Synopsis
Heidi, a radio DJ, is sent a box containing a record - a "gift from the Lords". The sounds within the grooves trigger flashbacks of her town's violent past. Is Heidi going mad, or are the Lords back to take revenge on Salem, Massachusetts?
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Cast
- Sheri Moon ZombieHeidi Hawthorne
- Bruce DavisonFrancis Matthias
- Jeff Daniel PhillipsHerman Whitey Salvador
- Judy GeesonLacy Doyle
- Meg FosterMargaret Morgan
- Patricia QuinnMegan
- Ken ForeeHerman Jackson
- Dee WallaceSonny
- María Conchita AlonsoAlice Matthias
- Richard FancyAJ Kennedy
Recommendations
- 100
Slant Magazine
Rob Zombie understands horror as an aural-visual experience that should gnaw at the nerves, seep into the subconscious, and beget unshakeable nightmares. - 83
The Playlist
The Lords of Salem is a product of Zombie’s better creative impulses, so it’s ok that it also features several of his worse indulgences, too. - 75
IndieWire
Zombie's witches aren't as scary as the credible psychopaths he has portrayed before, but The Lords of Salem contains enough frenzied imagery in its climactic moments to make the spell linger. - 67
Austin Chronicle
I could go on and on about Zombie’s style-over-substance direction, but why bother? The Lords of Salem is so clearly a project that Zombie has had stewing in his blood-and-black-lace heart for, I assume, ever, that the fact that it’s not a masterpiece seems almost moot. It’s a head trip, to be sure, but it’s Zombie’s electric, haunted head, so my advice is just sit back and goggle. - 60
Time Out
This may be terrifying news to Rob Zombie fans, but after years mining the 1970s for gunky shock moments, the musician-turned-filmmaker has emerged as an unusually sensitive director of actors. - 50
Variety
The helmer’s narrative dead end here registers not as a lack of nerve so much as a lack of imagination. - 42
Entertainment Weekly
Unfortunately, it’s just a witchy mess. - 40
Arizona Republic
Some of the imagery is memorable, in a twisted-horror kind of way. Zombie has no trouble scaring up atmosphere. But other scenes are ridiculous, unintentionally funny, particularly one he builds up to ominously, only to give us a silly payoff.
