The Lords Of Salem – Review

15th April 2013

Praise be to the dark lord that it’s better than Halloween II.

So far Rob Zombie’s directorial career has played out in two deranged parts. Part 1 was the exploitation gore fest of House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. They were violent and silly. I liked them. Then came his remake of Halloween and then came Halloween II. And they are shitty, shitty movies. I wanted to like them but they are shitty. Does his new work bring about Part 3 of his output – that we may call the historical/experimental double.

With The Lords of Salem, Zombie has created something much more personal and interesting to him. The film takes place in Salem, Massachusetts the scene of the US’s infamous witch trials. After an introduction which sees a group of cackling witches dance around (perhaps into) the fire we move quickly forward to now-a-time where we meet Heidi (played by Zombie’s muse and wide Sherri Moon Zombie). She works as a late night radio DJ where she is given a new black metal/doom track by a group who simply call themselves The Lords. When played the track has a hypnotic effect over Heidi and dozens of Salem women. Heidi begins to experience visions and hot flushes the likes of which haven’t been seen since Requiem for a Dream. Meanwhile Heidi’s troubling nice landlady (Judy Geeson) and her two sisters: Meg Foster and Patricia Quinn start to take a great interest in her. Let’s not quibble here. They’re witches and they want to make her a really powerful witch. All the while the always watchable and huggable Mr. Henderson… I mean Bruce Davison is on the trail of these here crafty witches.

With his first two films Zombie was paying homage to the schlocky, grindhouse horror of the 70s and 80s. The Lords of Salem feels like an attempt to amp up the psychological terrors. Zombie is reported as saying he imagined the film as The Shining directed by Ken Russell. Perhaps a closer description would be Rosemary’s Baby directed by Dario Argento. The visuals flip flop between the dingy, claustrophobic apartment bound to opulent and colourful. As a visual artist Zombie improves with each feature despite the obvious financial restrains of Salem. However Zombie the script writer still falls into the occasional trap where the story seems to meander as though. Almost like certain scenes were written in a hurry merely so he could get to writing the next set piece he had in his head. Which is the films main fault. Although given an intriguing set up, an interesting modern day turn and a classic haunted apartment device it’s hard to care for any of the characters involved and therefore find little to fear, expect for Bruce Davison.

Sherri Moon Zombie, like her husband, seems to mature with each film. Her performance is as diverse as with yet seen her as she just about manages to carry the film. Bruce Davison is Bruce Davison, therefore always awesome. Performance wise, for better or worse, belongs to the trio of Judy Geeson, Dee Wallace and Patricia Quinn. Either acting deliciously wicked or being horrendously over-the-top you can take your pick. Geeson’s appearance in particular calls to mind some similarities between Heidi’s predicament and Geeson’s character in Fear in the Night. Along the way there also cameos from Meg Foster (Evil Lynn!), Udo Kier and Ken Foree (yeah he was in Dawn of the Dead but he’ll always be Keenan’s Dad to me).

Zombie is definitely up his game when it comes to making the films he wants to make. Sadly he seems to have fallen into the Tarantino trap of being so busy referencing other movies that he has forgotten to make his own. It wasn’t that obvious to me whilst viewing the film but on reflection there are a litany of obvious influences. In fact one of the great pleasures of watching The Lords of Salem may be the fact that it reminds you of so many great films that you might want to dig out of your collection – at least eight spring to mind for me.

If you have enjoyed Zombies previous output you’ll probably find a lot to enjoy – there’s still gore just more suitably shown. There’s even a stupid little monster creature in it. What may separate the fans from the casual viewer is the the final 15 minutes. Which without giving too much away does turn into Zombies “Ken Russell” style – with a bit of Andy Warhol thrown in for good measure.

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