Director: Rob Zombie
Year: 2012
Country: US/UK/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Receiving a strange record in the mail, a radio DJ in Salem, Massachusetts discovers that the record is the ongoing culmination of a strange curse from a band of witches executed centuries ago and slowly succumbs to the draining effects of the devastating curse.
Review:
This turned out to be quite an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable effort, and it all starts with the film's very idea of the curse coming into fruition. Rather than deal with the typically clichéd notion of the resurrected witches allowing for the curse to come true, the concept of this being done by a record delivered to a worker at a radio station which starts all the action makes for quite an unusual affair that really takes some unusual turns that it's not quite expecting. It's not as cheesy as it sounds like due to the fact that the effects need specific requirements to be fulfilled and they finally happen now with this present-day configuration, and that makes for quite a new-found twist.
In addition, there's just so much to like about the way it builds to the realization of the curse here that it makes for highly enjoyable and chilling experiences as the whole film essentially boils down to her suffering from the freaky visions, nightmares and the growing realizations of the curse on her, as the disheveled look, complete lack of care for her appearance and the frankly haunting nightmares really take the contents off into a twisted, demented vision that really works so well here in generating the proper atmosphere quite effectively and properly that when the film moves into the final act it's just as grotesque, nightmarish and beyond demented that it truly becomes flat-out horrific.
Starting with the treatment of the old ladies all the way through the consecration in a Satanic church in a different plane of existence and the eventual aftereffects that are unleashed due to what happens there, the section of the film is just a dark, disturbing ride that really sets this movie apart from so many others in that there's just no way to predict what's going to happen. That this part manages to get darker and creepier is a rather chilling atmosphere to pull off. Not only is the action awesome here but the symbolical nature of what's happening also manage to make for a truly engrossing effort.
On top of that, the acting here isn't all that bad. Sherri Moon turns in a fantastic role as Heidi, the innocent woman caught up in the turmoil. A lonely, disheveled former hippie who's just trying to get by, she's not her usual raunchy white-trash self and becomes sympathetic and wholly convincing here. Likewise, with Bruce Davidson as the concerned doctor Francis trying to save her, Ken Foree a smooth-talker co-host on the radio show and genre icons turning up all over the place from Sig Haig, Michael Berryman, Meg Foster, Dee Wallace and more, this is certainly one of the better acted efforts of Rob's career.
There are a few flaws here that do hold this one down. The main issue is the rather odd sense of how the curse starts affecting the town, as the film goes through several days before she succumbs to the curse so this one takes a while to get going as well as the rather curious ploy about why the residents were shown to be under a hypnotic spell when the song's played over the air but the one guy doesn't seem affected at all, nor is there any follow-up to show them being possessed by this at all. This feels really underwritten and really should've had more info about what's going on here.
That also carries on to the early ramifications of what's going on. There's very little time here into how the curse immediately causes her to go into the room in the apartment and become affected by the hallucination there. This seems to happen far too quickly into the film for that kind of over-the-top imagery to come about as if they're revealing their plans way too soon when the attempt is to torment her into succumbing to their whims. As that tends to cause the pacing to lag a little due to forcing her into a bit of soul-searching attempting to rationalize those thoughts, it takes the film a little out of its pacing but these are really minor flaws that don't hold this one from being immensely enjoyable.
Overview: ****/5
A far better effort than what really should be the case here, this is a truly enjoyable if slightly flawed effort that shows he has far more tricks up his sleeve than a continuous assault of intolerable white-trash sleaze. This is highly recommended to fans of his past work, those who have continually said otherwise or those curious, while those that aren't fans of his work might look here to see a familiar-yet-exaggerated effort.
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