My world exists sort of in that cult world,” Zombie said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “That is what I like, not just what I want to produce, but the filmmakers and things that I love. The ‘Halloween’ stuff, that was all well and good but it was more mainstream and I was sort of happiest just making something smaller and crazier just for the people that would like it. “When I had a No. 1 movie,” he added, “it was like, ‘OK, fine, I had a No. 1 movie and now I can go back to making small, weird stuff.’” “The Lords of Salem” is weird indeed. A radio DJ in Salem, Heidi (Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon Zombie) is sent a mysterious vinyl record in a wooden box that seems to exert a strange power over women whenever it’s played. The record sets off a chain of events that find Heidi spiraling downward, maybe falling back into drug addiction, but also falling under the spell of three women who have sinister plans for her. Among the producers on “Lords of Salem” are Jason Blum and Oren Peli of “Paranormal Activity” fame, who gave Zombie a budget of around $2.5 million, the smallest amount he has ever made a movie for, but also the promise of complete creative control. What Zombie did with that control is not make the goriest, most gruesome film ever, but rather a film of a stranger power, one that leaves the audience feeling disconcerted.