New Clip from Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem: Sheri Moon Zombie Deals with a Mouth-Breather
Did Rob Zombie make an art film? Initial reviews for The Lords of Salem — which have generally been less-than-positive, by the way — suggest that anyone expecting a traditional narrative is going to be disappointed:
“…Zombie goes right down the rabbit hole, with the film taking on the vibe of an early Roman Polanski film gone mad, or Kenneth Anger at his most Satanic… It’s bold and experimental…” –JoBlo
“…as the film progresses logic and narrative structure become less important. We enter a world warped by hallucination; the final act in particular degenerates into a series of weird distorted imagery, animation and demonic dwarves.” –The List
“…overly artistic, bizarre and unfulfilling…” –Bloody Disgusting
“…for all its halfway-compelling ideas and characters, The Lords of Salem simply flies off the rails… garish, ugly, [and] confusing…” –FEARnet
“…the slow pace and undefined reality (aka surreal nightmare sequences and a general blending of reality with horror fantasy) left me wishing for a more traditional narrative and some definitive plot elements.” –We Got This Covered
“Zombie still can’t or doesn’t want to tell a story, and The Lords of Salem doesn’t even really pretend to make sense, or to be paced in any rational way.” –Film Blather
Now that a third clip (here’s the first and here’s the second) from the film has been released, this unusual approach is starting to become clear; once again, we have a scene with no dialogue and a ton of atmosphere, which does not seem to be operating by the rules of reality. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and negative reactions to such a film are to be expected. Stanley Kubrick, Zombie’s apparent hero, got killed by the critics on a regular basis, due to what the critic Lee Siegel has deemed “art phobia” — an inability to comprehend any vision that doesn’t cohere with their own personal experience — and pretty all of Kubrick’s films are now considered classics. So Zombie might be in good company.
Of course, it’s also possible that the movie just sucks.
Watch the new clip by clicking on the screen cap below. The Lords of Salem comes out April 19 via Anchor Bay.
