Lords of Salem (2013)

 

Starring: Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips

Directed By: Rob Zombie

Written By: Rob Zombie

Rating: R

My Rating: 2.5 / 5

 

Once more we enter into the ever-disturbing and exciting mind of Rob Zombie with The Lords of Salem. Except not really because this was a much more toned down type of Rob Zombie horror than we've previously seen. It's Zombie trying to make more of a sadistic work of art rather than throwing a bunch of senseless, bloody violence and action up on the screen.

 

Sheri Moon Zombie makes her expected appearance here as late night radio DJ Heidi. Heidi's a somewhat likable gal who has many internal struggles she masks with her job and her two oddball coworkers. One night Heidi receives a mysterious record from "The Lords", and after hearing the ominous music her world starts to turn upside down.

 

The film follows Heidi through a trippy dream-like state filled with horrific and Devilish imagery of naked witches and odd demon creatures. Lots of symbolism here, and unless you plan on seeing the film more than a few times, a lot of it will probably go right over your head. Zombie delves into his artistic side much too often for any of it to really sink in, and much of what's portrayed just ends up making you feel very depressed.

 

The only highlight to me was Meg Foster, who plays the leader of an ancient coven of witches dubbed "The Lords of Salem". She's totally believable as a witch, in both looks and acting, although the majority of the time she's completely naked and like much of the nudity in this film it's completely unflattering but otherwise necessary in order to be believable (yes, expect to see a lot of full frontals of older ladies in this one).

 

But through all the disgusting nudity and bloody, demonic images the film never really goes anywhere. The ending left me with a lot more questions than answers but I wasn't bothered by that like I probably should have been. In the end, I felt bad for Heidi, but was so glad the nightmare was over.

 

Overall I would say that even if you're a Zombie fan you do best to skip this one. It's an experiment on Zombie's part and while I would give him an A for effort I hope he goes back to his conventional ways of filmmaking. In reference to the tagline, yes we have been waiting for a Zombie film but this is not it.

 

 

Summary

 

What I liked:

interesting imagery

Meg Foster

 

What I didn't like:

the characters

gross, excessive nudity

lack of violence and action