Review of The Lords of Salem (2013) by Revron — 05 Sep 2013

I've never cared for Rob Zombie's films. As a writer, I think he's terrible as all his movies look like he just stole plot points, themes and ideas from other films (there IS a point where paying homage becomes outright stealing) but, as a director, I think the man has an amazing eye and, as long as he didn't write it, he COULD make decent horror films.

I was actually really surprised at how good "The Lords of Salem" was as it is nothing like his other movies. The film, for the most part, is grounded and doesn't play out like a demented cartoon like his other works. The film has substance, tone and actual scares playing in it. Zombie really showed an evolution and a newly discovered maturity with this film.

Just as surprising as Rob's sudden turn is the fact his wife Sheri Moon Zombie (playing the lead) goes from being an annoying scenery chewer in his other movies to someone with some skills. She really surprised me at how amazing her performance was in this one.

That being said, "The Lords of Salem" still isn't that great of a film. All the hard work at establishing a solid scary movie starts to unravel in the middle of the film and it starts to turn into the silliness we've seen from him before. However, the movie does seem like a step in the right direction for Rob Zombie as a film maker.