From the beginning of his filmmaking career, Rob Zombie has proven to be ahead-of-the-curve. The Devil’s Rejects (2005) laid the groundwork for Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse (2007) double-feature collaboration, a debt they paid Zombie by having him direct one of the interstitial faux trailers for Werewolf Women of the SS. His entries in the Halloween franchise, especially Halloween II (2009), was reappraised a decade later following a nearly genre-wide adoption of the trauma plot. And The Lords of Salem (2012), at least visually, seems to anticipate the more giallo-inspired, heavy “vibes” horror of the later 2010s, e.g. The Neon Demon (2016) and Mandy (2018).
Sheri Moon Zombie, who has acted in all of her husband’s features, finally takes center stage as Heidi, a rock-radio DJ in Salem, Massachusetts. She receives a mysterious record in the mail one day from a band called The Lords and plays it at the station only to hear horrifying sounds that conjure visions of witches worshiping Satan. From then on Heidi is tormented by disturbing dreams and memories, in which we learn that she is a recovering addict. As her waking life turns into a hellish nightmare, and witches stalk her from a distance (played by some recognizable women in genre cinema: Dee Wallace, Meg Foster, Judy Geeson, and Patricia Quinn), Heidi becomes increasingly haunted and out of touch with reality. The locations, from the neon-lit interior of Heidi’s apartment to the autumnal streets of Salem, become increasingly menacing, and eventually swallow her up.
It’s truly depressing horror, and not just horror as metaphor for depression. Heidi is a woman plagued by demons both Satanic and personal, and they’re treated with equal weight. Her addiction slowly comes into focus: no clunky exposition that tells the viewer what to think of it. It’s with her in every frame, whether it’s actually the root cause of her visions or gnawing at her from the edges in the form of a potential relapse. Sheri Moon Zombie captures the feebleness of someone who has sunk so deeply into alienation that they’re completely hollowed out and ready to give in to self-destruction. The Lords of Salem in its totality is far from “Lynchian,” though her performance reads like the final days of a goth Laura Palmer. For the majority of the film Rob Zombie is at his most restrained; by the finale he gives into a phantasmagoria worthy of Ken Russell.
The Lords of Salem plays tonight and tomorrow, September 29 and 30, at IFC Center as part of the series “The Red Eye” introduced by host Evan Schwartz.
Heads up: Zombie's The Devil's Rejects shows on 35mm on the series Screen Slate & Steak Mtn. Present: Death Takes a Holiday at Roxy next Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
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