“Lords of Salem” reviewed: Rob Zombie’s Most Ambitious Yet? & Who Gets it?

Looks Like “Anchor Bay” is the winning bid for distribution as word begins to leak out from those who have been lucky enough to catch the screening for Zombie’s new flick “Lords of Salem” @ TIFF‘s Midnight Madness, unfortunately, I am not one of them, but I’ll give you a general overview of what I have read, and thus far, while reviews are mixed (what Zombie isn‘t?), it seems to be getting fair reviews.

I have to say that I was a little on the fence early in the year about “Lords”. I hate both the “Halloween” sequel & and that fucking moronic cartoon of his, “Haunted World of Superbeasto”. But from what I have been seeing (still wise from) from “Lords” and what I have been reading, I am beginning to think I might be putting “Lords Of Salem” back at the top of the list of things to see.

For those of you who have yet to know what the film is about:

Radio DJ Heidi (Sherrie Moon Zombie) hosts a show along with her two cohorts she dubs the Hermans (Ken Foree & Jeff Philips) called the “Big H Radio Team”, when they receive a mysterious wooden box containing a vinyl record, a gift for Heidi from a band called the “Lords”. The record starts to play backwards when it is played causing Heidi to experience flashbacks from “happier times” & that of a past trauma, that trauma is the Salem Witch Trials themselves. The arrival of another wooden box from the “Lords” presents the “Big H Team” this time with free tickets, posters and records to host a gig in Salem. Soon, Heidi and her compadres find themselves far from the rock & roll spectacle they had been expecting. Where the original “Lords of Salem” are hell-bent on returning and they are out for blood.

In other words “Lords of Salem” has that total 70’s vibe that he is so famous for when it comes to his films. Which is cool -to me anyway- because I think some of the best horror really came out that decade.

As the movie progresses it turns out that Heidi’s life pretty much revolves around her work & her going to AA meetings to help her to on the path of the straight & narrow. But after her flashback with the “Lords” record & how the music, not only, effected her but all the women that heard it, Heidi begins to withdraw again into drugs & alcohol. However, that isn’t the only problem Heidi has to face. Turns out her world is becoming more & more intruded upon by her landlord, Lacy Doyle, played by Judy Gleeson (“Horror Planet”), & her two cousins, Sonny (Dee Wallace) & Megan (Patricia Quinn), who all have a secret agenda of their own. But you are gonna have to go see what that my be.

As usual, you can the same gaggle of Zombie cronies in “Lords”, from Sid Hag, Udo Kier, Michael Berryman, to Richard Lynch (1940-2012), along with a few fresh faces; creepy-ass Billy Drago being one of them.

I hear (or should I say: read) that the third act looks like an old Polanski film gone awry; resembling more of “Rosemary’s Baby” meets “Supriria” than anything else, that I just have to see.