THE LORDS OF SALEM

Unintentionally, Rob Zombie has become the poster boy for a “love it or hate it” kind of attitude in regards to directors within the horror genre.  His detractors are many, as are his fans, and it appears that once you are in one of the camps you are unlikely to ever change.  Zombie has a distinct style that is easily identified as his own, and because of this it appears that if you hate one of his films, you are likely to hate them all.  However something that I find odd is the huge amount of venom that is thrown at Zombie by his haters, they really are very aggressive and seem to take it personally when they dislike one of his films.  This kind of hate seems only aimed at Zombie and yet he makes no apologies for the kinds of films he makes and how he makes them.  He has a singular vision and if you are not on his wavelength, he could care less.  Personally I am a big fan of Rob Zombie and his films and consider his 2005 film “The Devil’s Rejects” to be an out and out masterpiece.  However since that film, his films have been a bit hit and miss.  There is much to like in each one, but as a whole, no film has come close to the successes of “The Devil’s Rejects”.  Studio interference appeared to be the main problem with his two “Halloween” films, so I was very excited when I learnt that for the first time since “The Devil’s Rejects”, Rob Zombie was going to have 100% creative control over “The Lords Of Salem”.  Were we in store for another masterpiece?

The film opens in 16^th century Salem, Massachusetts where we are witness to the deaths of the master witch Margaret Morgan and her coven of six by a local Reverend who burns these lovely ladies at the stake whilst still very much alive.  As her flesh burns around her, Margaret Morgan curses the women of Salem, both now and for generations to come, and curses the Reverend himself explaining that it will be his bloodline that becomes the vessel to which Satan will be reborn.  From this intense and fiery opening, we then cut to present day Salem, specifically the local radio station where we meet the DJ’s working there; Whitey, Herman and Heidi.  All are having a great time and it is obvious that they have great chemistry working together.  They are currently interviewing a very intense member of a black metal band who sprouts off about Satan and his preaching’s, calling God the ultimate oppressor.  Heidi and company laugh and joke about it all and do not take it too seriously, which seems to be the norm for this radio show; it’s about entertainment and just having a good time.  When their shift is over, all three head home, but as Heidi is passing the reception desk she is handed a mysterious wooden box that had been addressed to her.  Inside the box is a vinyl record and a note saying that it is a gift from “The Lords”.  Once home she plays the record, and immediately a dark and demonic tune pours from her speakers, putting Heidi in some sort of trance as she is pummeled with images from the past, specifically that of the witches burning at the stake.  From here on, Heidi’s life is never the same, as she continues down a dark and deadly path that appears certain to end in her doom.  She is constantly barraged with strange hallucinations and images she cannot explain, as she heads deeper and deeper towards her fate.  Is she losing her mind or has Margaret Morgan returned from the grave?

“The Lords Of Salem” is another one of my six most anticipated films of 2013 and I have to say that for the most part, the film delivered for me.  When Rob Zombie first announced this project, I was a little skeptical but at the same time, still excited.  The skepticism came from the fact that I think the subject of witches is a tricky one, especially in terms of making it scary.  However when he further explained that the film was going to be more of a slow-burn, mind-fuck kind-of film, this really got me interested.  As I have mentioned many times before, I love films that deal with the breakdown of the mind, which is what Zombie promised here and then he elevated my interest even more when he said that one of the main inspirations for the film was Polanski’s “The Tenant” which is one of my all time favourite films.  Now that I have had the chance to see the film, whilst I can still see some of “The Tenant” in “The Lords Of Salem”, it appears that more inspiration seemed to have come from Polanski’s earlier film, “Rosemary’s Baby”.

One thing I love in a director is when you can instantly identify the project as one of theirs.  Rob Zombie has a very distinct style; his films are always down and dirty, very gritty and almost always handheld.  Bravely Zombie wanted to push himself and try something different here and as such the handheld camerawork is gone and in its place is some gorgeously framed symmetrical cinematography.  The camera now moves at a slow, deliberate pace (or not at all) and yet amazingly, Zombie does not lose the intensity that was so prevalent in all of his previous films.  There is always a constant feel of dread, an atmosphere of doom throughout “The Lords Of Salem” and it is because of this that the film is still easily identifiable as a Rob Zombie film even though his visual style is different.  The production design helps enormously here, particularly the wallpaper seen in the halls of the apartment building where Heidi lives.  It just looks so creepy as if it could come to life itself at any second.

Detractors of Rob Zombie seem to have a massive problem with the fact that he always casts his wife, Sherri Moon Zombie, in large roles within his films.  With “The Lords Of Salem” he has given his wife her biggest challenge yet casting her in the lead role of Heidi.  This is an incredibly difficult role as she has to present so many different emotions as well as be part of some of the most insane imagery ever to be put on film and she has to make it all believable.  Personally I thought she did a great job here and was very convincing particularly towards the end as she is getting further and further away from reality.  Zombie does a great job at making us care for Heidi and feel the helplessness she is feeling as she heads towards her unwanted fate.  I also thought Jeff Daniel Phillips was very good as Whitey, particularly with how sensitive a performance he gives as you can really see how much pain he is in watching his friend’s downfall.  My favourite performance though was from Bruce Davison who plays Francis Matthias, an author who happens to be on the show when Heidi plays “The Lords” record on air for the public to hear.  He is almost playing the Loomis character (from “Halloween” – Rob Zombie’s version) here but he is just so natural and believable.  I personally loved little moments from him like when he was nervously laughing whilst having tea with the three landladies.  They are moments that mean nothing, but bring a reality to this very surreal film.  Finally from an acting standpoint I cannot fail to mention Meg Foster who has a brief but very important role as master witch Margaret Morgan.  She is just brilliant here and has obviously committed herself one hundred percent to the role.  She is unrecognizable here and just terrifying.  There is a scene towards the end when she just says “Welcome” and it sends chills down your spine.  The one thing that everyone remembers about Meg Foster are her gorgeous eyes, but prepare to be disappointed because the look she has in this film is so rough and scraggy, that you do not even notice the eyes.  As usual for a Rob Zombie film the rest of the roles have been cast with old genre actors from the seventies and eighties with Dee Wallace, Patricia Quinn, Ken Foree and even Michael Berryman and Sid Haig (even though they both have about five seconds of screen time) appearing.

While much has been made about “The Lords Of Salem” being a slow-burn film, personally I felt that the film could have been a little slower.  It is rare that I think a film is too short, but here I felt that the movie could have benefitted from an extra ten minutes just to let it breathe a little before it hurdles into the insane and intense final third.  The imagery that Zombie comes up with towards the end of the film is just so bizarre and yet it is all incredibly beautiful.  Although it does sound like a contradiction of terms, there really is a lot of beauty in the ugly images presented in “The Lords Of Salem”; it is a beautiful horror film.  One quote that I read from another review that I loved was that it felt like the final third of the film had “been directed by Satan himself”.  This sums it up perfectly, I think.  While it appears that not all the images make sense in and of themselves, they create or add to the atmosphere present and in this regard are similar to the works of Dario Argento (back when he was making great films).  In fact, “The Lords Of Salem” would fit in nicely as a companion piece to Argento’s own “Three Mothers Trilogy” (“Suspiria”, “Inferno”, and “The Mother Of Tears”).

Before I end this review I have to talk about the single greatest element of “The Lords Of Salem” and that is the music, particularly the sounds that come from the record given to Heidi.  While it appears that the music is very simple, consisting of five or six notes, I do not think I have ever heard such a demonic sound.  It just gets into your head and stays there, so it is very easy to understand why Heidi is affected by it so much.  Long after I had seen the film, the music was still ringing in my head and even populated my dreams that night.  Every time the music kicks in during the film, it appears the film itself is elevated.  I do not know how to explain it; it just has an effect on you.  The rest of the music (by John 5) is just as unnerving and plays less like music and more like sounds that just seems to get under your skin.  While I wouldn’t call “The Lords Of Salem” a terrifying film, I did find that I was incredibly tense for its duration and this is mainly due to the music I believe.

Overall, I loved “The Lords Of Salem” and consider it the best film Rob Zombie has made since “The Devil’s Rejects”.  It is not for everyone and I am sure that some will just dismiss it as absurd or silly, but for me, I love films where not everything makes sense (or at least on first viewing) and I think my love of Italian horror films from the past helped in my loving “The Lords Of Salem”.  I have already seen the film twice and I enjoyed it even more the second time around.  While I am not entirely sold on the end of the film, I think “The Lords Of Salem” is a unique and beautiful horror experience and I recommend it wholeheartedly.  

4 Stars.

MODUS ANOMALI

Indonesian director Joko Anwar has quite a reputation for subverting genre rules and turning them on their heads.  For fans of unique genre cinema, Anwar has become something of a hero for his daring and individual approach to cinema.  Personally, while there is no denying that the man has significant talent, I have yet to find one of his films that has come properly together to work as a whole.  Within his films (particularly “The Forbidden Door”) Anwar comes up with some brilliant scenes but overall I find his films never come together as they should and they even end up becoming a little sloppy.  “Modus Anomali” is Anwar’s latest film and even though it has been receiving middling to mixed reviews, I thought that I would still take a chance on it and see if this would be the film that would change my mind about this director.

The film opens in what appears to be a very isolated section of a forest.  The camera continually pans over the environment until a hand suddenly explodes from underneath the dirt.  A man then feverishly starts to dig himself out from the shallow grave that he has obviously been buried in.  He is panicked and the first thing he attempts to do is call the authorities for help but when the line is answered he suddenly realizes that he has no memory; he doesn’t know where he is, he doesn’t know his name, and he has no idea how he got to be in the situation he is in now.  He hangs up the phone and searches his wallet where he finds his driver’s license which indicates that his name is “John Evans”.  Looking through the wallet further he comes across a photo of a woman with two teenage kids.  On the back of the photo the words “We love you, John” are written and making it obvious that John is married with two kids.  Still a nervous mess, John keeps moving through the forest when it suddenly hits him; where is his family?  Were they taken too or has something just as bad happened to them?  Immediately the stakes have risen as not only is John worried about getting out of this forest alive, he must now worry about whether or not he must search for his family too.  Soon enough, John comes across an unoccupied (but lived in) cabin where he sees a video camera attached to a television with the words “PLAY ME” stuck to it.  Hesitantly he pushes the play button only to witness images of his pregnant wife being brutally murdered by an unknown assailant.  He is mortified and realizes he must find his kids and heads back out into the forest to search for them.  However things suddenly become a lot more dangerous for John when his captors realize that they have failed in their attempts at killing him and begin to hunt him down once more.

For the majority of the first half of “Modus Anomali”, the film is quite suspenseful and intriguing.  We know as little as John does when the film starts and we are learning things the same time as him, so as each revelation comes to light we feel what he feels.  However, “Modus Anomali” is a film that has been made only to service its third act twist and because of this I ended up reacting strongly against it.  For those wanting to go into this film with as little knowledge as possible, fear not, I am not going to reveal the twist, but I will say that anyone who is familiar with “Memento” will not find it hard to work it out early in the film.  Before the twist is officially revealed though, it is an easy enough film to like.  It is dialogue light mainly due to the fact that we are following one character and really it is just a guy wondering around a forest, but due to the fact that we know nothing about what is actually going on, it works at creating a successful atmosphere.  

Rio Dewanto is excellent early on portraying a man who has no idea what is going on and terrified by the fact that he may never see his family again.  He really does give the impression that he is scared the whole time and the way he breaks down after watching the video of his wife’s brutal murder also rang true.  The fact that this part of the film is almost dialogue free helps Dewanto enormously because while the film is an Indonesian film, it was actually shot in English, which was a decision that ultimately haunts the film.  The second half of the film includes a lot more dialogue and sadly all of the actors struggle to emote properly using the English language, particularly Dewanto.  He suddenly goes from being very believable to unbearably bad and yet it is not his fault.  I must admit that I am sick of foreign productions having to film in English so to appeal to a broader (ie. American) audience.  It rarely works and the film ultimately loses its national identity too.  While it is true that I did not like “Modus Anomali” after the twist, it would have been much more bearable if the dialogue was spoken in the actor’s native Indonesian.

Another thing that I really reacted strongly against was the very manipulative camera work.  The way the camera constantly moved in an attempt to portray somebody’s point of view was very misleading and as I just said, manipulative.  You get the opinion that poor John is being constantly watched by someone in very close proximity to him but it always turns out to be not the case.  I particularly hated the shots where the camera would hide behind a tree and then peer out; it was a very cheap attempt at creating tension and is akin to a jump scare in a horror film.  One effective scene that I did very much like was one when John, in an attempt to hide from (this time) a very real assailant, hides in a giant chest only to be locked in it and it then to be set on fire.  That was a scene that had real terror associated with it and because of that I really loved the scene (can you imagine being trapped in such a small space and then realize that the thing was on fire also?).

  

As I have mentioned already, I really reacted strongly against the twist in “Modus Anomali”, mainly because in hindsight I realized that the whole film only exists because of its reveal.  Without the twist, there is almost no movie (well, at least that is what it appears the filmmakers thought).  Once we understand exactly what is going on, the rest of what we have witnessed suddenly feels very orchestrated and I felt a little cheated.  As I have said a number of times regarding “Modus Anomali”, it felt incredibly manipulative.  Once the truth has come to light, it makes little sense and we are never given any real credible reason as to why anyone is doing what they are doing, which makes the film incredibly frustrating.  The fact that the film relies on how you react to the twist, it makes it very hard to review it without spoiling it, so unfortunately I cannot go into it any deeper than I have already.  Let’s just say that I had a huge problem with character motivations.

Overall, while “Modus Anomali” started strong, I felt that it went downhill pretty quickly and I ended up not enjoying the film much at all.  The main word I would use to describe the film is manipulative, and the decision to shoot the film in English was one that ultimately hurt the film more than it helped.  I think if the film had continued down the path it had initially set for itself without the twist, it would’ve been much stronger for it, as it is though, I found “Modus Anomali” a bit of a mess and once again I was less than impressed by Joko Anwar’s attempts at putting all the pieces together to make a great film as a whole.

2 Stars.

TO THE WONDER

One of my six most anticipated releases of 2013, Terrence Malick’s “To The Wonder” is something of a frustrating experience to watch.  While the film is no doubt gorgeous in its look, with some of the most stunning images ever captured on film, it is none-the-less a very cold film and one that is hard to emotionally invest in completely.

The film starts in Paris where Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina (an always twirling Olga Kurylenko) start a whirlwind romance, as the two fall head over heels for one another.  It is here we witness the beauty of love when a romance is new and fresh and possibilities seem endless (as does the time together).  Marina has a daughter, Tatiana, from a previous romance and through an expression of his love, Neil takes the girl on as if she were his own.  The three of them appear to be a perfect family and when Neil has to return to the United States for his work, he asks the women of his life to join him.  They ecstatically say “yes” and head off to America and a new life.  However once the family comes to live in Oklahoma problems begin to arise and the lovers start to drift apart.  With Neil focused on his environmental work and Mariana and Tatiana struggling with home-sickness, the perfect love they once shared seems doomed.  Tensions constantly arise and disagreements are regular, and the fact that Neil and Marina are unable to marry (due to the fact she is still legally married to Tatiana’s father) causes a problem that the couple are going to have to face up to sooner than later.  It comes to pass that Marina’s visa is to expire and she must head home, and due to Neil’s unwillingness to ask her to stay, she does just that.  Soon after, the cycle of love continues afresh when Neil runs into an old school friend, Jane (Rachel McAdams), and the two fall in love, but Neil abandons this chance at happiness when Marina returns (after finding Paris a horrible place to live without both Neil and Tatiana, who decides to live with her father) in an attempt to find that love that they shared once more.

Terrence Malick’s previous film “The Tree Of Life” hit me like a ton of bricks when I first watched it.  It was one of the most emotional viewings I had ever had in a cinema, and this emotion has continued through multiple viewings.  Even though the style of that film is non-traditional, to say the least, I actually found it to be incredibly beautiful.  Through fragments of moments, Malick was able to communicate so much.  When I heard that he was continuing with this lyrical style for his follow-up film, “To The Wonder”, I was immediately excited, even when it was reported that the new film was going to be more experimental than “The Tree Of Life” and even less narrative based (if that was possible).  It has been mentioned many times already that “To The Wonder” is like a spiritual sequel to “The Tree Of Life” and right from the beginning of the film, I immediately felt this.  The rhythm of the editing is almost identical and because of this I found it very easy to settle in and observe the new film.  I’m sure people who have not seen “The Tree Of Life” may find the storytelling alienating but for me, it was like slipping back into a familiar world; a world I was dying to revisit.

The films of Terrence Malick, particularly the more recent ones, are films that you feel more than anything.  You let them wash over you and feel the emotions being presented even though it is being done in a non-traditional way.  This is actually the biggest flaw in “To The Wonder” because sadly, I felt (almost) nothing throughout.  The main reason for this is that we are never given real access to the characters of Marina and particularly Neil.  They remain forever allusive, even though we spend the entirety of the film watching them.  We never really know why they are feeling the way they are feeling at any given time; why are they fighting? Why are they sad?  Why are they moving?  Because of this, it makes it really hard to care about them.  Much has also been made that even though he is in the film the majority of its screen time, Ben Affleck only has around six lines of dialogue.  I found this an odd choice, particularly when you could see that his character was speaking and yet his lines had been muted.  Obviously, Malick wants the voice of the film to be that of the character of Marina, but because of this Neil is never given a voice (literally and figuratively) that deems him to be of any importance and as such ends up becoming a cipher within the film.  In actual fact, I think that Ben Affleck has been totally miscast also, and his performance was quite wooden.  To my eyes, he always appeared lost, like he didn’t know why he was doing what he was doing.

The girls of the cast fared much better with the performances of both Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams being both excellent.  Personally the scenes which featured McAdams I found to be the strongest of the entire film including a truly amazing scene with both Neil and Jane, sitting atop their vehicle while surrounded by a field of bison.  For a film about the subject of love, “To The Wonder” features a large amount of despair and sadness, and most of this unhappiness is subjected upon Marina, Kurylenko’s character.  Kurylenko is fantastic in both scenes of immense unhappiness and is absolutely luminous in the early scenes when her character is in the initial throes of love.  Also most of the poetic narration is heard through her voice.  

One character I failed to mention during my synopsis is that of Father Quintana who is played by Javier Bardem.  Whilst barely connected to the main story of “To The Wonder” his character proves vital for laying out the film’s themes.  Quintana is also arguably the most interesting character in the film being that he is a man who regularly preaches about love and what it is to love, without having any love in his own heart.  He is a man questioning his faith and about the existence of God as well as his right to be preaching about a topic he personally knows little about.  While Quintana has the potential to be the most interesting character, Malick never seems to follow up the groundwork he has laid out for this character which almost results in giving the feeling that he is from another movie entirely.  As it is, his links with the Neil and Marina characters are tenuous at best, but it is his sermons (and narrations) that become most important in regards to the rest of the film.

As expected “To The Wonder” is a stunningly gorgeous looking film.  Going into a Terrence Malick film, you know what you are going to get from a visual standpoint and yet his images never cease to amaze me.  All of his films are stunningly beautiful but his work with Emmanuel Lubezki is just in a league of its own.  This is the third film that the pair have made together and they just seem like a perfect fit.  As usual everything is backlit and looks as if it is shot during magic hour but it all just feels so effortless.  Terrence Malick just seems to see the world with different eyes than the rest of us and as such he can see the beauty in everything and he proves this with some of the images he comes up with in “To The Wonder”.  While there are too many shots to list here, two examples that just wowed me were a shadow of a chandelier on a roof and the movement of the water-drenched sand on the beach of Mont Saint-Michel as Neil and Marina are standing on it.

While the way the story has been told may be alienating for some viewers, I believe the point of the film is still easy to understand.  The film is ultimately about the cycles of love but what Malick seems to be suggesting is that the act of falling in love is the most important thing and even when that love has been transformed into something else, the memory of that love will endure, therefore one should always remain open to fall in love and experience love because a life without love is a life that is not lived (a sentiment that is also echoed in “The Tree Of Life”).  Probably the most important line in the film is “Love that loves us…..thank you” and sums up the theme of the film brilliantly.  However you may be thinking after watching “To The Wonder” if the point of the film is to convey just how great love is in life, why is there so much misery in the film?  I guess the simple answer to this is the old “no pain, no gain” line, meaning without all the heartbreak and tribulations we face whilst in love, would we ever truly understand just how magnificent being in love really is?

Overall, there is much to like about “To The Wonder” but the fact that we are never given any real access to our main characters means it is hard to actually care about their tribulations.  The film is absolutely beautiful with some stunning images as Terrence Malick continues to evolve his style to an almost pure cinema level.  Dialogue is becoming less and less important to him which is true of “To The Wonder” which rarely sees its characters talk.  Interestingly, the majority of the dialogue (via narration) is subtitled with a mixture of French and Spanish spoken throughout.  While I want to like the film more, after my initial viewing of “To The Wonder” I have to be honest and say that I was ultimately disappointed by it especially by the fact that it didn’t leave me feeling anything (unlike its predecessor which utterly destroyed me).  Hopefully over repeated viewings, my appreciation for “To The Wonder” will grow but as of now, despite the number of good things in it, “To The Wonder” is my least favourite Terrence Malick film so far.

3 Stars.