y un punto a favor es que aquí no hace eso, aunque los personajes sigan siendo de la misma línea, sus diálogos no caen como en antiguos trabajos.El Blu-ray+Dvd+Digital Copy tiene audio en inglés y subtítulo en español.

Muy buena película, sin embargo, esta edición en DVD es pésima, la calidad de video es semejante a ver un VHS. Incluye subtítulos en español y audio solo en inglés en 5.1. La impresión sobre el disco también es muy deficiente, parece pirata.

Llegó antes de lo previsto. No creo que es la película más emblemática de Rob Zombie, pero aún así cuida muchos detalles: fotografía, locaciones, vestimenta, música. Además disfrutar la belleza de Sheri Moon Zombie.

En cuanto al contenido del DVD no tengo problema alguno, se ve y escucha perfectamente. Trae subtítulos. Lo que no me agradó fue el tipo de embalaje que se usó, muy endeble y no protege al 100% el artículo.

Movies was pretty good, not his best but definitely RZ material, Sherri hot as ever, cool photography, even cooler Soundtrack by John5.DVD is dogsh1t, no extras at all. Only cool thing was the laminated holographic cover.