The Lords of Salem is a 2012 supernatural horror film written, produced, and directed by Rob Zombie. It stars Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Ken Foree, Patricia Quinn, Dee Wallace, María Conchita Alonso, Judy Geeson, and Meg Foster. The plot focuses on a troubled female disc jockey in Salem, Massachusetts, whose life becomes entangled with a coven of ancient Satan-worshipping women.
The film started shooting on October 17, 2011, and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2012. Rob Zombie's novelization of The Lords of Salem was released on March 12, 2013, and the film was given a limited release on April 19, 2013. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
In Salem, Massachusetts, Heidi, a recovering drug addict, works as a DJ at a hard rock station with her co-workers Whitey and Munster. She receives a strange wooden box containing an album by a band named The Lords. She and Whitey listen to the record, which is a series of string and woodwind instruments. Heidi has a vision of women who worship Satan ritually birthing a baby, then damning the child.
The next day, Heidi interviews Francis Matthias, who has written a book about the Salem witch trials. The station plays the Lords' record, which causes all of the women in Salem to enter a trance. Heidi's sister Megan, a palm reader, tells her that she is fated to succumb to her dark sexual desires. Later, Heidi enters the vacant apartment 5 and experiences visions of a demon and a nude witch which commands she "bleed us a king". Heidi wakes up in bed and assumes the events in apartment 5 were a nightmare.
Troubled, she visits a church and falls asleep, dreaming that she is sexually assaulted by the priest. She flees but is faced with a ghostly entity. Meanwhile, Matthias researches the Lords, and discovers some music in a book. He confirms that it is the same music heard on the record and tracks down the author, who tells him that in the 17th century a Rev. Hawthorne accused a coven of Satan worshippers of creating the music to control the women of Salem. As a result, Hawthorne had the women executed, but not before their leader, Margaret Morgan, put a curse on the Salem women and Hawthorne's descendants, calling his bloodline "the vessel by which the devil's child would inherit the earth". Heidi is a descendant of Rev. Hawthorne.
Heidi has more strange visions that disturb her. Distraught, she begins using drugs again. Her landlord Lacy, and her sisters Sonny and Megan take Heidi to apartment 5. Inside, there appears to be a huge opera house with a demon on a throne. He screams and embraces her with tentacle-like appendages.
The next day, Matthias tries to tell Heidi the truth about the Lords and her lineage. Instead, Lacy and her sisters kill him. Heidi hears his murder taking place, but does nothing. At The Lords' concert, Heidi joins Lacy, Sonny, Megan, and the ghosts of Margaret and her coven in a satanic rite. The Lords' music causes the female audience members to strip off their clothing. In the midst of surreal visions, Heidi blissfully gives birth to a strange creature which looks akin to a crawfish, atop the corpses of the naked audience members. The next day, her station reports on a mass suicide at a rock concert, as well as the disappearance of Heidi.
Cast
Production
The Lords of Salem is the third film from Haunted Movies, the first two being Insidious and The Bay. After directing the remake of Halloween and its sequel, Rob Zombie stated that he wanted to try something different and original. Also factoring into Zombie's decision was that he was offered complete creative freedom for the project, something that he did not have for either of his Halloween pictures. Zombie had the idea for the movie before starting on the second Halloween movie; however, as he puts it, "it wasn't really like I was working on it. I was like, 'Oh, this would kind of be a cool idea. Like, Salem radio station, blah blah blah, music', and then [I] forgot I even wrote that down." After Jason Blum came to Zombie asking for something "supernatural in nature", Zombie was reminded of the Salem idea. Despite this, Zombie stated that much of the original concept changed significantly, noting that once the project got underway that he "basically started writing it from scratch".