Salem's Lot 

A novelist and a young horror fan attempt to save a small New England town which has been invaded by vampires.

Stars:

David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin

Nominated for 3 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
David Soul	...	Ben Mears unknown episodes

Storyline

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?

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Plot Keywords:

vampire | writer | antique shop | child murders a child | cult film | 

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Taglines:

Iconic terror from the No 1 bestselling writer.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 November 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Salem's Lot: The Movie

Filming Locations:

207 Francis Street, Ferndale, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

184 min (uncut) 183 min (DVD) 200 min (TV) 112 min (movie)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scenes of the child vampires floating outside of their victims' windows was partly filmed in reverse to give it a more eerie effect. Additionally, the actors performed on a boom crane rather than being suspended on wires.

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Goofs

Straker tells Crockett to have Mike and Ned padlock all the doors on the Marsten house after they deliver the "sideboard", and to leave all the keys to the locks on the basement table. Crockett never stops to think to ask Straker how Straker would have gained entry to the house had this been done.

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Quotes

Straker: You can do nothing against the master. Stop, Holy man! Or he'll cut the boy's throat. Back! Back! Holy man! Back, Shaman. Back, Priest!

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Crazy Credits

The text of the opening credits appear and dissolve piece by piece into each other in a jigsaw puzzle fashion.

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Alternate Versions

The VHS 1987 version omits the scene where Ben and Mark are in Mexico, and a vampirized Susan is laying down on a cot in a hut. Then, Ben enters the room and impales her in the chest with a wooden stake.

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Connections

References The Wolf Man (1941)

User Reviews

See the mini-series version if at all possible

First let me suggest to see the original miniseries version if at all possible. The "movie" version is horribly chopped. The remaining pieces don't fit together and leave gaping holes (such as, "what happened to Susan?")

Salem's Lot is an almost unknown milestone in horror films. This superb combination of the talents of Tobe Hooper and Stephen King bridges the gap between the Hammer-style films of the 60's and the modern vampire films. Two things to especially note:

(1) This takes place in Everytown, USA and the cinematography reflects the ordinary turned extraordinary (which is the same effect achieved by Bram Stoker's original writing for the audience of his time.) It begins looking almost like a Rockford Files episode and goes dark from there. But even the climax in the evil Marsten house looks *real*, just as you would imagine an old decrepit house to look. You can almost smell the dust. Hey, this was the seventies, the decade of naturalistic lighting. Everything coming out of Hollywood now looks just that - like Hollywood.

(2) It is a shame that anyone today viewing Salem's Lot already knows that is about vampires because when it first aired on TV, the unknown aspect is what made the first half so creepy. Now you just sit there waiting for the vampires to show up. (If I thought that even one person might read this without knowing it was about vampires, I wouldn't write this.) The advertising for the show made no mention of vampires and the effect worked well. I was ten years old when I first saw this. I had seen at least a dozen other vampire flicks - Noseratu, Lugasi, the Hammer films - and I had no clue that this was about vampires. All I knew was that something creepy was going in this town and it was getting creepier and creepier. Only in the second episode when you see someone get bit in the neck did it finally click, "Oh my god, they're vampires." You realize it right about the same time that the main characters do. Highly effective.

Also, superb performances by David Soul, Lew Ayres, James Mason.