The Lords Of Salem

2 of my personal favourite horror movies House Of 1000 Corpses and The Devil´s Rejects, are simply classics already. While the horror genre were spitting out boring stories, and no interesting stories, Rob Zombie, both musician and director, turned everything around with his debut movie House Of 1000 Corpses in 2003. The style, the characters, the actors, he nailed everything you want in a great horror movie. The Devil´s Rejects were even better in every possible way, i don´t know how many times i have seen it since the release on dvd. So, after making Halloween and Halloween 2, i only heard rumours about a new movie is being planned. This got me really excited, especially when i read he was ready to try something different. Is The Lords Of Salem another classic from this incredible director, or is he running out of ideas ?

Heidi Hawthorne ( Sheri Moon Zombie ) works at a local radio station, together with Whitey ( Jeff Daniel Phillips ) and Munster ( Ken Foree ). On every show the discuss all kinds of things and have special guests. One day a mysterious wooden box containing a vinyl record arrives for Heidi. The cover says :- A gift from the Lords. As she and Whitey play the vinyl record, it plays backwards, and Heidi experience a flashback of trauma. Whitey decide to play the record again, on radio, as it turns out the record plays normal again. Listeners seem to like it, so Whitey decide to name the album The Lords Of Salem. While strange things begin to happen in Heidi´s home with the neighbours, another gift arrives to the radio station. Why is Heidi chosen and who is behind all of this ?

I will agree with some critisim about The Lords Of Salem, that this is not on the same level of film making as Rob Zombies first 2 movies. But to call this shit, like some movie reviewes did ? Let´s think for a minute, we get shit movies released every year, even if the audience still want to see them. And even if young actors from Disney get a major role, does not make it a good movie. But this is not a bad movie, just because it is very different. The Lords Of Salem is a very daring try for Rob Zombie, he leaves his usual grindhouse horror and does a satanist psychotic motion picture, with a very different approach. In some ways, it feels like a natural step outside Rob´s comfort zone, to go on another path into a world of darkness, So far, so good. The biggest problem with The Lords Of Salem is that the Rob Zombie wants to give so many things, but try too hard to put the pieces together. If you remember The Devil´s Rejects, it was a simple story but very effectively made with the brutal grindhouse feeling. Here we are served a satanist movie that looks really good, but the story does not offer very much. Thankfully the gore, and the satanic atmosphere gives The Lords Of Salem a positive vibe at least. I hope that Rob comes back next time with something just as powerful as his first 2 motion pictures. I know he have a lot of ideas, and he is one of the best horror directors out there. Until then, this will at least give you a pleasent moment, while we wait for another classic.

Rating: DDD