57
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Slant MagazineNick SchagerSlant MagazineNick SchagerRob Zombie understands horror as an aural-visual experience that should gnaw at the nerves, seep into the subconscious, and beget unshakeable nightmares.
- 83The PlaylistSimon AbramsThe PlaylistSimon AbramsThe Lords of Salem is a product of Zombie’s better creative impulses, so it’s ok that it also features several of his worse indulgences, too.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovI could go on and on about Zombie’s style-over-substance direction, but why bother? The Lords of Salem is so clearly a project that Zombie has had stewing in his blood-and-black-lace heart for, I assume, ever, that the fact that it’s not a masterpiece seems almost moot. It’s a head trip, to be sure, but it’s Zombie’s electric, haunted head, so my advice is just sit back and goggle.
- 60Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfThis may be terrifying news to Rob Zombie fans, but after years mining the 1970s for gunky shock moments, the musician-turned-filmmaker has emerged as an unusually sensitive director of actors.
- 50VarietyRob NelsonVarietyRob NelsonThe helmer’s narrative dead end here registers not as a lack of nerve so much as a lack of imagination.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyUnfortunately, it’s just a witchy mess.
- 40Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSome of the imagery is memorable, in a twisted-horror kind of way. Zombie has no trouble scaring up atmosphere. But other scenes are ridiculous, unintentionally funny, particularly one he builds up to ominously, only to give us a silly payoff.
- 30Village VoiceChuck WilsonVillage VoiceChuck WilsonThe movie is eerily photographed (by Brandon Trost), but never suspenseful or scary, and eventually, events descend into goat-sacrificing silliness.