The Lords of Salem (2013)

That was an excellent one.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

The Lords of Salem is everything you can expect from a Rob Zombie movie, entertaining at times, but forgettable as a whole (As a Rob fan I think the only movie that doesn't apply to the rule is The Devil's Rejects).This movie starts well, interesting soundtrack, good atmosphere and aestethics, there are some amazing scenes and Rob Zombie proves to be a director that knows how to set an image, but the film turns out to be very slow and underwhelming. I can get it at the beginning, you try to set the mood and atmosphere but if you are 50 minutes into the movie and it still feels like the start, you have a problem.The end, there you have the biggest issue, Rob Zombie is obviously someone with many and great ideas, but this particular film lacks of consistency at the scenes once it reaches the end. The movie also lacks the climax it seems to be building to. The chaotic scene of the final coven or the scene with the opera singing in the palace seems so off with the general tone of the film that it gets annoying.There's no doubt about Zombie's passion, he's obviously inspired by those early classic supernatural horror films we all love, and his as adaptation of the style is quite great, but it doesn't bring nothing new to the table neither leaves anything behind after the title. Nothing against renditions, but you need more to make a good movie As I say at the beginning, the movie is forgettable, some good moments in it and it may be a good film to play when you got nothing more to see and just want something easy to kill time, but I don't see myself revisiting it in the future.

Not terribly impressive piece of work from mr. Zombie.His first movies HOUSE OF A 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS albeit far from amazing at least showed a spark of talent and a desire to tell horror-stories from a different perspective than the usual horror fare often taking the side of the 'bad guys' instead of the 'good'.But with this one it just seems like the desire is not quite there and it just falls kind of flat... Well actually very flat, the first half shows a little potential but the second half just fades out to emptiness and it becomes rather anticlimactic and you lose interest in both plot and the characters fates.As a horror it completely fails because it's not scary at all, and some scenes are just flat out ridiculous.Rob Zombie casts a lot of the usual suspects including his wife Sheri in the lead, she's okay but she's been better... Her character is a bit more boring I suppose in comparison to her other appearances in Rob's movies which have usually been quite on the wild side, even though Rob makes sure that Sheri Moons the camera even in this one (pun intended).Perhaps Rob Zombie should let someone else write his next movie and solely focus on directing, or wait until he has a story worth telling cause this was not one of them.

As I do, then this movie is a fantastic treat. I originally rated this baby 10 stars, but after reading a few reviews I agree on one thing, the story is a bit predictable. Take away that, and this movie to me is everything perfect about cinema. I love movies most when I am attacked with numerous unsettling images and sounds. The scenery, cinematography, atmosphere, color schemes, is overwhelmingly magnificent. Plus, it has more of a plot for the average movie watcher to enjoy then something like House of 1000 Corpses. This movie is dark and beautiful, and the little details are what make it an outstanding achievement. I love Rob Zombie's style, and this movie succeeded on pretty much every single aspect. It did more to impress me than most of the big blockbusters, and Zombie did it on a tiny little budget. How can you not applaud this work of art? Disturbing, creepy, but never less than sadistically brilliant. Loved it.

If the box office failure of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 was any indication that Rob was losing his touch, this film confirms it. I loved house of 1000 corpses and The Devil's Rejects, but when he made his Halloween movies, the uniqueness of his "style" began to wear off. It had simply become a commonplace horror trend. I hated his Halloween movies, but not just for the fact that they were bad remakes. They were nothing new, it was just the same old stuff that Rob had done before. All of this would of been fine if they had been his first films, but now that his film making style has been so often imitated, it wasn't new, exciting, or unique anymore. After Rob had finished with his Halloween films, I just thought to myself: "Okay, Rob's just not good at properties that aren't his own. Maybe his next project will be better." Well...it isn't! I have no idea what Rob was going for with this film, but all I can say, is that this film is without a doubt his worst! His Halloween films were awful, but at least with those I'd be able to stay awake! You read that last sentence correctly, this film was so painfully boring, that I couldn't even keep my eyes open while watching it! It's not that the film has a slow pace, the problem is that the main character isn't interesting at all. No matter what kind of horror film you're making, you have to have interesting characters! The main character/characters must have something about them that makes us the audience, sympathize with them! That's the reason as to why this film was so boring and forgettable to me. Now, the core plot or idea of this film is actually really good. During the notorious "Salem witch trials" A coven of Witches place a curse on the reverend that plans to have them executed, and the descendant of the reverend is the target of this curse. As interesting as the film's premise may be, The film's protagonist(The reverend's descendant) is what kills it. She does nothing to make us care about her. If we don't care about her, then we don't care about what happens to her in the film. This is a huge problem! Characters and story are what drives a film, and if your film doesn't have anything to drive it, then what's the point of watching it? Rob Zombie's prior films (at least some of the time.) had good, well written characters. Not here however, in fact, I couldn't care less! I'm sorry Rob, as a former fan, I just have to say that you just don't have it anymore. You're more than welcome to try again and prove me wrong, but as far as I'm concerned, just stick to music from now on.