Lords of Salem

Lords of Salem

2012

Director- Rob Zombie

Cast- Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Ken Foree, Patricia Quinn, Dee Wallace, Dee Wallace, Judy Geeson, Meg Foster

           

The movie starts by alternating between two different stories. We see lonely Heidi Hawthorne (Sheri Moon Zombie); single, a recovering addict, whose apparent only human connection is her land lady and her two fellow DJs at the radio station. Contrasting with that is a coven of witches in the 1600s, led by Meg Foster, who are devoting themselves to Satan.

            The coven of witches eventually has to pay their comeuppance at the hands of the inquisition, but not before a curse is laid upon their town. Heidi apparently is going to be the mechanism of that curse.  Heidi receives a record at their station and decides to play it on a lark. It is a slow dirge that triggers headaches and visions in Heidi. The next day she plays the record on the air and it takes a similar toll on all the women in town who hear it.

            Heidi begins to have sinister, insane, visions coupled with paranoia and a progressive feeling of isolation. Helping her move along her path to insanity is a trio of the most cheerful witches you are likely to see (especially Dee Wallace, who is as gleeful as a kid in Disney World). This aspect of the film reminded me a lot of Rosemary’s Baby. Heidi seems so alone and depressed. The doom closing in around her seems to be fate; inescapable and determined.

            Ultimately, Heidi’s will and personality are completely subverted and she is a mere tool in the witches’ plan for revenge on the descendants of the Salem inquisitors. At this point the movie turns into a series of nightmare scenes and unsettling imagery.

            Rob Zombie is not just a competent director of horror films; he is obviously a fan and historian of the genre. Almost every actor and actress in this film has genre credits to their name, some of them quite significant. As a longtime fan of genre films I loved seeing Dee Wallace, who will forever in my mind be the tragic victim of The Howling. Likewise, Meg Foster, who was so regal and glamorous in They Live and Masters of the Universe, to see her so feral and covered in filth, was quite a shock.

       

 A lot of Rob Zombie fans didn’t like this movie. The only reason, I can figure, is that it is so very different from his previous outings, and if that’s the reason, that’s understandable. If your idea of Scorsese was Goodfellas or The Departed, you probably wouldn’t know what to make out of The Last Temptation of Christ.

Zombie’s previous films were violent and obvious. This film is subtle and brooding. The previous films featured serial killers that were larger than life threats, that seemed to take up the entire screen. Here, the threats are in the periphery, covered in shadows, barely seen or seen clearly only for a moment. When the evil does finally take center stage, it is not as expected. Satan, rather than the horned god of myth, is deformed and insane. If you like this sub-genre, then Zombie fan or not, this film is very rewarding. Pairing this film with The Witch would make for a perfect night’s viewing.