Review of The Lords of Salem (2013) by Brandon Z — 10 Sep 2012

The pacing of the first 15 minutes needs some adjusting. My first thought of this film, was not to think of it. It was shocking, disturbing, but not gory like his usual movies. It was a slow burning horror film that reminded me of Rosemary's Baby. The movie isn't scary as much as it is creepy, disturbing, and troubling. It will leave you extremely uncomfortable, which is the goal of this movie. It succeeded in making me feel dirty, but without much blood. It's his least violent film to date, but best directed. It is also one that will for sure be a cult classic. Rob Zombie did excellent in his visual imagery which is sure to cause much controversy with religious figures, as well as the religious community. Sheri Moon finally has a good role here, not saying her other acting films were bad, its just this one is actually well acted, figuring she is the main character. like I said, the first 30 minutes could have been better paced, maybe some edits could be done, the middle section becomes boring, but it seems Rob realized it and stepped it up. The last 30 minutes are totally visually repulsive, scary, troubling and so shocking that I could hear people in the audience talking among themselves as the credit rolled. No one seemed to hate it, more or less they were shocked and awed by the last 30 minutes of sheer devil worshiping. I felt like the whole theatre was going to bow down and screaming "SATAN! PRAISE SATAN". Over all well done, you succeeded in making the most disturbing and uncomfortable movie I have ever sat through, made me feel more dirty than the Human Centipede; and you did it without stitching people mouth to anus, or having people die in terrible ways like your last film. Here is my list of Rob's best films to date that I have seen:

1) Lords of Salem.

2) The Devil's Rejects.

3) Halloween.

4) H2.

5) House of 1000 Corpses.