The Lords of Salem Review

The Plot:

The Lords of Salem is the latest offering from Rob Zombie (Halloween, Halloween II). The writer, director, composer and rock music icon brings to screen a “chiller” film which follows the story of Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie), a radio station DJ, who receives a wooden box containing a record given as “ a gift from the Lords.” Heidi listens to the ‘painful’ music, and eventually plays it on air during her show, which sends both herself and other ladies listening in Salem into a trance like state triggering flashbacks of the towns violent ‘witch riddled’ past.  Something is definitely afoot in this historic town, and as the film develops we find out whether Heidi is going mad, or if the Lords of Salem really are coming back to reek havoc and revenge on Salem.

The Good:

The film starts out in quite a compelling way. Expectations aren’t high as horror films in general are very subjective depending on how much you take to the genre, but within the first thirty minutes the film seems relatively accessible to all. We follow the central character Heidi – a recovering drug addict, with a minor level of local celebrity due to her position as a well known DJ as she sets the scene of her everyday life: sleeping, struggling to wake up at a decent hour, living in a managed apartment block and working in quite a cool job covering the late shift with two other DJ’s.

There’s a good level of intrigue into how the story is going to progress, and Sheri Moon Zombie holds her first leading lady role quite well. She represents a character who isn’t flawless, but not too damaged at the same time. She doesn’t dwell obviously on her previous past addictions, yet we are aware of it. She lives a relatively solitary life, yet is friendly to those around her and so you believe who she is, and why the story is centering around her.

Rob Zombie also eases the audience in to Salem’s dark history with flashbacks to a group of women (The Lords) practicing demonic rituals back in 1692, and provides the link from history to the modern day story by showing these women ultimately casting a curse over Salem and the descendants of the Judge condemning them to death. These flashbacks appear periodically throughout the film, helping the story move along, however feel more and more surreal as time passes.

Throughout the film you realize that Heidi herself is directly affected by the history of Salem, and particularly when she hears the music from this record that she cannot help but play again and again. It’s interesting to see her natural human inquisitive nature to this strange gift and how the symptoms she experiences force her to question her sanity and well-being and puts her own history with drug addiction back in the forefront of both her own mind and that of those around her who care about her. This slow demise keeps the audience engaged and inquisitive enough to keep watching the film, but unfortunately, it’s at this point that Rob Zombie decides to inject his own movie “rock n roll”, which sadly makes the film much more problematic than it actually needs to be.

The Bad:

One of the great problems, of The Lords of Salem is its spiraling tumble into absolute absurdism. You know it’s never a good sign when the audience burst out laughing during a horror/thriller movie. The two just don’t normally go together, but sadly was the case during the Lords of Salem. As the ‘Lords’ get closer and closer to returning to Salem and completing the curse, the characters that come with them get more and more bizarre. The landlady of Heidi’s apartment block seems initially as a sweet and caring aid, but with the appearance of her “multi-accented” sisters, they almost become a comedic trio, full of stereotypes reading palms, tea leaves and minds….

The flashbacks also become more absurd and begin using every demonic reference in the book – previous devil spawn incantations, burning witches on pyres, goats, upside down crosses phallic symbols and references and lots of unnecessary nakedness. The problem here is that although these are obviously referenced in history books or occult resources, they don’t all need to be featured in one film and certainly not for the sake of being featured. Time and time again the audience found themselves looking around at each other as a lot of this didn’t make sense. The grand finale of The Lords of Salem felt very likened to the LSD scene in the musical Hair. It featured lots of oversized characters that just seemed to have been raised from the pits of hell for no real reason other than to provide an eclectic setting to finish the film, which frankly left the majority of the audience baffled.

The Ugly Truth:

Overall, if you’re after something surreal then maybe The Lords of Salem is one for you. It doesn’t build tension enough to feel like a true horror/thriller film or provide enough believable reference to make you feel that given the history this film could be based on any sort of fact – or made to look like that. It’s not a hard watch and it certainly will keep you guessing, but whether that is guessing in a good way or bad way remains to be seen.

Game Of Thrones Sophie Turner Interview

Red carpet News caught up with beautiful Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner on the red carpet at the the European Premiere of new Gerard Butler movie Olympus Has Fallen. Sophie spoke about the much anticipated third season of the HBO fantasy series. She also reacted to the recent news that the she has been officially confirmed for a further 4th season.

Sophie revealed how excited she is about the ‘game-changing’ third season, which promises to see a dramatic change in the fortunes of many of the shows lead characters. In particular she reveals that her own character Sansa Stark will finally go form being a pawn to a player in the Game of Thrones this series.

Sophie also shares her own choice for favorite character and explain just what she thinksmakes the show overall so awesome. She finally leaves us with a wonderfully giggly message for devoted Game of Thrones fans

Full Video Interview below:

Transformers 4 To Film In China

Paramount have reached a landmark deal with two major Chinese media companies, an offshoot of state broadcaster CCTV and streaming service Jiaflix, to partly film sequel Transformers 4 in China.

China is now officially the second largest market for films in the world with box office revenue of $1.8 billion in 2012 alone.  Western studios are increasingly keen to exploit that booming box office and are beginning to specifically target films for the Chinese market. Iron Man 3 being a recent example, with a specific version of the film being made for Chinese cinemas to include additional scenes shot in Beijing and relevant product placements.

State run China Movie Channel have described the deal with Paramount as “The beginning of a new era of collaboration with Hollywood studios”. The specific deal for Transformers 4 will see the Chinese companies contribute to the cost of production in exchange for a share of the eventual box office revenues.

Michael Bay will once again direct Transformers 4, ensuring that audiences in China and around the world will definitely have plenty of pretty explosions to enjoy. After all, there’s truly no language more universal than CGI fighting robots.

Benedict Cumberbatch Joins Del Toro Horror Film

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch continues his unofficial mission to conquer every genre of cinema, fresh from starring roles in Stark Trek Into Darkness and a biopic of controversial Wikileaks founder Julian Assange  the rising British Star will reportedly join the cast of horror film Crimson Peak.

Cumberbatch will join a cast which already includes Emma Stone, Charlie Hunnam and Jessica Chastain. Director Guillermo Del Toro is currently rewriting a screenplay for the project, loosely described as a haunted house horror.

Details of plot, characters and an ultimate release date are yet to be revealed.  Although it’s safe to assume Sherlock probably already has it all figured out…

Carrie Remake Trailer

Check out the first official trailer below for the new remake of horror classic Carrie, starring a slightly terrifying Chloe Moretz. Based on the original tale by horror master Stephen King the new film sees a lonely teenage girl unleashing her newly developed telekinetic powers to take revenge on her unhinged mother and the high school bullies that torment her.

You can check out the new trailer and our interview below with pretty star Gabriella Wilde.