Movies
Rob Zombie Reveals More on ‘Lords of Salem’
I’d say for every person that loves Rob Zombie’s films, there’s one who absolutely hates his works. For better or worse, the shock-rocker-turned-director is a big name in horror, and I’d dare you to name 5 more modern day genre directors that pique your interest as much as he does.
Zombie, who helmed House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects and the previous two Halloween films, is developing The Lords of Salem for Haunted Pictures (the team behind Paranormal Activity), while also keeping Tyrannosaurus Rex in the cards. Fortunately, he’s decided against remaking The Blob. Inside you can see the latest on all things Zombie.
What we’ve learned is that Lords of Salem takes place in contemporary Salem, where the inhabitants receive a demonic visit from a 300-year old coven of witches. Apparently, the story follows a DJ in Salem who unleashes a horde of demonic minions after she plays a cursed record. Zombie tells Empire a bit more:
“Inspired by the Salem witch trials, the film won’t be a period piece, but will sport a prologue set in 1692. “There were twenty people that everyone knows about – obviously all innocent – executed as witches in Salem,” explains Rob. “The basic premise of the film is that there were a further four who actually were witches, who were killed secretly, and vowed one day to return to wreak havoc on Salem’s descendants. That’s when the movie jumps ahead to the present day and things start to go wrong…” ”
“Lords of Salem is probably the bleakest of all my films,” Rob adds. “It’s only gonna get worse!”
Shooting starts, if all goes to plan, on April 18th, as soon as he gets home from the tour.
Speaking on the two aforementioned films, Zombie still hopes to make Tyrannosaurus Rex, but has backed out of directing The Blob: “I didn’t want to do another remake,” he tells Empire. “You just can’t win. If it’s too similar to the original, everybody wonders what the point was, but if it’s too different, everybody complains that it’s… too different! I found especially with Halloween II that everyone talked about what it wasn’t and not what it was: ‘you can’t do that with Michael Myers; you can’t do that with Loomis…’ It’s like people have a set of rules in their minds about how these things should function, and you can’t work like that.” Smart man.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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