Review Detail

Before I get into my review, I should say that I quite enjoyed Lords Of Salem - it has a weak denoument, but most of the film is about building tension and dread, and the film does so very effectively even if it never quite pays it off.

In saying that, steFANedit has done something remarkable here in his recontextualisation of the film - he's stripped the narrative and characters right down and rebuilt the story into something different so that the available material can provide a payoff. Considering how much this involves using titlecards for dialogue, I think it's a remarkable success and one I will happily watch again in future.

The video editing was very strong; the silent cinema homage was nicely done with simple transitions and scene framings that felt authentic. There are a few spelling and grammar mistakes in some of the intertitles, but nothing really problematic - the only issue I'd have with these is that there is one which is a lengthy monologue; I would have preferred to see it split into several discrete intertitles instead of using scrolling, as this seemed to slow the film's pace somewhat.

The audio was mostly musical in nature - the track choices were great and neatly completemented the events on screen, with a recurring theme that adds wonderfully to the unsettling tone that permeates the film. Unfortunately, I did notice several audio transitions that were quite abrupt when it felt that they would have been better served with crossfades. It's not a major problem, though.

Narratively, it's pretty great. The story and character arc are very deftly handled, although the ending is very abrupt - as in, cut to black, no credits abrupt. Given the available material I can understand this, though closing credits or even a closing intertitle would have been a nice touch.

All in all, it's a different enough experience to the original film that I don't think it can really be compared to the original or treated as a "preferred version". In saying that, it's a great edit and if you like your horror oozing tension and dread and nightmarish visions, you'll find a lot to like here.