“Lords of Salem” reviewed: Rob Zombie’s Most Ambitious Yet? & Who Gets it?

Looks Like “Anchor Bay” is the winning bid for distribution as word begins to leak out from those who have been lucky enough to catch the screening for Zombie’s new flick “Lords of Salem” @ TIFF‘s Midnight Madness, unfortunately, I am not one of them, but I’ll give you a general overview of what I have read, and thus far, while reviews are mixed (what Zombie isn‘t?), it seems to be getting fair reviews.

I have to say that I was a little on the fence early in the year about “Lords”. I hate both the “Halloween” sequel & and that fucking moronic cartoon of his, “Haunted World of Superbeasto”. But from what I have been seeing (still wise from) from “Lords” and what I have been reading, I am beginning to think I might be putting “Lords Of Salem” back at the top of the list of things to see.

For those of you who have yet to know what the film is about:

Radio DJ Heidi (Sherrie Moon Zombie) hosts a show along with her two cohorts she dubs the Hermans (Ken Foree & Jeff Philips) called the “Big H Radio Team”, when they receive a mysterious wooden box containing a vinyl record, a gift for Heidi from a band called the “Lords”. The record starts to play backwards when it is played causing Heidi to experience flashbacks from “happier times” & that of a past trauma, that trauma is the Salem Witch Trials themselves. The arrival of another wooden box from the “Lords” presents the “Big H Team” this time with free tickets, posters and records to host a gig in Salem. Soon, Heidi and her compadres find themselves far from the rock & roll spectacle they had been expecting. Where the original “Lords of Salem” are hell-bent on returning and they are out for blood.

In other words “Lords of Salem” has that total 70’s vibe that he is so famous for when it comes to his films. Which is cool -to me anyway- because I think some of the best horror really came out that decade.

As the movie progresses it turns out that Heidi’s life pretty much revolves around her work & her going to AA meetings to help her to on the path of the straight & narrow. But after her flashback with the “Lords” record & how the music, not only, effected her but all the women that heard it, Heidi begins to withdraw again into drugs & alcohol. However, that isn’t the only problem Heidi has to face. Turns out her world is becoming more & more intruded upon by her landlord, Lacy Doyle, played by Judy Gleeson (“Horror Planet”), & her two cousins, Sonny (Dee Wallace) & Megan (Patricia Quinn), who all have a secret agenda of their own. But you are gonna have to go see what that my be.

As usual, you can the same gaggle of Zombie cronies in “Lords”, from Sid Hag, Udo Kier, Michael Berryman, to Richard Lynch (1940-2012), along with a few fresh faces; creepy-ass Billy Drago being one of them.

I hear (or should I say: read) that the third act looks like an old Polanski film gone awry; resembling more of “Rosemary’s Baby” meets “Supriria” than anything else, that I just have to see.    

News From the World of “BATES MOTEL”

TV guide is reporting that A&E have finally found their Norman to play opposite Vera Farmiga’s Norma with honor going to Freddie Highmore.

British born Highmore is probably best known for his portrayal of the luckiest kid in the world who finds the last GOLDEN TICKET, Charlie Bucket, in Tim Burton’s version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

“BATES MOTEL” will delve into the inner young mind and workings of the godfather of Serial Killers (for the screen that is) and his sexxxy & twisted relationship with dear old Mommy.

A&E is  set to debut “BATES MOTEL” sometime in 2013.

Is there a Deal in the Works For Rob Zombie's "Lords of Salem"?

Rob Zombie should be waking up in Toronto this morning a happy man.

It appears that he has a little bidding war on his hands for his newest featured film “Lords of Salem” that premiered at Midnight Madness on Monday.

So far Anchor Bay is at the top of the running with a 1.5 million dollar (guaranteed) minimum offer for distribution. Image & Millennium are also in the mix along with Lionsgate and Open Road of trying to get their greedy little hands on what is being touted as Zombie’s biggest & most mature film to date.

Yes, I said mature.

If you’re expecting of along the lines of the craziness of “House of a 1000 Corpses” or the gallons of blood spilled by Michael Meyers in “Halloween” or the handheld 70’s grittiness we saw in “Devil’s Rejects” you are going to be greatly disappointed. Zombie this time around has gone from gore to  actual scare with “Lords”.

In an interview hours before the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival for “Lords of Salem”, Zombie said: “All the movies I have made in the past are these sort of very raw, handheld, physically violent type movies, where the violence is really in your face. And this movie [LORDS] is not violent at all, or bloody, or anything like that.”

HUH? Is Rob Zombie starting to get mellow in his age?

“I wanted to make something that was sort of slow paced, psychological mindfuck,” [Rob] Zombie went on to say.

For those who have had the pleasure of seeing “Lords” are saying that this may be his most darkest, most unnerving film yet.

Back in the day when [Rob] Zombie was more commonly known as Rob Cummings, growing up in Haverhill, Massachusetts (A town not to far from Salem) his elementary school used to take the students to see the reenactments of the witch trails for field trips. (how awesome would that been? The best I ever got was a trip to the JAY’S Potato Chips & got to watch them being made) So I guess we have to blame the education system of Massachusetts for giving us the likes of Rob Zombie.

However, the story for “Lords of Salem” still reminds from something out of  1970’s big budget horror we would find with guys like Cronenberg  or even in the 80‘s with the likes of Lynch (reportedly Zombie had a 2.5 million dollar budget, incidentally Zombie’s  smallest budget thus far for a film) with the premise of a DJ named Heidi (Sharrie Moon Zombie)  receives a mysterious wooden box containing a vinyl record, assuming (one should never assume…lol) that the box has come from the band “Lords” as part of their promotional package, but as Heidi plays the record to her surprise it starts to play backwards -and we all know where that leads, right?

And things just go bad from there as the next arrival (another wooden box) from the “Lords” presents Heidi and her team with free tickets, posters and records to host a gig in Salem. Soon, Heidi and her cohorts are far from the rock spectacle they're expecting. The original Lords of Salem are returning and they're out for blood.

I guess will just have to wait and see when it comes to this new, kinder, gentler Rob Zombie…lol.

Up next for the horror master? A little movie about hockey & the 1970’s Philadelphia Flyers.

A&E Joins the Occult

A&E have joined forces with X-Files alum, James Wong and big time producer Michael Bay and gave the go ahead on the pilot for their show “Occult”.

The premise for the show is centered around a FBI agent (X-Files anyone?…lol) as he returns to active duty after losing it while investigating the disappearance of his wife (Sounds like they are taking a little from another Chris Carter and his book of stories and “Millennium”). So of course they send the guy down to the newly formed occult unit.

Makes sense to me…lol.

With the go ahead, A&E seems to be becoming more and more a supernatural/horror genre network, and with the wreckage that is the SYFY channel, is a huge sigh of relief for fans.

In case you have been living under a rock, A&E also airs “The Walking Dead”, “The Killing” (while not supernatural, but definitely falls in the whole conspiracy realm ala “The Lone Gunmen”), and the soon to be released “Psycho” spin off: “The Bates Motel” and the American version of the Danish hit: “Those Who Kill” which takes down the rabbit hole of serial killers. Again a little nod to “Millennium”.

DEADNATION Preaches Obscenities with Their Latest CD

I went to the old mail box today and found that the band DEADNATION were nice enough to sent me their new CD “PREACHER OF OBSCENITIES”.

Since I had never had heard their music before and from the name of the CD as well as the cover art I was expecting something from the realms of Slayer or bands like them.

In fact I could have been more wrong with that perception.

What I did receive into my ears reminded me of something on par with a more techno savvy “DOG FASHION DISCO” meets “MINISTRY” meets old school “WHITE ZOMBIE”. And it was rather refreshing to hear something that wasn’t just another rip off of another bands’ sound. Like “ZOMBIE” “DEADNATION” uses a lot movie media as add ins or intros into songs -while I don’t mind the use of other media as filler it can be slightly over done- however, that is where the “ZOMBIE” coloration ends then turning into more melodic and upbeat (strangely enough) fast paced Industrial metal album that mixed a techno sound with some rap and while it can be a pain in the ass to blend those styles of music “DEADNATION” does it rather well with grooving it all together.

Some of the notables from “PREACHER OF OBSENITIES” are “DICK IN THE DIRT” and “BALZ IS DEAD”, two tracks I can see being played in the Industrial Dance Clubs like NEO; while some of the more dancy stuff really works some of their more bluesy stuff (“SHUT ME DOWN BLUES”) doesn’t come off as well, really slowing down the momentum of the rest of the tracks. And while the slower songs are slow they still have a hip vibe to them. I can see the last song on the disk (“COME ON, PUT IT!”) in some Tarantino style indie film.

If you are looking for some new for the car or looking fore something trippy at your next party you might want to check out “DEADNATION”.

Three and a half severed heads out four on the old rating scale.

http://deadnation666.bandcamp.com/album/preacher-of-obscenities