Blair Loveday
Rob Zombie has made some truly bizarre movies.
He has some distinct visual styles that make his movies unmistakable. From the unique films like House of 100 Corpses and The Devils Rejects, to his remakes of the Halloween franchise, they all have a very Rob Zombie vibe. Well somehow I missed one of the stranger ones, The Lords of Salem which was released twelve years ago.
And as weird as it is, I am glad to have finally checked it out.
The Lords of Salem takes part in, can you guess, that’s right Salem.
It turns out the Salem Witch Trials actually killed a bunch of witches, but since they managed to get a curse off before they died, their terror hasn’t ended yet. We jump forward to the current day where Heidi is a DJ working at a local radio station. Played by Sherri Moon Zombie, she is living her life when a weird record is dropped off by an artist called Lords. Heidi takes the record home and plays it where she sees the scenes that occurred back in the 17th century.
The music gets played on the radio where it corrupts a bunch of other women’s minds. Not long later Heidi sees more flashbacks, and some crazier images and hallucinations around her. The day they played the record ont he radio, they had an author who has written a book about the Salem Witch Trials on the station. After hearing the record he starts looking into things including Heidi’s lineage back and starts looking into the weird stuff going on.
The biggest issue the movie has, is that since it tells us the witches were actual witches who were worshiping Satan, if you took some of those scenes out, you would be left with a mysterious movie that could have left you wondering what was real and what was happening in Heidi’s mind. A lot of the weird scenes could have kept the whole movie a mystery until the end, and would have been really intriguing. Instead we know what’s up and despite some cool, yet trippy scenes, it just doesn’t have the punch it could have had.
This is especially unfortunate because even amongst a reasonably solid cast, Sherri Moon Zombie does an incredible job in her role. She really could have driven a mystery that really left you questioning her sanity or what was real. Instead we are left with bizarre scenes that become more of a supernatural movie with some grotesque scenes.
Despite some really cool stuff, The Lords of Salem just winds up landing in that annoying space where great acting, great scenes, and interesting ideas wind up being an okay movie. If you haven’t seen this one yet but are a fan of Rob Zombie’s films, it’s well worth a watch. It’s not his best, but it’s still strange and weird. This edition has a dope hard cover box with a lenticular cover which makes it all the sweeter. It’s not a must watch, but it’s fun.
