dworldeater Rob Zombie's The Lords Of Salem is in my opinion his best film and one that is real well done and original. This movie may not suite the tastes of some of the fans of his previous horror projects, however I do enjoy House Of 1000 Corpses and its sequel The Devil's Rejects quite a bit. I also thought his remake of Halloween was decent and much better and more interesting than most reboots of classic horror genre staples. Anyways, as a fan of the horror genre clearly Rob Zombie is a devoted fan and knows his stuff. He also puts forth the effort to make his films good and goes out of his way to cast good actors that usually don't get their due and are not seen enough in big Hollywood productions. Plus he casts his wife, Sherri Moon Zombie who not only looks great, but gives solid performances on screen. In my opinion, Sherri gives her best performance here and is one that has the most depth. The Lords Of Salem is excellent, creepy, atmospheric horror that brings to mind such classics as Rosemary's Baby, The Shining, and the films of Dario Argento. While, Zombie has no problem wearing his influences on his sleeve, The Lords Of Salem has its own flavor and is real refreshing in modern times where films of this type are nearly extinct and lame and formulaic crap is the norm. I'm grateful for movies like this one that are a nod to the old school, but still have much to offer viewers that love the genre and are interested in seeing something done in the same style, but have a lot to offer with depth and substance while maintain a sense of quality as well.

TDeMona I had no expectations on this movie. Maybe my appreciation is by some amount explained by my enjoyment of all kinds of witch or occult things - and by the mere fact that I didn't expect anything from it - largely because it was so critically banned and I truly hated Rob Zombie's Halloween fiascoes. But in the end, Lords of Salem showed up as a real, moody, beautifully simplistic and most of all interesting occult thriller.The obligatory Sheri Moon Zombie has, for a change, a good role as a former drug addict radio jockey who finds herself tormented by visions and experiences related to the old nick after she plays a mystifying record by the band "Lords" in her rock'n'roll show. The lead role is also a perfect example on how to write identifiable and sympathetic characters without making them insufferably boring - an almost unprecedented case in the modern, main stream cinema.Other main role is inhabited by Bruce Davidson as an author who is interested about the history of the town of Salem. He starts to find clues about the coven of witches disturbing Sheri Moon's character's life. Other actors include always pleasant Ken Foree and Patricia Quinn, who still in her older age manages to create a rather mesmerizing antagonist (or rather, one of them).Stylistic stuff Rob Zombie is so known for fits into this film like Satan to Halloween night after few beers. The movie is unbelievably pretty to look at in it's nicely grungy way, and for once the visuals serve the story and the mood, and not the other way around.By no means am I saying this is new The Devil's Rejects - in terms of quality or otherwise; the middle section staggers a little, the writer character gets pushed to serve his part of the story kind of stupidly and some scenes go a tad into the direction of unintentional comedy. Though, of course, Satan is one of those things that are nigh impossible to put in anything with any kind of seriousness - the whole concept is of course quite ridiculous. But even in that the film does a good job, as it draws you into it's world so that even the rougher edges don't really spoil the over all mood.I honestly can't understand the negativity people have about this movie - especially if by the same breath they support nothing-in-particular, ready made, over generic stuff as The House of the Devil. For over all, Lords of Salem is beautiful, small-scale but effective film with a lot of elements well put together, that one could ask for films to utilize more often.If not one of the best movies of the recent years, definitely one of the coolest.

NateWatchesCoolMovies The Lords Of Salem is a departure for director Rob Zombie, easing back from his usual brand of profane, blitzkrieg, jarring vulgarity and bloody excess that he burst into the film scene with. Here he tones down the craziness in favour of something far moodier, that gets under your skin subtly, instead of ripping it off and wearing it as a suit. Don't get me wrong, it's still an extremely disturbing movie, but it takes its time getting there, the horror a droning force of inevitability as opposed to a dancing clown jabbing you playfully with a butcher's knife. The story here is based on the infamous Salem Witch Trials, and in a grimy prologue we see several gnarled pagan banshees involved in a backwoods ritual. Jump to present day, we follow Heidi Hawthorne (Sheri Moon Zombie) an ex junkie radio DJ, along with her fellow broadcasters Jeffrey Daniel Philips and the one and only Ken Foree. They interview various guests and goof off on the daily, a lighthearted enough job. Until a mysterious vinyl record shows up, in a box decorated with a vaguely threatening symbol. When they play it on the air, a grinding, dreadful melody flows out across town, causing strange, hypnotic behaviour among the women of the area. Heidi starts having hallucinations and shocking daytime visions of terrible things, which lead her down a path of distraught behaviour and confusion. Something evil is brewing again in Salem, something to do with Heidi, and her three cackling landladies (Judy Geeson, Patricia Quinn and Dee Wallace). A local author (Bruce Davison, excellent) is onto it and believes he can prevent it from happening. The film has a classically satanic, sort of 1970's vibe, clearly a throwback to oddball horror stuff from back then, like flicks from Ken Russell and the like. There's an almost psychedelic aura to it, and indeed visually the film looks just stunning, alternating from dirty, lived in frames, to nightmarishly baroque, surreal set piece shrouded in smoke and thoughtful, painstaking production design. Anyone who's said Moon Zombie can't act in the past should bite their tongue with this one; she displays a believable, slow burning picture of an unraveling mental state, a girl deeply in trouble. Meg Foster gives an unrecognizable performance that will make you want to hide behind the couch, as the feral leader of the original Coven, Margaret Morgan. There's also nice work from Richard Fancy, Andrew Pine and Maria Conchita Alonso. It's a new leap for Rob Zombie, film wise, but he handles the brooding side of horror quite well, and even in a chaotic, balls to the wall final sequence of wtf-ness, he never goes loud and crude like he has in the past, keeping it reigned in to an atmospheric minimum. Not a film for everyone, but any fan of this type of horror will be pleased.

Aaron1375 I had wanted to view this film for some time as I had heard from a fair amount of people that it was good. I have also heard from a good many that this film was bad. Some said the only thing good about it was the ending and others who said it was good up until the ending. When a person who had seen it at the theaters told me how bad it was I asked her, "So I should probably wait to rent it out of Red Box?" To which she replied, "It would be a waste of a dollar." Well, it came on and I was able to watch it and the only thing it cost me was time, and quite frankly, I would like that time back! This was not a very enjoyable movie experience at all. Just random scenes flashing here and there to make it seem more artsy than it really was. Do not get me wrong, the premise was intriguing and I was sort of enjoying it for a bit at the beginning, but the intrigue dissipated rapidly and I was left wondering when it would get to the end as many people touted the ending as the only good part. Then it came and I was treated to more random shots and an absurd ending and then a cheesy voice over as the credits begin to flash across the screen. Suffice to say, anyone who thought that ending was good must have been high on something. Perhaps one was expected to be high when watching this thing and then it would have been a moving experience.The story starts out showing us witches in the woods performing a ceremony and then they get naked. This is by far the most disturbing scene in the film as these are some nasty looking witches. Then we are introduced to these three DJs who put on the most popular radio show in Salem and considering their show there must not be much competition. It is fun seeing Ken Foree of the original Dawn of the Dead though. This is another good aspect of the film, seeing all the people who have appeared in horror films packed into this one. Well the female member of the group gets a record from a group calling themselves, The Lords. She and her boyfriend or maybe he isn't, but yes he most likely is plays it and the sounds that emanate from it are reminiscent of Mayberry's band. It seems to have an effect on the female DJ, Heidi and other females as well when they play it on the air. Never to fear though, as the Bruce Davison character tries to put a stop to the horror! Not really, he is kind of pointless as he really is not trying to stop anything, but tell that to the three elderly women who take it upon themselves to watch over Heidi.Too many problems to really mention them all, but one of the main things I had a problem with is Sheri Moon as Heidi. She looks horrible and nasty, before she is possessed by the record! She and a fair number of the cast look as if they could use a shower! Think Rosemary's Baby had none of the cast washed or bathed a month before shooting. The film is also too long as there are a number of scenes in this one that are completely irrelevant. Heidi being a recovering crack addict being the main one as it added nothing to the plot which is full of holes like when the other two DJs are simply left outside during The Lords concert. So, they didn't question being locked out? The ending when they were showing just random stuff too looked bad as at one point it is animated and looked like something right out of a Monty Python sketch. Just not a whole lot worked, I could cite more problems, but then I would go over the maximum word count! So, no, this movie was not for me. It played out a lot like one of those devil movies from the 70's which I also usually dislike, so if that was Rob Zombie's intent…well done. Though he did add his own flair and added copious amounts of yucky female nudity (unless of course, you are in to really nasty looking old women naked), lots of dirty nasty looking people, and random scenes of things happening while the only hero of the piece was less effective than the cook in Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining. I thought Rob Zombie did a pretty good job with the Halloween sequels, but here he was trying to be too out there, trying too hard to make this film seem more intelligent than it was and he also had to put his wife in it making me think that is the only reason he made this one. Unfortunately, the only thing she brought to the table was the fact every time she was on the screen I was disturbed at how nasty her hair looked. Not a movie I can recommend at all and not a horror film I ever wish to peer at again.