The Lords of Salem is Hocus Pocus for adults who can handle gore, tongue-in-cheek blasphemy, and enjoy Suspira, Rosemary’s Baby, and the insanity of Stanley Kubrik films.
Content Warnings:
Death, gore, nudity, sacrifice, Satanism/blasphemy, suggested child and animal sacrifice but it doesn’t appear on camera, pregnancy/birth, maternal death in child birth, persecution of witches, religious abuse, nonconsensual sex act, flashing lights, drug use and relapse as a theme, alcohol, mental health issues and instability.
The dog does not die.
A radio DJ (Sheri Moon Zombie) in Salem, Mass., is plagued by nightmarish visions of vengeful witches after she plays a record by a mysterious group known only as “The Lords.”
I will admit, I put off watching The Lords of Salem because I wrongly assumed it would be very similar to Rob Zombie’s movies like The Devil’s Rejects. I was expecting raunchy gore and dark humor and I really gotta be in the right mood for that (or my partner, a die hard Zombie fan, has to talk me into it). Like I said, the assumption was wrong and I really made an ass out of myself by waiting a whole decade to watch this movie. I loved it!
One thing about Rob Zombie movies that I enjoy is that you can tell the man genuinely loves horror movies. You can see his influence and how he revels in the genre. Even if you don’t like his style, I think you gotta give the man some props for having fun with what is obviously his favorite visual medium.
The Lords of Salem, while unlike his other movies in a lot of ways, shows Zombie’s knowledge of horror. You see so many influences in this movie including Giallo films, Argento’s The Three Mother’s trilogy, Rosemary’s Baby, and Stanley Kubrik’s work.
You also see a lot of call backs to the family classic, Hocus Pocus – the three witches including a flirty blonde, the tapes to learn French (I half expected it to cover I would Like to Find My Book), and music to draw in sacrifices.
I really feel like if The Lords of Salem had been presented to me as Hocus Pocus meets Suspiria and Rosemary’s Baby with a splash of Rob Zombie’s hard core madness and gore I would have jumped on this movie a long time ago.
One of the things I loved about this movie is that the “bad guys” are many and not necessarily on each other’s sides. We get the depiction of the evils of the church and patriarchy but we also get the evils of a certain style of witchcraft. In the end, the good guys are the weakest characters – very human, very unequipped to deal with the problems they are facing, and even unable to find the words to talk to each other about the issues at hand. It leaves not only the characters feeling helpless but also the audience as we join them on their journey facing the horrors of this story.
The movie is admittedly not perfect. There were a few moments that I raised my eyebrow on – such as making Herman, the obviously friend zoned coworker, emotionally important later in the movie then dropping the subject felt like part of that story got left on the editor’s cutting room floor. I just felt like I missed something there.
In all, I give it 5 stars and will be adding it to my favorite movies list and fall roster. I highly recommend you give this movie a shot, even and especially if you’re not a fan of Rob Zombie’s other work as The Lords of Salem is unlike anything he’s done prior.
