The Lords of Salem - DVD

Content: Life in the small town of Salem is not exactly exciting for Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie). Walks with her dog and visits to support groups define her daily life. Only her job brings some color and variety into the life of the single woman. As part of a DJ trio, she works every evening at the local radio station with snappy sayings and hot music to counteract the daily dreariness. When one day she receives a box containing a record by a band called the Lords, Heidi initially thinks it's a nice promo gift that she's naturally happy to play on her show. But when she puts the record on and the sounds spread through the ether, an ancient curse is unleashed that was placed on the town 300 years ago by the witch Margaret Morgan and her Coven of Six. And suddenly Heidi finds herself in a horror scenario she couldn't have imagined in her worst nightmares...

After musician, writer, producer, comic book artist and director Rob Zombie delivered two major studio productions with his Halloween remake and its sequel that left him severely creatively drained, he delivers another much smaller but also more idiosyncratic flick with The Lords of Salem. He doesn't just lend expression to his love of horror movies by casting genre oldies like Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), Dee Wallace (The Beast), Meg Foster (They Live) and Patricia Quinn (Rocky Horror Picture Show). Even the very clear references to films like Polanski`s Rosemary`s Baby or David Lynch`s Twin Peaks makes it clear that Zombie loves and respects this subject. And exactly because of that his film becomes interesting and worth seeing especially for fans of older genre works.

However, the staging also proves to be a bit unwieldy, as the staging, which is still quite straightforward at the beginning, turns more and more into an almost psychedelic trip. And that's a bit exhausting at times, whereas the script just isn't strong enough to compensate for these weaknesses. It's true that Zombie's earlier works were far from being straightforward mainstream horror. But his films have not seemed this experimental until now.

Also, in some places it becomes dramaturgically clear that the production had to overcome some difficulties - such as the poor health of Richard Lynch, cast as Reverend John Hawthorne, who died a short time later, or the departure of Billy Drago and Bruce Dern shortly before shooting - and that the film was actually a bit longer (scenes with guest stars such as Udo Kier, Sid Haig or Clint Howard all fell victim to the shears). The overall picture doesn't seem quite rounded and there are still too many questions left unanswered at the end.

It can't be denied that especially the ending has a certain charm and also leaves the viewer with goosebumps. But overall, the successful aspects and the rather exhausting, less convincing moments keep the balance, which is the bottom line only to a with deductions worth seeing - and only for fans of the films of Rob Zombie!

Picture + Sound: In the image dominate rather earthy tones, which are sometimes enriched towards the end of more garish, but very powerfully implemented color accents. The image sharpness is on a good level for long stretches, although here and there small details are lost in the mostly quite gloomy action. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix proves to be pleasantly lively thanks to the soundtrack and some overall atmospheric sound design, although in many scenes the front-mixed dialogue tends to set the tone.

Extras: Unfortunately, the disc has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion: The Lords of Salem is much more experimental than Rob Zombie's Halloween films. On the one hand, that makes the horror flick more interesting, but it also makes it a little bulkier than the director's recent work. Still: the reunion with genre oldies like Ken Foree, Patricia Quinn or Dee Wallace, as well as some almost psychedelic sequences make the film, despite clear weaknesses, on balance quite worth seeing. The technical realization is very atmospheric, only bonus material has the disc unfortunately not to offer. For Rob Zombie fans who can also sometimes do without the very bloody sides of his films, well worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp