The successful writer Benjamin "Ben" Mears returns to his hometown Salem's Lot, Maine, expecting to write a new novel about the Marsten House. Ben believes that the manor is an evil house that attracts evil men since the place has many tragic stories and Ben saw a ghostly creature inside the house when he was ten. Ben finds that the Marsten House has just been rented to the antique dealers Richard K. Straker and his partner Kurt Barlow that is permanently traveling. Ben meets the divorced teacher Susan Norton that is living with her parents and they have a love affair. Ben also gets close to her father Dr. Bill Norton and his former school teacher Jason Burke. When people start to die anemic, Ben believes that Straker's partner is a vampire. But how to convince his friends that he is not crazy and that is the truth?Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The real name of the town in the book is Jerusalem's Lot. Both it and Sidewinder (from The Shining) are name checked in another Stephen King novel Doctor Sleep. See more »
Goofs
While driving to the antique shop, Straker drives by Crockett's realty office where a memorial wreath is on the door. Moments later we see the realty office again and there is no wreath. See more »
The text of the opening credits appear and dissolve piece by piece into each other in a jigsaw puzzle fashion. See more »
Alternate Versions
A total of 4 different versions exist. The original CBS broadcast version, the CBS re-broadcast version shown a year later, the European theatrically released version, and the DVD/Blu-ray version.
The original CBS broadcast version ran a total of 200 minutes including commercials. The CBS re-broadcast version shown a little while later was edited down to 150 minutes. The European theatrically released version which was edited even more down to 112 minutes (and cropped to 1.85:1) not only omitted a bunch of scenes but also had slightly more violent alternate takes of others (such as the infamous scene where Sawyer forces Crockett to put the shotgun in his mouth, in the original TV version he simply just holds it against his face). This version has only ever been released on VHS. Finally there's the DVD/Blu-ray version which runs a total of 183 minutes. This version contains the original unedited miniseries (without commercials) but it edits out the end credits of part 1, a preview of what would happen in part 2, a lengthy recap at the beginning of part 2, and the opening credits of part 2 (which were now shown at the beginning of part one as they have Reggie Nalder's name added to the cast list, which was not included in the original credits to part 1). So this version, instead of being presented in its original two-part format, is instead shown as a 3-hour long movie. Despite this there are no actual scenes edited out and is still the original unedited CBS version as seen in its original broadcast. See more »
I first saw "Salems Lot" when I was only 10, and 20 years later I still have the random nightmare because of it. "Salems Lot"- the book- was an excellent tale of a small - town being slowly killed - off by vampires, but the 1979 T.V. movie took the story to a whole new level. Tobe Hooper stayed true to the nightmarish Stephen King novel when he directed this movie for television. The movie is so scary (and holds - up today), because of great cast and truly terrifying scenes of goulish vampires. The actors who made up the small - town cast, looked like your everyday working - class people that you might bump into at your local supermarket. That element of quiet small - town folk mixed with the absolute horror / evil of the Stryker character (played by an unnervingly cold James Mason) and Mr. Barlow -- one of the most hideous / terrifying vampires since "Nosferatu"-- make "Salems Lot" one of the best horror movies that I've ever seen.
I give it 10 out of 10 stars!!!!!!!!!
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I first saw "Salems Lot" when I was only 10, and 20 years later I still have the random nightmare because of it. "Salems Lot"- the book- was an excellent tale of a small - town being slowly killed - off by vampires, but the 1979 T.V. movie took the story to a whole new level. Tobe Hooper stayed true to the nightmarish Stephen King novel when he directed this movie for television. The movie is so scary (and holds - up today), because of great cast and truly terrifying scenes of goulish vampires. The actors who made up the small - town cast, looked like your everyday working - class people that you might bump into at your local supermarket. That element of quiet small - town folk mixed with the absolute horror / evil of the Stryker character (played by an unnervingly cold James Mason) and Mr. Barlow -- one of the most hideous / terrifying vampires since "Nosferatu"-- make "Salems Lot" one of the best horror movies that I've ever seen.
I give it 10 out of 10 stars!!!!!!!!!