Rob Zombie announced today that Academy Award nominated actor Bruce Dern has joined the cast of The Lords of Salem, which begins lensing this fall from the producing team behind Insidious and Paranormal Activity.

Bruce is taking on the role of “Francis Matthias”, author of the book “Satan’s Last Stand – The Truth About The Salem Witch Trials.” Francis may know a little too much about witches for his own good.

While Bruce most recently completed work on Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt, he has also appeared in many classic films from The Wild Angels to The Trip, Psych-Out, Hang ‘Em High, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, The Cowboys, Silent Running, The King Of Marvin Gardens, The Great Gatsby, Family Plot, Black Sunday and my pwersonal favorite, The ‘burbs.

Jeff Phillips was recently cast as Herman “Whitey” Salvador, one third of “The Big H Team” at WIQZ – Salem’s Rock Radio. Meg Foster was also cast as “Margaret Morgan”, the leader of a secret coven of witches in Salem. Ernest Thomas will play Chip “Freakshow” McDonald, the station manager at Salem’s #1 rock station. Torsten Voges stars as “Count Gorgann”, the lead singer of the Norwegian death metal band Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent.

“The story is about a local DJ who mistakenly unleashes a hellish curse on the town. 300 years earlier on the very streets of Salem that the townspeople walk on today, innocent folks were rounded up from their homes, convicted of being witches and sentenced to death. The Lords of Salem ran the town with an iron fist, but four witches who were tortured and killed in secrecy vowed that one day they would be back for revenge.”