WAMG Talks To ROB ZOMBIE

From the singular mind of horror maestro Rob Zombie comes a chilling plunge into a nightmare world where evil runs in the blood. The Lords of Salem tells the tale of Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie), a radio station DJ living in Salem, Massachusetts, who receives a strange wooden box containing a record, a “gift from the Lords.” Heidi listens, and the bizarre sounds within the grooves immediately trigger flashbacks of the town’s violent past. Is Heidi going mad, or are the “Lords of Salem” returning for revenge on modern-day Salem?

Recently, I sat down with writer/director Rob Zombie to talk with him about the film. I cannot say enough good things about him. He is one of the nicest people that I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing. Check it out below.

Not only is THE LORDS OF SALEM coming out this month, but you’ve also released a book by the same name, and are releasing a new album ‘Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor’. Was it always the plan – for all three to be released around the same time?

RZ: Yes. It was always the plan, because what I’ve been doing in the past – for the past 10 years, is, I would make a movie, which would usually take me away from music for about two years, and then I would come back to music, and I would lose the vibe because I’d been gone for so long. Then, I would do music for a couple of years, and when I would come back to movies I would feel rusty, in a way. My plan was to, sort of, keep both going at the same time. So, what I did – why I think it’s taken THE LORDS OF SALEM so long to come out is that I would work on the film for a little while, then I would go do a tour. I would come back, shoot the movie, then work on a record, and then edit the movie. I just kept bouncing back and forth between the projects, which dragged out the process, but it kept both alive at all times. For me, I never felt like I went away from either in a creative sense, so it was very helpful.

This film seems more psychological than your past films. Did you purposely deviate from “murder” horror?

RZ: Yeah. I wanted to do something different What I had done in the past – each film had a sequel, so they were similar – and they were both physically violent, in your face, films. There was no psychological aspect. There’s one person that is physically brutalizing another person, and I didn’t want to do that again. I wanted to do something that’s a little more of a “mind fuck” type of movie where you’re not even sure if what’s happening is happening, or if it’s in her head… if she’s just a junkie that’s having delusions, or if it’s really happening. I just wanted to do something that’s more of a weird, “mind fuck” drama than more of a brutal, attack-type movie.

Not to spoil anything, but one of the images I found clever was the “baby licking” scene because, not only do you never see imagery like that in film, but it sets a tone for the film. When you use such shocking, strong imagery, how do you balance it out in your film? Or, do you even worry much about that balance?

RZ: I don’t usually worry about it. Strangely enough, what I usually feel when I’m done is that I didn’t push anything far enough. I never think “Oh, that’s too much to do that.” For me, a movie like this was shot so quickly, we shot the film in 22 days, that you really have to get it right the first time. You’re never really thinking. You just hope that it’s making sense because you are moving so quickly that there’s never time to think “How it’s going to balance with this?”, “Will that work?”. Every decision is made with your gut. Even with the actors. With this movie two takes was a luxury, and then we had to move on just because we were shooting so fast. You just kind of hope that you’re spontaneously making the right decisions. (laughs)

You mention making spontaneous decisions. Since you wear the hat of both writer and director, did you stick to your own script, or, especially with your short shooting schedule, did you edit as you went along?

RZ: It changes constantly. The book is basically the original script, and the book is so different from the movie, because, what happens once I start shooting is – being the writer/director is the only way to solve this problem – is that the time just slips away. There was no way we were ever going to make this movie in 22 days. That was just a stupid thing that any of us thought could happen, including myself. So, once you start working you go “Oh my god. Everything we have planned for today is not going to work, so we’re not doing anything that’s in the script” and I would make up, at lunch, a completely new thing that we were going to do. Basically, no one ever knew what was going on… ever… except for me. I would just go “Here. We’re doing this now.” Even a simple scene – like after Bruce Davison is dead… he’s lying on the floor and the three witches are standing there around him. We had no time, or anything, so I quickly wrote a new page for them and we had one chance. They ran into the other room, rehearsed, and then came in, we shot it and moved on. Every second of every day was like that. It becomes a domino effect. It’s just madness. This movie should have been about two characters in one little room, because we had no time and no money. Then I had the idea of making this grand extravaganza, so it was my fault.

I was surprised to see Dee Wallace in an evil role. She actually made me cringe when she held up that frying pan.

RZ: Yeah. She was very happy. She hates playing the nice mom characters. She despises it. I know she’s frustrated, always being someones mom in a movie.

Let’s go back to budget and editing. You just said that it should have been two people in one room… What were some of the biggest cuts, or changes that you had to make to accommodate your schedule?

RZ: One of the biggest things that went away was the back story on Salem, which took place in 1697. There’s a tiny bit of it that’s used in flashbacks throughout the movie, and it starts the movie, but that was a lot. There are certain people, like Sid Haig, MIchael Berryman – different people that are in the movie, but they’re in there for two seconds. They were actual characters with scenes, and a whole story, but we just didn’t have time. So, they almost became cool background people. Then, when that changed, that affects another thing. A lot of the stuff with Heidi and the apartment, and the things that happened to her… it all just went away. I was literally just making new stuff up constantly that I thought we could accomplish. Most movies will shoot half a page a day, or one page a day. We were plowing through 12 pages of script a day. At that rate it’s just madness at all times.

You worked with John 5 for most of the scoring of the film. As a musician, is it difficult to let go of the reins, or do you feel that it’s easier to communicate what you want out of the soundtrack?

RZ: It depends on who you’re working with. With John it was super easy because we collaborate so much, and we’ve been working together for 8 years. Some composers have an agenda. You meet with them and go “I need something like this”, and they will literally give you the exact opposite of what you want because they think “it needs this”. They don’t know the big picture. They’re not in the editing room working, so you get into this battle. I knew working with John – John’s thing is that he wanted to give me exactly what I wanted. He really wanted to make me happy. I had a shorthand with him. I could give him a really rough idea and he would come back with the perfect thing the first time. So, it was easy. It’s easy to give up the reins if you trust who you’re working with. It’s when you don’t trust them that things get weird.

You shot a lot of the film in Salem. How deep did you delve into the town’s history for this, and how was their reception to you filming there?

RZ: When I first went to Salem to location scout and stuff, they were great – because the movie was much more factual at that point. As the movie progressed, and I kept rewriting it, and changing it, the reality of the Salem witch trials in the movie varied wildly. Everyone was super cool, and it was great being there. You shoot in California, and everyone’s so jaded. Nobody wants anyone shooting on their street. In Salem everyone is excited like “Woah. There’s a film being made here!” so, it was great. The reception was – well, they haven’t seen the movie yet, so I don’t know what they’ll actually think about what we did with their town, but at the time it was good.

THE LORDS OF SALEM is written and directed by Rob Zombie, and stars Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Ken Foree, Patricia Quinn, Dee Wallace, Maria Conchita Alonso, Judy Geeson, Meg Foster, and Richard Fancy.

For more information:  http://www.lordsofsalem.com/

THE LORDS OF SALEM hits theaters April 19th