Is it a perfect film? No. Has Sheri Moon Zombie finally learned how to act? No. Has Rob Zombie reprieved himself after the dismal flopping failures of Halloween and Halloween 2? That's debatable. But I liked Lords Of Salem. Sue me. I liked the Kubrick inspired dream sequences, the reckless decor of Heidi's apartment, the autumnal beauty of Salem, Massachusetts, a town I have been to and love deeply. I don't believe for one single second that Heidi's lame radio show would be the hit of the Eastern Seaboard, nor is it true that there are no female Rush fans. And goddamn it, no witches were burned at the stake in Salem. But fuck it, I loved the atmosphere of this film, the raggedy, animal-hide draped Meg Foster and the eerie bone orchestra dirge which becomes the axis around which the entire film revolves.
I can't believe more people haven't seen/heard about this film. If not for seminal heavy metal band Iron Maiden and their video for the song "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" this film, co-starring a then-not-quite-famous-yet Christopher Lee, might have slipped into obscurity forever. The story seems somewhat silly and implausible in places. There's enough fog, creepy trees, neglected graveyards and weirdo people wandering around this black and white film to make one perhaps wonder why anyone with half a brain would want to stay in that town, and the entire sinister plan could have easily been foiled by one dyslexic individual, but no matter. It's a lovely little film, criminally overlooked for too long.
Oh how I love this goofy little Russian gem from the 60s. How it escaped being shown on MST3K in between The Magic Voyage of Sinbad and The Day the Earth Froze is beyond me. When a drunken, philandering novice monk runs afoul of a withered wicked witch, he frantically beats her to death...only to discover that she is, in fact, the beautiful young daughter of a wealthy merchant. He is assigned to preside over her funeral, but she refuses to remain dead and is pretty pissed off at him to boot. For three nights, she relentlessly torments the monk, weeping blood tears for her early demise, air-surfing on her coffin and driving the drunken dipshit to the brink of insanity. But can he summon the faith required to survive an encounter with the dread demon VIY?
Is this a witch movie? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. I think. Sorta kinda in a way, I guess. No, it is. An unhappy young woman moves in with her new boyfriend in an attempt to escape her shitty parents and the injury which has cut her career as a professional runner short, only to discover that a young woman went missing from her boyfriends lofty high rise. His friends are eerie and there's a spooky pit in the basement. Also, her boyfriend seems to be several hundred years old. What the fuck is going on? Nothing you're expecting. This is one of the very rare films whose ending caught me totally off guard.
Why would anyone in their right mind pass up an opportunity to see Barbara Steele, skin painted blue/green and sporting a crown of golden horns, presiding over a dungeon full of young, leather clad, goat masked, muscular, oiled up young men wielding whips? This is a fun, kinky little gogo party of a horror film and I liked it. I've never understood the bad reviews this one has garnered over the years. It's clever, wickedly funny and refuses to take itself too seriously. Oh, and along with Babs, both Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee are in it. therefore, it is physically impossible for this film to suck. So there.
A semi-retired hitman is bullied back to work by his nagging wife. Seems like a pretty straightforward gangster film as the haunted hitman reluctantly picks up his gun again and sets out to blow a few fuckers away in order to pad his seriously deflated bank account. But why do his victims seem to recognize him? Why are they happy to be killed by him? Who are the weird naked people running around in the fields at night wearing masks made of straw? What the fuck is going on? Like Left Bank, this film builds up slowly and relentlessly, culminating in a totally unexpected climax that left me reeling.
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