SALEM'S LOT (1979 TV MINI-SERIES)

'''Salem's Lot''' was a 1979 TV miniseries based on Stephen King's vampire novel, ''Salem's Lot''. It was directed by Tobe Hooper and starred David Soul, James Mason, Lew Ayres, and Bonnie Bedelia. In 2004, the novel was adapted a second time. This new adaptation, starred Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, and Rutger Hauer.
The appearance of the lead vampire was inspired by the motion picture ''Nosferatu''. As in that film, vampires are portrayed as monstrous and repulsive in keeping with legend and folklore. The much later Hollywood version of the vampire as charismatic and misunderstood is eschewed. The miniseries is not a literal adaptation of the novel, and deviates widely in certain details.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

Reception

Further reading

External links

Plot

The story opens in a small Maine town called ''Jerusalem's Lot'', which the locals refer to as ''Salem's Lot''. Writer Ben Mears, a former resident, returns to the town of his childhood due to his fascination with the Marsten House. Both interested in and fearful of the mansion, Mears attempts to rent it, but finds that another new arrival, the mysterious Richard Straker, has beat him to the property. Straker opens an antique shop and reveals to townspeople that an even more mysterious silent partner, Kurt Barlow, is also set to move into the Marsten House.
Mears soon finds himself a suspect to the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, that coincides with the arrival of Straker and Mears. Mears develops a romantic relationship with a local woman, Susan Norton, and reveals to her his view that the Marsten House is somehow inherently evil. Mears renews his old friendly relationship with his old school teacher, Jason Burke, and befriends Susan's father Dr. Bill Norton. During the course of the mini-series various strange events begin to take place after two workmen, Ryerson and Tibbets, are sent to retrieve a large crate and place it in the Marsten House basement. The crate turns out to contain Barlow, the master vampire who has come to the town after having sent his 'familiar' (Straker) or human thrall to the town to make way for his arrival.
Various sub-plots are woven into this, including the story of the real estate agent who sells the property to Straker, Larry Crockett, who is having an affair with his secretary. After Straker cryptically informs Crockett that he will be rewarded, Crockett is attacked, presumably by Barlow. The Glick boy is never found, but returns as a vampire to claim his brother, Danny. Danny is found dead in his hospital bed and is buried, but rises from the dead and strikes first at Ryerson and then a friend, Mark Petrie. Though Danny exerts hypnotic control over Mark, Mark is familiar with the properties of movie vampires and is able to resist Danny. Thus begins a showdown between those who are aware of what is happening in the town and Straker and Barlow. Slowly the vampires spread as Mears, Norton, Petrie, and Burke attempt to do something to stop the town's takeover. Mears and Dr. Norton visit the county morgue to examine the body of the now-deceased Mrs. Glick, and during the course of their investigation, she resurrects as a vampire and attacks them.
Norton, now convinced, teams up with Mears to take action. Burke, though initially helpful, falls prey to a heart attack following a visit from the vampire Ryerson. Susan, though seemingly skeptical, plays along until she spots the Petrie boy spying on the Marsten House. She follows him and together they enter the house, but are trapped by Straker. Mears and Dr. Norton attempt a rescue and run into Straker who kills Norton. Though seemingly human, Straker turns out to be something of a ghoul as he takes several bullets to the abdomen and continues to move until finally succumbing to his wounds. Petrie and Mears later kill Barlow, but Susan is nowhere to be found. Both flee the town after setting it ablaze in the hopes of 'purifying' the evil that has engulfed the town. Later, both are seen in a small town in Central America. Having taken refuge at a mission, Mears and Petrie appear to be running from the vengeful vampires. Mears seems able to know when the vampires are close when he gazes into holy water and goes to pack his things when he finds Susan lying in his bed. It is clear that she is a vampire, yet he leans down to embrace her. She prepares to bite him, but he stakes her. Mears and Petrie then leave the mission, presumably with the vampires on their trail.

Cast

★ 'David Soul' as 'Ben Mears'

★ 'James Mason' as 'Richard K. Straker'

★ 'Lance Kerwin' as 'Mark Petrie'

★ 'Bonnie Bedelia' as 'Susan Norton'

★ 'Lew Ayres' as 'Jason Burke'

★ 'Julie Cobb' as 'Bonnie Sawyer'

★ 'Elisha Cook Jr.' as 'Gordon 'Weasel' Phillips' (as Elisha Cook)

★ 'George Dzundza' as 'Cully Sawyer'

★ 'Ed Flanders' as 'Dr. Bill Norton'

★ 'Clarissa Kaye-Mason' as 'Majorie Glick' (as Clarissa Kaye)

★ 'Geoffrey Lewis' as 'Mike Ryerson'

★ 'Barney McFadden' as 'Ned Tebbets'

★ 'Kenneth McMillan' as 'Constable Parkins Gillespie'

★ 'Fred Willard' as 'Larry Crockett'

★ 'Marie Windsor' as 'Eva Miller'

★ 'James Gallery' as 'Father Callahan'

★ 'Reggie Nalder' as 'Kurt Barlow'

Production

Salem's Lot was filmed in Ferndale, Northern California, and had a reported budget of $4 million. A full scale mock-up of the Marsten House was built for the film, costing an estimated $100,000. Another $70,000 was spent on the interior set.
The rights to the Salem's Lot novel were a hot topic within the industry and the genre for quite some time before the film was made. Stephen King himself commented as such "It was a mess. Every director in Hollywood who's ever been involved with horror wanted to do it, but nobody could come up with a script". Larry Cohen wrote a draft of the script that proved unsatisfactory; Producer Richard Kobritz would describe the script as being "really lousy" (Larry Cohen would go on to direct a loose sequel to Salem's Lot: '''A Return to Salem's Lot''' in 1987). A screening of the now benchmark horror classic ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'', resulted in Richard Kobritz selecting Tobe Hooper as director, who was thirty-six at the time and fresh off of making the troubled low-budget film ''Eaten Alive''.
The film was originally broadcast as a two-part, four hour mini-series, on CBS-TV, from November 17-24, 1979. It was shortened into a single three hour movie of the week, and re-edited to be more violent and fast paced for a limited European theatrical release. One instance that illustrates this, is Dr. Norton's death at Straker's hands: the European version of this particular scene lingers on the doctor hanging on the animal horns, for a considerbale number of seconds longer than the American mini-series.
For its initial video release Warner Bros. issued a heavily truncated version of the film, deleting 72 minutes of footage. This 112-minute cut was retitled 'Salem's Lot: The Movie', which also served as the European cut of the film. Warner eventually released the full-length miniseries to home video audiences. This 1996 video release is now entitled "Salem's Lot - The Movie - Full-length version".

Reception

Purists of King's novel were off-put by some of the deviations from the source material. The biggest complaint was heaped on the characterization of the villainous vampire Barlow. In the book ''Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide''. Stephen King commented on the Nosferatu-like depiction of Barlow: "It was just a dreadful steal on the make-up. That was bad". King was however pleased with Paul Monash' script "His screenplay I like quite a lot. Monash has succeeded in combining the characters a lot, and it works". He also commented saying "I like the movie version (the 112-minute cut) better, it just seems tighter."
George A. Romero, who was originally attached to direct the film when it was initially being considered for a theatrical release, would later comment on the film "The biggest problem I had with it, was that the vampire wasn't really the lord. The vampire was an attack dog for James Mason".
The Salem's Lot mini-series attracted a large viewing audience and received positive reviews from critics. It has garnered a considerable cult following due to the it's adherence to King's original novel and the film's relatively high production values. After it's success, discussion of a potential Salem's Lot network series fell through rather quickly. In 1979, NAL/Signet Books published a paperback tie-in of the novel which included '8 pages of blood-chilling photos'. The mini-series could be considered influential, as it spawned a spoof in ''The Simpson's'' Treehouse of Horror IV installment Bart Simpson's Dracula: in this particular episode a vampiric Bart Simpson is seen floating at Lisa's window with a horde of other vampire children, similar to the scenes in Salem's Lot depicting the vampiric Ralphie and Danny Glick, respectively.

Further reading

★ Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, , Stephen, Jones, Billboard Books, 2002,

External links

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