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A Salem radio DJ, Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie), is sent a cryptic vinyl from a group dubbed "The Lords" and upon the needle drop descends into a worsening hallucinogenic malaise. A local historian (Bruce Davison) becomes suspect of the track's origin during an on-air interview about his new book detailing the infamous witch trials. At this time the station innocently broadcasts the ominous grooves, sending other select female residents across the town into a trance-like state. Three women in Heidi's apartment building; played marvelously by Judy Geeson, Patricia Quinn, and Dee Wallace, entrap the increasingly despondent young woman in a cycle of codependency for her ultimate, sinister fate...
Oh did the negative word spread fast after Rob Zombie's latest debuted theatrically a week ago or what? Curiosity got the best of me and I broke one of the cardinal rules by browsing some of these scathing reviews
before seeing the film. In doing so I ran across news that the United Kingdom was already getting a straight-to-video release,
non-affiliate Amazon.uk link, and promptly ordered a copy to judge for myself.
To the chagrin of most, Rob Zombie has yet again cast his wife in a prominent role and she finally gets lead status here. Before you grumble, Moon turns in her best performance; however, she's not given much to work with. All we really know is that Heidi is an independent, single woman with a lovable dog who works as local DJ and lives in an old building with an odd lack of other tenants (
besides the insidious trio that sets their sights upon her). There's nary any detail about the character's past, family, and her only friends appear to her two fellow broadcasters (
Jeff Daniel Phillips and Ken Foree).
Maybe this vagueness was an attempt to convey the possibility of this type of grand doom befalling anyone? If so, the opposite effect is achieved, as it's hard to care for Heidi or her plight since we hardly know her. Or perhaps director/writer Zombie intentionally wrote the part broadly knowing Moon would have trouble with such depth? Of course, whether or not he'd
ever admit that considering his circumstances might be another story.
Whatever the case, Moon's failings are evident when contrasted with the fantastic turns of the veteran actresses on hand. Geeson, Quinn, and Wallace quickly transform from quaint old hens to agents of the damned who'll stop at nothing to ensure the rite of several hundred years will come to pass. Their simple scene with a too curious Davison over some tea and increasingly intense conversation is better than the film's much lauded third act. Meg Foster's primal performance as the coven head burned alive by a witchfinder only to haunt a forbidden apartment space is spectacular. She boldly cavorts around in the nude with filthy hunks of matted hair spitting blasphemy with utterly believable relish. All four actresses accomplish this much higher degree of credibility in only a handful of scenes making Moon's Heidi all the more diminutive. Again, that might have been something Zombie was reaching for, but it's so lopsided Moon comes off as easily outclassed. They might be the sole reason to see
The Lords of Salem.
As a filmmaker, Rob Zombie shows important growth exhibiting restraint on certain past tendencies. We all love to see aging genre actors get work, but the "
look, there's that one guy!" factor to many of these appearances in his filmography is becoming distracting. Zombie himself might actually be realizing this, but that didn't stop him from casting some horror regulars to only cut their scenes away entirely.
And for the better, especially when some goofy looking short/interlude/thing entitled
Frankenstein versus The Witchhunter with Udo Kier, Richard Lynch, Clint Howard, and Camille Keaton didn't make final cut. Sorry, but a horror film going this dark doesn't need this crap and thankfully Zombie came to his senses (
even though I'd like to see this as a DVD/BD extra). Sid Haig and Michael Berryman also
barely appear despite originally having longer scenes. Ken Foree as one of Heidi's radio colleagues makes out the best in terms of screen time. Still, the now RZ veteran's character is again some funky dude with '70s 'tude sporting another bad hairpiece. Yawn.
Zombie's love for kitsch does creep in and possibly at the
worst time. For the most part,
The Lords of Salem is a welcome slowburn with a very surprising lack of bodily crimson. Obviously, the outright satanic panic was saved for the climax.
The following will have major spoilers, so if you don't want any, please skip to the final paragraph.
Okay, about that climax, I've read some a couple reviews that claim the third act is incomprehensible. No, it's not, as it's obvious Heidi is destined to be the chosen recipient of a christening in Hell to become a witch priestess demigod. How does Rob Zombie, a clear longtime lover of the horror genre, approach this opportunity?
Some of the imagery is interesting, the best probably influenced by Francis Bacon's incredible Pope Portraits. But Heidi writhing with a Black Metal frontman? Riding atop a stuffed goat against a neon flame backdrop? The entire screen taken up by flashing collages of dimestore religious iconography?
This stuff is old-hat to fans of Zombie's music, recalling his artwork and videos of now decades old White Zombie albums up to his present solo work. It's tough to think of Zombie as a bold screen force when the big reveal of the din and chimeras of Hades includes an idiot in corpse make-up and tacky Jesus spin art. When it's time to get crazy, the creativity never goes deeper than that of a music video. Maybe Zombie was trying to make a statement about the commercialization of Catholicism? But that's just overthinking a letdown that sours the film to a considerable extent. You've probably had bad nightmares that are more frightening.
[end spoilers]So
The Lords of Salem is certainly a Rob Zombie film--warts and all. There's some signs of continued development behind the camera. There's some really stupid aspects in front of the camera. Sheri Moon is of course in the feature and the surrounding actors just make her look bad. Just like every past entry in Rob's screen career. I'd love to see Zombie tackle something without his hands ever touching the screenplay or helm a piece that takes him out of his shallow comfort zone. Either wish would probably make his own future work better. Rent this one first and judge for yourself, but I know the same weird infatuation I had with his generally hated
Halloween II (2009) (
read more about that here, here, and here) simply isn't with these Lords...
.
Yesterday I posted a now deleted entry about the Tokyo-based movie shop Video Market tweeting out an image (see here) showing that they now have Wizard's new big boxes on their shelves. Well, I wanted to post about that, but I was also hesitant to point out another bit of interesting news from a few days ago. Forgoing any names; no one wants Charles Band crawling up their ass, a fine young entrepreneur has created an answer to this shady line of Wizards--a high quality bootleg Wizard VHS of Troll (1986).
Happinet is set to debut From Beyond (1986) and Dolls (1987) on August 2nd, Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Tourist Trap (1979) on September 9th, Blood for Dracula (1974) and Dracula (1979) on October 2nd, and Halloween II (1981) and Castle Freak (1995) on November 2nd onto Blu-ray. Each sport 1080p transfers in their respective aspect ratios and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks (English 5.1/2.0 DTS-HD MA for Halloween II).
After posting my review of The Lords of Salem, I received a few requests for captures from the new British DVD to which I'm happy to oblige. As stated in the comments of that entry, Entertainment One's R2/PAL DVD is a barebones affair with ugly, unrelated cover art and only the theatrical trailer and English subtitles. Even the menus are static and bland without titles for the chapters, just small stills. The anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen picture quality is sharp, though the palette is dark and drab, and the Dolby 5.1 is robust. I failed to mention prior but Zombie utilizes the extra wide ratio nicely again and runs wild with lens flare here.
A Salem radio DJ, Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie), is sent a cryptic vinyl from a group dubbed "The Lords" and upon the needle drop descends into a worsening hallucinogenic malaise. A local historian (Bruce Davison) becomes suspect of the track's origin during an on-air interview about his new book detailing the infamous witch trials. At this time the station innocently broadcasts the ominous grooves, sending other select female residents across the town into a trance-like state. Three women in Heidi's apartment building; played marvelously by Judy Geeson, Patricia Quinn, and Dee Wallace, entrap the increasingly despondent young woman in a cycle of codependency for her ultimate, sinister fate...
To the chagrin of most, Rob Zombie has yet again cast his wife in a prominent role and she finally gets lead status here. Before you grumble, Moon turns in her best performance; however, she's not given much to work with. All we really know is that Heidi is an independent, single woman with a lovable dog who works as local DJ and lives in an old building with an odd lack of other tenants (besides the insidious trio that sets their sights upon her). There's nary any detail about the character's past, family, and her only friends appear to her two fellow broadcasters (Jeff Daniel Phillips and Ken Foree).
Maybe this vagueness was an attempt to convey the possibility of this type of grand doom befalling anyone? If so, the opposite effect is achieved, as it's hard to care for Heidi or her plight since we hardly know her. Or perhaps director/writer Zombie intentionally wrote the part broadly knowing Moon would have trouble with such depth? Of course, whether or not he'd ever admit that considering his circumstances might be another story.
Udo Kier stars as an acclaimed author who hires a typist (Linda Hayden) to assist recording his free flowing creative process, but eventually deadly ulterior motives driving the help's dedication become apparent. Despite feeling very European with lots of (dubbed) Kier, flesh from Hayden and Brit sexbomb Fiona Richmond, and bright blood splatterings; it's all too askew to make much impact. The characters and their disembodied reality almost feels like a close proximity to the way real individuals would react in the same scenario. It's a tough sensation to describe but it's hard to believe every character could possess such awkward decision making.
This bit of Italian horror fluff with some astounding gothic flourishes deserves much better than its current fate. I was first attracted to check out this excuse for soft erotica masquerading as baroque horror when a friend acquired the ultra scarce Japanese VHS on the Sony Exciting label. It's the only release to contain the fully uncut English language version with all other English tapes and discs worldwide missing bits here-and-there. The Italian Cinekult DVD is fully uncut too, but only features the Italian dub. I don't, haven't, and will probably never own the Japanese tape (only four copies are known to exist, let's not even mention prices), but after getting some details about it wanted to check this Shout Factory DVD to see how it fares.
