Undoubtedly Zombie‘s career, although colorful, has had its ups and downs. House of 1000 Corpses was admittedly fun, but not ground-breaking and although Devil’s Rejects finally showed his adeptness at film-making, his entries into the Halloween franchise were unnecessary at best. So what is so different about Zombie’s latest attempt that has us excited. Well, frankly, and bear with me here, it’s Lords of Salem that has me more excited than anything about “31” than anything else. Ummm, ehhh..what? Yeah, yeah, I know. The 2012 film, even among Zombie supporters is reviled and discounted. What Lord of Salem represents however is a huge shift in both tone and execution for Zombie as a filmmaker. Gone were the “hit-you-over-the-head” moments and instead we saw Zombie’s ability to actually employ subtlety and atmosphere to build a sense of dread and gloom that his other films lacked. His style of filmmaking seemed to mature greatly between 2009 and 2012 and watching the new trailer for 31 we see glimpses of some of that maturity although the premise is obviously firmly embedded in some of his earlier work. We know zombie can write a decent script while still paying homage to his love of 70’s exploitation and “hippy-horror” and with Lords we know he can tel those stories with a new angle both refreshing and at times still terrifying. Here’s to hoping that he can bridge the two and give us the movie that we’ve all been waiting to see from him. Watch the trailer below and ENJOY!!!
