"Lore" Panel Teases New Horrors To Come (New York Comic Con)

Amazon horror anthology series "Lore" brought a promotional panel to New York Comic Con in anticipation of it's second season. With cast and crew in attendance, clips were played to tease at the new stories set to be told, and various insights were offered in the ever-expanding scope of the show's stories that were largely adapted from episodes of the "Lore" podcast.

Though multiple episodes were teased from the upcoming series, one episode preview in particular stuck out. Actors Josh Bowman and Alicia Witt were in attendance to promote episode 6, "Jack Parsons: The Devil and the Divine" in which Bowman and Witt portray Jack Parsons and Marjorie Cameron. Bowman introduces his character first.

"Jack Parsons [was] mentioned before, he's the father of modern rocketry. He created solid rocket fuel which eventually obviously lead to Neil Armstrong going to the moon. So he was a part alchemist, part magician, really amazing guy, ahead of his time. At thirteen this guy apparently summoned the devil. From that, which apparently scared him shitless, but from that he did take an amazing interest in Alistair Crowley and sex magic is what it ended up being. It was sex, drugs, and rocket fuel."

Witt introduces Marjorie Cameron next. "He referred to her as his elemental woman, believing somehow that he had conjured her into being.

"By masturbating onto, seriously, masturbating onto magical tablets..." Bowman chimes in.

"He had been seeing visions of this woman all in red since he was a child," continues Witt. "Since around the time he conjured the devil he believed this woman was also somebody he was going to conjure. Then she appears in his life and he is like, 'Oh it's you. I conjured you," and she's like, 'I don't think you did. I'm an actual person. What if you're my muse? What is you're my inspiration?'"

Bowman goes on to explain how Jack Parsons was best friends with Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, and Witt shares how this wasn't an aspect that wasn't explored in the episode. The audience is then treated to a sneak-peek of the episode. In the clip, Jack Parsons and Marjorie Cameron partake in some hallucinogenic drugs that prelude an orgy though nothing too graphic is played in the preview. The movements seem to slow as the drugs kick in, and Marjorie appears to grow increasingly horrified while staring at Jack staring back at her while surrounded by women.

The clip relies on a tremendous amount of post-production editing, which begs the question of how the actors were written or directed to behave in order to execute this hallucinogenic effect.

"That's a good question, actually," says Bowman. "It really is kind of not doing a lot I guess. No, I'm deadly serious. I don't think playing into tripping out is going to be helpful. But they did an amazing job in post so that certainly helps."

"For Majorie it was two different versions," says Witt. "It was the real Marjorie who's taken a bit of whatever the hallucinogen is that is causing this effect and she doesn't like it. But she's also seeing the love of her life, her twin flame being consumed by something that she perceives as something so dark and so evil and so irretrievable that it's in direct collision with the man that she loves, the person she's gonna love for the rest of her life. That was easy to play because you can see that darkness in a person without a hallucinogen. It's just like a flash of intuition where you're like, 'Oh shit. That's not the person I thought they were.' That's kind of what's happening to her but multiplied."

"This is every day for Jack," says Bowman. "The guy was on everything. Amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, mushrooms..."

Witt addresses Bowman directly. "It was really cool watching you because I think you just instinctively assumed this role. It was beautiful to watch."

Season 2 of "Lore" premieres on Amazon Prime on October 19.

Watch the full "Lore" panel here: