Rob Zombie talks The Lords of Salem

The Lords of Salem has finished filming and is expected to be released later this year. We were aware that we'd see flashbacks of the 1600's at the very least, but Rob Zombie mentions in a recent interview that there are two timelines with their own story:

"Did The Lords of Salem start with the characters?

The actors individuality will shine through to a degree.

As much as I like to make the characters on the written page stand out from each other, I like to cast interesting people who are slightly unconventional so they pop off screen. They’re not just typical looking because that gets boring too for me. I like character actors above sort of “leading” actors.

Which characters in The Lords Of Salem stand out for you?

There are two timelines in the movie. There’s the present-day storyline, and then there’s the 1697 storyline. The main witch character in 1967 is named Margaret Morgan. She’s a big character. She really needed to stand out. It was tough to cast. I casted Meg Foster for that role, and it was a big goldmine on that one. It really needed to be something special. Sometimes, roles can veer off into cartoon world if you don’t have someone who can infuse them with a reality. She did in a way that I was surprised by, and it worked out fantastically. She’s one of the characters that really jumps out for me.

Is it crucial for you to make sure there’s always a dose of reality?

It’s totally important. I always want to approach it that way because I’m not a fan of things being campy at all. I hate movies like that. I’m not a fan at all. No matter how bizarre and insane the situation is, the actors have to create a reality you can buy into. A lot of horror movies don’t do that. You can see no one’s taking it seriously. That was a very big feature of ’80s horror movies. I like things to be dead serious. The great movies people love are. When someone goes, “Oh, what’s your favorite horror movie?” They never mention something that’s campy. They say The Shining, The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, or other movies where people are taking everything dead seriously. That’s always what works the best for me."

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The cast of the The Lords of Salem includes a number of genre favorites including Barbara Crampton, Patricia Quinn, Sid Haig, Michael Berryman, Judy Geeson, Bruce Davison, Christopher Knight, Ken Foree, Lisa Marie, Richard Lynch, Billy Drago, Dee Wallace, Trosten Voges, Ernest Thomas, Meg Foster, Maria Conchita Alonso, Brandon Cruz, and Jeff Daniel Phillips.

“Heidi, a blonde rock chick, DJs as a local radio station, and together with the two Hermans (Whitey and Munster) forms part of the ‘Big H Radio Team’.

A myserious wooden box containing a vinyl record arrives for Heidi, ’a gift from the Lords’. She assumes it’s a rock band on a mission to spread their word. As Heidi and Whitey play the Lords’ record, it starts to play backwards, and Heidi experiences a flashback to a past trauma.

Later, Whitey plays the Lords’ record, dubbing them the Lords of Salem, and to his surprise, the record plays normally and is a massive hit with listeners. The arrival of another wooden box from the Lords presents the Big H team with free tickets, posters and records to host a gig in Salem. Soon Heidi and her cohorts find that the gig is far from the rock spectacle they’re expecting: the original Lords of Salem are returning, and they’re out for BLOOD.”