I’ll give Rob Zombie one thing: he sure knows how to put together one hell of a trailer.
A barrage of satanic imagery awaits in the first official preview for “The Lords of Salem,” the latest horror offering from the “Halloween” auteur that centers on a Massachussetts radio DJ (Sheri Moon Zombie) who begins to experience horrifying visions of a long-dead witch coven after playing a mysterious record.
Praised by Drew as “a major step forward for Zombie as a director” in his Toronto Film Festival review, the film is Zombie’s first since his uneven (albeit interesting) 2009 sequel “Halloween 2,” and from the looks of the trailer it may turn out to be his most visually-arresting effort yet. Almost entirely dialogue-free save for an unnerving chant (“Satan, come to us – we are ready”) and the promise of a demonic birth (“On the rare occasion, a special child appears”), the spot leans heavily on Brandon Trost’s vivid cinematography and a fitting score courtesy of Mozart’s final composition, the haunting “Requiem Mass in D Minor.”
Given Zombie’s ouevre, the visuals on hand are appropriately macabre – from witches burning at the stake to pagan animal masks to the stunning sight of Sheri Moon straddling a goat and twirling her long blonde hair in some sort of wicked slo-mo trance.
While I haven’t been a huge fan of the majority of Zombie’s films (“The Devil’s Rejects” is the only one of his I truly connected with), I have to say I’m looking forward to checking out what he has in store with “The Lords of Salem” after watching this spot.
My grade for the trailer: A-. After viewing it below, be sure and grade it for yourself at top left.
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“The Lords of Salem” does not yet have a release date.