The Lords of Salem is one hell of a rockin horror flick. Written and directed by Rob Zombie whose feature credits include House of 1000 Corpses, The Devils Rejects, and Halloween I and II the masterfully textured and paced film puts a timeless new spin on the mythology surrounding the Salem witch trials. It stars Robs wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, who plays Heidi Hawthorne, a local radio station DJ. The spirits of Salem start to stir when Heidi gives airplay to a sheet of vinyl she receives in a mysterious wooden crate, which comes with a cryptic note that merely says its a gift from the Lords.
After spooking ourselves silly watching a preview, during which we literally jumped out of our seat and squealed on several occasions, we met up with Rob, who'd just returned from Austin where he'd screened the film during SXSW. We spoke in depth about The Lords of Salem and also got the skinny on his new album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, which comes out four days after the films April 19th theatrical release.
Nicole Powers: The last time we spoke you were just about to head out on tour with Marilyn Manson, and you were simultaneously recording your new album and finishing this film off.
Rob Zombie: Yeah, I survived all three. Its been kind of madness, but everythings done. The records done, the movies done, the tours done. Everything went well...I sort of unintentionally scheduled everything to collide at the same time, and it did collide. But its all good. Im all done.
NP: A perfect storm of awesomeness.
RZ: An imperfect storm of craziness, exactly.
NP: I just watched the film and I have to say its exactly how I like my horror movies. It has the right amount of fright, and the right amount of ritual sacrifice.
RZ: Its a weird movie, which is good. Every review Ive read especially the good reviews say, Its weird. No, its weirder than that. Really, its weird, which is good.
NP: It must have been fun to get to ritually sacrifice your wife.
RZ: Well, it wasnt fun for herThis sounds ridiculous, but I didnt really realize until two days ago when I was watching the film in Texas how much I made her work. Cause Im just so deep in it working that I didnt realize what I had put her through until that night. Now I remember why she was miserable. No, just kidding. But it was a lot. I was asking a lot of her, but it went great.
NP: Presumably when you were writing it, you were writing it knowing that she was going to play the main role?
RZ: I pretty much knew that 90% of the cast thats in the movie was going to play those roles. I wrote it with everybodys particular voice in mind. There were only one or two roles that were always constantly in flux and I didn't know who it was going to be. And then when I did know who a certain role was going to be [played by], I would quickly change it.
NP: I love that the film incorporates the classic heavy metal mythology of the record with the subliminal satanic messages and the needle traveling in the groove in reverse. It makes me sad that were the last generation for whom those references will mean anything.
RZ: Probably. I mean the significance of vinyl is definitely getting lost. I think theres a new generation of hipsters who like it because I see theres a lot of vinyl at Urban Outfitters. So someones buying it or someones looking at it anyway. I mean, if I had had more money I would have set the entire movie in the early 70s. Thats really what I wanted to do. But making a period film is very costly, so I set it in modern times with a 70s sensibility, so yeah, at that point of course vinyl was everything.
NP: It does have a completely timeless feel.
RZ: Yes, I didnt want too many things to take us out of time. I mean the only things really that would break it were the cell phones and theres modern looking cars, but other than that, everything else is fairly timeless within the film I think.
NP: I just cant imagine that playing MP3s backwards is going to be as much fun in a horror movie.
RZ: Well, thats the funny thing about that. I mean technologys great, and I dont want to put it down, but I just dont know that its going to have the history for people. Because, you know, you can still own a record that you had when you were a kid, and you can even smell the record and go that reminds me of that summer when I bought this record. Theres all these memories attached. Even in the movie theres significance attached to the physical being of a record. Whereas no kids going to look at his iPod in forty years and go, Remember when I got this iPod Mini? Those were the days my friend! Its all so disposableI mean obviously to each generation its different. They dont care because they cant miss something theyve never hadI think that objects having significance is becoming a thing of the past anyway.
NP: Also whats missing from contemporary culture is texture; This whole movie has great texture.
RZ: Thats very important to me, everything having texture. Thats why I always tell all the male actors to not shave. Sometimes they dont shave and they grow these huge beards, but sometimes even to see just a little stubble, because I like there to be grit in everything, in peoples faces. Thats why I like casting older actors because theres just more in their faces. Now, what really horrifies me when I watch movies is just how clean everything isNow they are airbrushing actors faces frame by frame by frame. So you look at a movie, and if you saw this person in real life youd scream because they have no pores. Everybody looks like a cyborg. Everybody looks like they have a babys face. Its absurd. And you feel like youre watching a live action cartoon, which can be cool, depending upon the type of movie, but every movies doing that and its just become so annoying to look at everyones fake faces all day long.
NP: Its the film equivalent of whats happening with audio too, where everythings so clean it lacks texture.
RZ: Exactly. That was the thing with making the new record, its so easy now. Back in the day when I made my first record, it was really hard to make your record sound good because you had crappy equipment, crappy microphones, crappy everything. So that was the goal, lets make it sound good. But now its so easy to make it sound good that it starts sounding so good that it sounds soulless. Its like most pop music it sounds soulless. You used to think The Partridge Family sounded soulless, but now The Partridge Family sounds like The Beatles compared to whats going on now. It sounds like the Rolling Stones. So even with my new record it was all aboutleaving the mistakes in essentially. Because you can go back in in Pro Tools and make everything perfect, but I wanted to leave all the mistakes in because thats the only thing that signifies that theres a human moment happening. Because you can put the whole thing together with a computer and make it perfect, but thats exactly how it feels when you listen to it.
NP: Did you try to do that when you were directing too?
RZ: I try to that with everything. I mean, theres no digital effects in the movie, everythings practical. If you see it, it means it happened right there. I like to do that with everything, you know. If theres mistakes, I leave them in. Not if theyre detrimental to the film obviously. But I just dont likeDigital stuff has its place, and its a great tool, but I think at some point it went from being a tool to a crutch. Like the digital effects in Jurassic Park were mind-blowing, but the digital effects in most movies nowadays just make you groan when you see them in the trailer because theyve taken over. Theyre not incorporated into the human element, the human element has just been eliminated. Once they can make the digital actors look perfect, you wont even have live humans in movies anymore. They wont even bother. What would be the point?
NP: The scene at the end looks like it was shot in one of those amazing old movie palaces in Downtown LA.
RZ: Yeah, its a giant movie theater in LA...Its pretty cool. Its called the [Los Angeles] Theatre and its just so grand. Its hard to believe that people would go here. They actually had the premiere of Charlie Chaplins City Lights there. Theres a big photo inside the theatre of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein walking in together to the premiere of City Light. Its just incredible.
NP: What movies were you referencing when you were bringing your team together on the same page?
RZ: Not too many movies because there werent too many movies that really had the vibe of what I wanted. But we were looking at some Italian horror films, movies like Susperia. That sort of had a little of the vibe. Like there's a scene in the movie at the beginning where Jessica Harpers walking through the airport, and its just creepy. Shes walking through an airport and nothings really happening, but the music and the vibe and the lightings creepy, so the mundane things seeming creepy. Then movies like some of the pacing of a Kubrick movie, whether it be The Shining or it could be 2001, its that painfully slow pacing that I love where you get so sucked into the movie. It either drives you crazy and you cant watch the movie, or you just become so engulfed in it, it depends on the person. These are artistic choices that arent for everybody, and I knew that. And a lot of the Ken Russell movies, anything from Altered States to even Tommy, just pulling weird things like that. Those are the things we really pulled from
I wanted to drag things out in this movie because the situation Id had on the last couple of films, like the Halloween films, the studio was always [saying], Make it shorter, make it shorter. We want the film to be 88 minutes long. Because obviously if the movies shorter they can show it more times. But its really hard to create a feeling of dread and suspense in 88 minutes because the movie doesnt breathe enough. It just feels like youre slam banging from scene to scene. Sometimes what could come across as a boring scene, it helps set up the next moment. If you watch The Shining, theres what appears to be a lot of really slow business going on, but it needs to be there. I mean, if you made that movie now the studios would say youve got to lop an hour out of this thing, but its that slowness that makes you unnerved after a while.
NP: How were you able to push the length on this one?
RZ: I did everything different than I normally do. Because I have a short attention span sometimes and I always want to make things fast myself just because thats the way my brain functions when Im scatterbrained. So I had to force myself to slow down, and the actors too. Because actors sometimes, they start being fast and they blaze through things, and I kept [saying], Slow down, slow down. Slow down was the only thing I said for weeks. Even the camera, every time wed do a dolly move, Id go, No! A thousand times slower. So painfully slow that it seems like a mistake.
One day on set, because I knew it was driving everyone crazy, there was just a shot where I wanted the dolly down the hallway, and we had to go painfully slow because the hallway was very short. It may look huge in the movie, but it was tiny. I played some music while they did the dolly move, and once they heard the sound, then they got it. They go, Oh, its all about the anticipation of the move, its not lets get there. Because sometimes when you get there theres nothing there, its all about getting there. So that was a big change that I had to make in my mind and so did everybody else.
NP: Right, the more you draw it out, the more you get unnerved about what you think is going to happen?
RZ: Yeah, and then when nothing happens you go, ""Oh, youre going to do it to me again," and it keeps happening. Its the only way to trick people.
NP: Im so happy you didnt kill the dog. All the way through the movie I was thinking dont kill the puppy.
RZ: Yeah, thats the thing, everybodys all good with everything until an animal gets hurt. Im the same way. Ill be driving down the street and theyll be dead people all over the road, and Im like, "Goddamn this traffic jam." But you see any injured animal, you slam on the brakes and call 911. Im the same way.
NP: Yeah, in a horror movie I can have as many bodies piled up as you want, but do not kill the puppy.
RZ: I was even watching American Dad the other night and they were abusing a dog and I [thought], I don't know if I like this show anymore. They can abuse all the people they like on Family Guy or American Dad, and it never bothers me, but if theres an animal scene even if its an animated animal Im still getting angry. Weird.
NP: Im still mad about Marley & Me because they killed the puppy.
RZ: Yeah, I didnt watch. I had other reasons for not watching that movie. [laughs]
NP: When youre at home switching off, what do you watch? What TV shows?
RZ: I don't watch much TV anymore. I was really obsessed with watching the news constantly. I was always flipping between CNN and MSNBC and local news, and then one day I thought Im done, I dont care. If something big enough happens, someone will tell me. From now on I dont want to know. I think I burnt out because I had just been in Europe and I came back and the Sandy Hook shooting happened in Connecticut. Being on the East Coast it was just too much. It went from a tragedy that you have to report on, but then the news people, it was just disgusting the way they were milking this. [Puts on reporter voice.] All the people from Sandy Hook want to do is be is left alone. Well youre camping out on their doorstep telling us they want to be left alone and youre standing in front of the school with your news van. Maniacs! So thats why I cant take any more news. Its all horseshit and lies anyway.
NP: Well, it gets to the point where its not news its just gratuitous reporting
RZ: Its never news anyway. Its all lies. Its just all bullshit anyway, so who cares? You know? If an asteroids going to hit the earth, fine, Ill figure it out when I explode suddenly, but other than that Im good
NP: The last time we spoke youd just bought the rights to a sports story, and that was going to be your next film project. Is that still in the works?
RZ: Yes. Thats still going forward. Its called Broad Street Bullies and its the true story of the Philadelphia Flyers, the formation of their hockey team. They came up with the idea of basically forming the toughest team in the NHL and they sort of brutalized their way to the Stanley Cup twiceIts great story. Its kind of like Rocky meets Boogie Nights on ice. What I love about it is its a great character driven story. Because I know a lot of people will be going, Ewe, I hate hockey, I don't care. But it doesnt matter. You can enjoy Rocky and not give a crap about boxing, because its really not the point. Strangely theres almost no boxing in the movie Rocky. So thats the next movie.
NP: Are you writing that too?
RZ: Thats almost done. What Ive been doing for about a year is researching it. Its the first movie Ive done where its a true story, so theres just so much research. Now Im like an expert on the subject. Ive been working on writing that for about a year, and Im pretty much finished with it now.
NP: Was writing that harder than this because every last detail has to be researched?
RZ: Writing something like that is incredibly hard. Writing something that you make up is easyBut when youre researching something, just finding the informationYoure taking a real person who exists and you have to make them a character, but then you go, Does that guy have any kids? And trying to find out if some hockey player from 1974 had a wife and kids back then, or where he lived, sometimes just finding the information is virtually impossible. Ive read every book on the Flyers, watched every film, and dug through the archives. I mean, Ive got the information now, but it was like an archeological dig.
NP: You must have so much self-discipline. For some people screenwritings a full-time job, directings a full-time job, being in a band and doing albums is a full-time job and youre doing all three .
RZ: Yeah, its a little nutty, but Im pretty scatterbrained so I can handle things all at once. I mean, just recently, when I was flying down to South by Southwest to show Lords of Salem, I was on the plane and on my computer I had the script for Broad Street Bullies, I was watching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and going through the offline cut of this comedy special I did for my friend Tom Papa recently. I was doing three things at once, work on that cut, watch the game, make notes, work on the script. I would just bounce between all three at the same time, but Ive always been able to do that.
NP: And you have the new album coming out within days of the films release.
RZ: Yeah, that comes out four days after the movie I think.
NP: So talk a bit about the new album.
RZ: I really like the new album. I mean I did the new album almost in the same way that I did the movie. First I moved the editing room into a barn out in the country where I live, and we edited the movie completely isolated. Nobody could find us. They didnt know where we were, nobody, the studio, nothing. It was just me and the editor over the winter cutting the movie. Then I did the same thing with the band. We moved the recording studio into this barn out in the middle of nowhere and we didnt see anybody for months and months and months, and made the record. It was great just to be isolated from traffic, and management, and record labels, and people, and phone calls. We could just work non-stop. When you do that you just do great stuff because theres no conflicts. Youre one hundred percent obsessed all day long with what youre trying to accomplish.
The Lords of Salem will be released in theaters on April 19, 2013.
Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor will be released on April 23, 2013.
Click HERE to view an SG-Exclsuive Lords of Salem photo gallery and visit LordsOfSalem.com/win for a chance to WIN a walk-on role in Rob Zombie's next film.
After spooking ourselves silly watching a preview, during which we literally jumped out of our seat and squealed on several occasions, we met up with Rob, who'd just returned from Austin where he'd screened the film during SXSW. We spoke in depth about The Lords of Salem and also got the skinny on his new album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, which comes out four days after the films April 19th theatrical release.
Nicole Powers: The last time we spoke you were just about to head out on tour with Marilyn Manson, and you were simultaneously recording your new album and finishing this film off.
Rob Zombie: Yeah, I survived all three. Its been kind of madness, but everythings done. The records done, the movies done, the tours done. Everything went well...I sort of unintentionally scheduled everything to collide at the same time, and it did collide. But its all good. Im all done.
NP: A perfect storm of awesomeness.
RZ: An imperfect storm of craziness, exactly.
NP: I just watched the film and I have to say its exactly how I like my horror movies. It has the right amount of fright, and the right amount of ritual sacrifice.
RZ: Its a weird movie, which is good. Every review Ive read especially the good reviews say, Its weird. No, its weirder than that. Really, its weird, which is good.
NP: It must have been fun to get to ritually sacrifice your wife.
RZ: Well, it wasnt fun for herThis sounds ridiculous, but I didnt really realize until two days ago when I was watching the film in Texas how much I made her work. Cause Im just so deep in it working that I didnt realize what I had put her through until that night. Now I remember why she was miserable. No, just kidding. But it was a lot. I was asking a lot of her, but it went great.
NP: Presumably when you were writing it, you were writing it knowing that she was going to play the main role?
RZ: I pretty much knew that 90% of the cast thats in the movie was going to play those roles. I wrote it with everybodys particular voice in mind. There were only one or two roles that were always constantly in flux and I didn't know who it was going to be. And then when I did know who a certain role was going to be [played by], I would quickly change it.
NP: I love that the film incorporates the classic heavy metal mythology of the record with the subliminal satanic messages and the needle traveling in the groove in reverse. It makes me sad that were the last generation for whom those references will mean anything.
RZ: Probably. I mean the significance of vinyl is definitely getting lost. I think theres a new generation of hipsters who like it because I see theres a lot of vinyl at Urban Outfitters. So someones buying it or someones looking at it anyway. I mean, if I had had more money I would have set the entire movie in the early 70s. Thats really what I wanted to do. But making a period film is very costly, so I set it in modern times with a 70s sensibility, so yeah, at that point of course vinyl was everything.
NP: It does have a completely timeless feel.
RZ: Yes, I didnt want too many things to take us out of time. I mean the only things really that would break it were the cell phones and theres modern looking cars, but other than that, everything else is fairly timeless within the film I think.
NP: I just cant imagine that playing MP3s backwards is going to be as much fun in a horror movie.
RZ: Well, thats the funny thing about that. I mean technologys great, and I dont want to put it down, but I just dont know that its going to have the history for people. Because, you know, you can still own a record that you had when you were a kid, and you can even smell the record and go that reminds me of that summer when I bought this record. Theres all these memories attached. Even in the movie theres significance attached to the physical being of a record. Whereas no kids going to look at his iPod in forty years and go, Remember when I got this iPod Mini? Those were the days my friend! Its all so disposableI mean obviously to each generation its different. They dont care because they cant miss something theyve never hadI think that objects having significance is becoming a thing of the past anyway.
NP: Also whats missing from contemporary culture is texture; This whole movie has great texture.
RZ: Thats very important to me, everything having texture. Thats why I always tell all the male actors to not shave. Sometimes they dont shave and they grow these huge beards, but sometimes even to see just a little stubble, because I like there to be grit in everything, in peoples faces. Thats why I like casting older actors because theres just more in their faces. Now, what really horrifies me when I watch movies is just how clean everything isNow they are airbrushing actors faces frame by frame by frame. So you look at a movie, and if you saw this person in real life youd scream because they have no pores. Everybody looks like a cyborg. Everybody looks like they have a babys face. Its absurd. And you feel like youre watching a live action cartoon, which can be cool, depending upon the type of movie, but every movies doing that and its just become so annoying to look at everyones fake faces all day long.
NP: Its the film equivalent of whats happening with audio too, where everythings so clean it lacks texture.
RZ: Exactly. That was the thing with making the new record, its so easy now. Back in the day when I made my first record, it was really hard to make your record sound good because you had crappy equipment, crappy microphones, crappy everything. So that was the goal, lets make it sound good. But now its so easy to make it sound good that it starts sounding so good that it sounds soulless. Its like most pop music it sounds soulless. You used to think The Partridge Family sounded soulless, but now The Partridge Family sounds like The Beatles compared to whats going on now. It sounds like the Rolling Stones. So even with my new record it was all aboutleaving the mistakes in essentially. Because you can go back in in Pro Tools and make everything perfect, but I wanted to leave all the mistakes in because thats the only thing that signifies that theres a human moment happening. Because you can put the whole thing together with a computer and make it perfect, but thats exactly how it feels when you listen to it.
NP: Did you try to do that when you were directing too?
RZ: I try to that with everything. I mean, theres no digital effects in the movie, everythings practical. If you see it, it means it happened right there. I like to do that with everything, you know. If theres mistakes, I leave them in. Not if theyre detrimental to the film obviously. But I just dont likeDigital stuff has its place, and its a great tool, but I think at some point it went from being a tool to a crutch. Like the digital effects in Jurassic Park were mind-blowing, but the digital effects in most movies nowadays just make you groan when you see them in the trailer because theyve taken over. Theyre not incorporated into the human element, the human element has just been eliminated. Once they can make the digital actors look perfect, you wont even have live humans in movies anymore. They wont even bother. What would be the point?
NP: The scene at the end looks like it was shot in one of those amazing old movie palaces in Downtown LA.
RZ: Yeah, its a giant movie theater in LA...Its pretty cool. Its called the [Los Angeles] Theatre and its just so grand. Its hard to believe that people would go here. They actually had the premiere of Charlie Chaplins City Lights there. Theres a big photo inside the theatre of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein walking in together to the premiere of City Light. Its just incredible.
NP: What movies were you referencing when you were bringing your team together on the same page?
RZ: Not too many movies because there werent too many movies that really had the vibe of what I wanted. But we were looking at some Italian horror films, movies like Susperia. That sort of had a little of the vibe. Like there's a scene in the movie at the beginning where Jessica Harpers walking through the airport, and its just creepy. Shes walking through an airport and nothings really happening, but the music and the vibe and the lightings creepy, so the mundane things seeming creepy. Then movies like some of the pacing of a Kubrick movie, whether it be The Shining or it could be 2001, its that painfully slow pacing that I love where you get so sucked into the movie. It either drives you crazy and you cant watch the movie, or you just become so engulfed in it, it depends on the person. These are artistic choices that arent for everybody, and I knew that. And a lot of the Ken Russell movies, anything from Altered States to even Tommy, just pulling weird things like that. Those are the things we really pulled from
I wanted to drag things out in this movie because the situation Id had on the last couple of films, like the Halloween films, the studio was always [saying], Make it shorter, make it shorter. We want the film to be 88 minutes long. Because obviously if the movies shorter they can show it more times. But its really hard to create a feeling of dread and suspense in 88 minutes because the movie doesnt breathe enough. It just feels like youre slam banging from scene to scene. Sometimes what could come across as a boring scene, it helps set up the next moment. If you watch The Shining, theres what appears to be a lot of really slow business going on, but it needs to be there. I mean, if you made that movie now the studios would say youve got to lop an hour out of this thing, but its that slowness that makes you unnerved after a while.
NP: How were you able to push the length on this one?
RZ: I did everything different than I normally do. Because I have a short attention span sometimes and I always want to make things fast myself just because thats the way my brain functions when Im scatterbrained. So I had to force myself to slow down, and the actors too. Because actors sometimes, they start being fast and they blaze through things, and I kept [saying], Slow down, slow down. Slow down was the only thing I said for weeks. Even the camera, every time wed do a dolly move, Id go, No! A thousand times slower. So painfully slow that it seems like a mistake.
One day on set, because I knew it was driving everyone crazy, there was just a shot where I wanted the dolly down the hallway, and we had to go painfully slow because the hallway was very short. It may look huge in the movie, but it was tiny. I played some music while they did the dolly move, and once they heard the sound, then they got it. They go, Oh, its all about the anticipation of the move, its not lets get there. Because sometimes when you get there theres nothing there, its all about getting there. So that was a big change that I had to make in my mind and so did everybody else.
NP: Right, the more you draw it out, the more you get unnerved about what you think is going to happen?
RZ: Yeah, and then when nothing happens you go, ""Oh, youre going to do it to me again," and it keeps happening. Its the only way to trick people.
NP: Im so happy you didnt kill the dog. All the way through the movie I was thinking dont kill the puppy.
RZ: Yeah, thats the thing, everybodys all good with everything until an animal gets hurt. Im the same way. Ill be driving down the street and theyll be dead people all over the road, and Im like, "Goddamn this traffic jam." But you see any injured animal, you slam on the brakes and call 911. Im the same way.
NP: Yeah, in a horror movie I can have as many bodies piled up as you want, but do not kill the puppy.
RZ: I was even watching American Dad the other night and they were abusing a dog and I [thought], I don't know if I like this show anymore. They can abuse all the people they like on Family Guy or American Dad, and it never bothers me, but if theres an animal scene even if its an animated animal Im still getting angry. Weird.
NP: Im still mad about Marley & Me because they killed the puppy.
RZ: Yeah, I didnt watch. I had other reasons for not watching that movie. [laughs]
NP: When youre at home switching off, what do you watch? What TV shows?
RZ: I don't watch much TV anymore. I was really obsessed with watching the news constantly. I was always flipping between CNN and MSNBC and local news, and then one day I thought Im done, I dont care. If something big enough happens, someone will tell me. From now on I dont want to know. I think I burnt out because I had just been in Europe and I came back and the Sandy Hook shooting happened in Connecticut. Being on the East Coast it was just too much. It went from a tragedy that you have to report on, but then the news people, it was just disgusting the way they were milking this. [Puts on reporter voice.] All the people from Sandy Hook want to do is be is left alone. Well youre camping out on their doorstep telling us they want to be left alone and youre standing in front of the school with your news van. Maniacs! So thats why I cant take any more news. Its all horseshit and lies anyway.
NP: Well, it gets to the point where its not news its just gratuitous reporting
RZ: Its never news anyway. Its all lies. Its just all bullshit anyway, so who cares? You know? If an asteroids going to hit the earth, fine, Ill figure it out when I explode suddenly, but other than that Im good
NP: The last time we spoke youd just bought the rights to a sports story, and that was going to be your next film project. Is that still in the works?
RZ: Yes. Thats still going forward. Its called Broad Street Bullies and its the true story of the Philadelphia Flyers, the formation of their hockey team. They came up with the idea of basically forming the toughest team in the NHL and they sort of brutalized their way to the Stanley Cup twiceIts great story. Its kind of like Rocky meets Boogie Nights on ice. What I love about it is its a great character driven story. Because I know a lot of people will be going, Ewe, I hate hockey, I don't care. But it doesnt matter. You can enjoy Rocky and not give a crap about boxing, because its really not the point. Strangely theres almost no boxing in the movie Rocky. So thats the next movie.
NP: Are you writing that too?
RZ: Thats almost done. What Ive been doing for about a year is researching it. Its the first movie Ive done where its a true story, so theres just so much research. Now Im like an expert on the subject. Ive been working on writing that for about a year, and Im pretty much finished with it now.
NP: Was writing that harder than this because every last detail has to be researched?
RZ: Writing something like that is incredibly hard. Writing something that you make up is easyBut when youre researching something, just finding the informationYoure taking a real person who exists and you have to make them a character, but then you go, Does that guy have any kids? And trying to find out if some hockey player from 1974 had a wife and kids back then, or where he lived, sometimes just finding the information is virtually impossible. Ive read every book on the Flyers, watched every film, and dug through the archives. I mean, Ive got the information now, but it was like an archeological dig.
NP: You must have so much self-discipline. For some people screenwritings a full-time job, directings a full-time job, being in a band and doing albums is a full-time job and youre doing all three .
RZ: Yeah, its a little nutty, but Im pretty scatterbrained so I can handle things all at once. I mean, just recently, when I was flying down to South by Southwest to show Lords of Salem, I was on the plane and on my computer I had the script for Broad Street Bullies, I was watching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and going through the offline cut of this comedy special I did for my friend Tom Papa recently. I was doing three things at once, work on that cut, watch the game, make notes, work on the script. I would just bounce between all three at the same time, but Ive always been able to do that.
NP: And you have the new album coming out within days of the films release.
RZ: Yeah, that comes out four days after the movie I think.
NP: So talk a bit about the new album.
RZ: I really like the new album. I mean I did the new album almost in the same way that I did the movie. First I moved the editing room into a barn out in the country where I live, and we edited the movie completely isolated. Nobody could find us. They didnt know where we were, nobody, the studio, nothing. It was just me and the editor over the winter cutting the movie. Then I did the same thing with the band. We moved the recording studio into this barn out in the middle of nowhere and we didnt see anybody for months and months and months, and made the record. It was great just to be isolated from traffic, and management, and record labels, and people, and phone calls. We could just work non-stop. When you do that you just do great stuff because theres no conflicts. Youre one hundred percent obsessed all day long with what youre trying to accomplish.
The Lords of Salem will be released in theaters on April 19, 2013.
Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor will be released on April 23, 2013.
Click HERE to view an SG-Exclsuive Lords of Salem photo gallery and visit LordsOfSalem.com/win for a chance to WIN a walk-on role in Rob Zombie's next film.