The Lords Of Salem is about witches and they aren't the nice kind like you'd find on Bewitched. Rob Zombie wrote, produced and directed the movie which is set in the town of Salem. As the movie opens it's the 1600s and we see some witches strapped to chairs and burned to death by Judge Jonathan Hawthorne. In our real world past he was the son of one of Salem's early founders and power brokers and he did try witches and put them to death. In the movie the head witch, played by Meg Foster, puts a curse on the women of Salem before she dies. We jump ahead to modern day and Sheri Moon Zombie, wife of Rob, is a DJ at one of those obnoxious radio stations that plays sound effects and comical nonsense over everything the djs say. She's part of a trio of djs with Ken Foree and Jeff Daniel Phillips. Some will remember Ken from The Night Of The Living Dead and Jeff was the caveman in the Gieco commercials. Sheri lives in an apartment building, the caretaker is played by Judy Geeson who was in To Sir With Love with Sidney Poitier and Lulu. Sheri gets a record from the band The Lords Of Salem. There is a lot of vinyl in the movie, not sure why. The Lords of Salem is the name of the coven that were burned to death. The music gives Sheri hallucinations which she thinks is just her being tired. When she plays the record on air it puts other female listeners in a trance. Bruce Davison is the movie's witch expert, he appears on the trio's annoying radio show where he hears the record. That doesn't turn out to good for him when he starts digging into things. Judy's sisters, played by Dee Wallace and Patricia Quinn, come calling and it turns out they're witches. Their plan is to get Sherri ready to bare the devil's baby and it's a good plan. It's all very Rosemary's Babyish when it all plays out. I enjoyed it more than I was expecting. I'd only seen the first Rob Zombie movie, The House Of 1000 Corpses and that movie is just a gore splash with little story. This, Rob's fifth movie, has a story and it's better made than his first. Some of the fans of his previous work don't seem to like this change in style. I suspect because it's a much more mainstream horror movie. It reminds me a bit of Italian horror films and Joe said it reminds him of John Carpenter's work. I'd agree with that too. It's not going to appeal to everyone but I think Rob is getting better with 4 other movies under his belt.
Tam Lin or The Devil's Widow is Roddy McDowall's only directorial work. By comparison he has 261 acting credits in his 60 year career. The movie was made in 1970 and it stars Ava Gardner, Ian McShane, Stephanie Beacham and Joanna Lumley. Ava lives in a big country house in England surrounded by young adults. It's all rather bohemian and modern decadent. Since it's 1970, everyone has nice Carnaby Street fashions. Ava and Ian have something going on but he falls under the spell of the local minister's daughter. The minister is played by Cyril Cusack and his daughter is played by Stephanie Beacham. The triangle damages Ian's thing with Ava, especially when Stephanie turns up pregnant, and Ian wants to leave. Ava has it in for Ian now, she tells him she's going to kill him, she's got the power to do it. Ava's accountant, and main creepy guy, has a list of other dead men she used to love. Best stay away from women like that, huh. There's a lot of time spent in Ava's nice house setting up Ian's fall from grace. It's kind of slow moving at times and there are lots of long shots with pretty scenery but little story action. I did like the location shots in and around Innerleithen Scotland. Roddy does a fair good job directing but occasionally he has a visual idea that doesn't work too well. When Ian and Stephanie meet by a stream the movie becomes a slide show with silly face mugging. The story is based on the old Tam-Lin legend, using several of the main story elements. It's not great but it's not awful either. It scores a 6.4 on the IMDb and I'd give it a 6 but not a 7.
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