Halloween Horror Month - The Lords of Salem

There appear to be two camps of opinions when it comes to Rob Zombie's films, much like Marmite really. I happen to fall into the category of enjoying them (although I also hate Marmite). I see House of 1000 Corpses as his experimental art film, adore The Devil's Rejects (and recognise it as Zombie's love letter to 70s exploitation films) and see his two Halloween films has his attempt to put a modern spin on the Michael Myers story, with what we know today of serial killers and how they are 'formed', and the media's love affair with them and their crimes. So I've been interested in seeing The Lords of Salem for a while now.

It's a mindfuck of a film, I can tell you that.

Heidi is one of the three DJs that make up the "Big H" DJ team for the radio station in Salem, Mass. She's got blonde dreadlocks, wears glasses and is a cute, generally 'hip chick' who can keep up with the boys. Then one day she receives a strange record from a group with the mysterious name of "The Lords". The record consists of one song - a slow, dirge-like piece that doesn't have a melody so much as it seems to be attempting to find the Brown Note - and hearing it seems to have a strange effect on some of the women of Salem, particularly Heidi, who starts to sink into strange dreams and fugue-like states where she sees strange Satanic imagery and seems to be being called by the original coven of Salem witches from 1696. Has the curse of executed witch Margaret Morgan come back to get its revenge on the town?

One way to describe this film would be to say that it's a series of album covers tacked together with a plot for glue. It's a very artistic film, beautifully shot - but that's something that people should have come to expect from Zombie by now, as even I will say he's more of an artist than a filmmaker or even a storyteller. So admittedly the actual plot is a little flimsy in places, with the feeling that the editing scissors were heavily-used in some parts.

Another way to describe it would be to say that it takes aspects from The Crucible, The Devils, Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion and maybe a dash from The Witches of Eastwick and blends them all together to make one very weird, but interesting film. We're never entirely sure for a lot of the film just what is going on - is Heidi just hallucinating everything, a combination of a mental breakdown and her falling back into drug usage? What is the role of her landlady and her two sisters and were they always aware of it? What is in Room number 5?

The Lords of Salem isn't going to be to everyone's tastes, that much is certain. But those who like Zombie's work, or who are prepared for a more than a little weird surrealism in their horror should definitely give it a look.