Like both "Rosemary’s Baby" and "Suspiria," two of the film's many influences, "The Lords of Salem" follows protagonists who don't understand what's happening to them, though they do know something is very wrong. But unlike those earlier films, the slow pace of Zombie's movies makes it sometimes frustrating to watch since women are specifically targeted and violated by horny demons.
When I interviewed him last fall, Zombie said that he wanted his viewers to feel the way he felt while watching a Stanley Kubrick film: as if they were going through the same experiences as the characters, instead of just passively watching their lives unfold. Zombie succeeds in that regard, and his film's disturbing violence and slow pacing leaves viewers feeling as helpless and brain-addled as his protagonists. It's hard to cozy up to "The Lords of Salem," but it is nothing if not ruthlessly effective.
"The Lords of Salem" is about an unfinished cycle of violence. The film's story begins during the Salem witch trials, where bare-breasted older women are tortured and burned at the stake while character actors like Sid Haig solemnly administer last rites. Amped-up howls of pain and extreme close-ups of humiliated matrons make you hope that their pain ends sooner rather than later. But at one point, screams become laughter, and victims are revealed to be monsters.
Flash-forward to present day Salem: Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie, Rob's wife), a shock-jock DJ and former drug addict, falls under a mysterious spell after she plays an LP delivered to her by an unknown group called The Lords. The Lords' music doesn't affect either of Heidi's male colleagues, but it does have an impact on female listeners.
Curious and not a little frightened, Heidi seeks the help of local occult historian Francis Matthias (Bruce Davison), whose own obsession with the Lords develops as Heidi's condition deteriorates. With each new visitation from demon fetuses and sex-obsessed incubus priests, Heidi behaves more erratically, inevitably threatening to start using again. This leaves Francis, apparently the only enlightened and truly concerned male in Salem, to help Heidi before Salem's Satan-worshipping witches destroy her.
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