Salem's Lot (1979 TV mini-series)
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| Salem's Lot | |
|---|---|
 Salem's Lot DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Tobe Hooper |
| Produced by | Richard Kobritz |
| Written by | Teleplay: Paul Monash Novel: Stephen King |
| Starring | David Soul James Mason Bonnie Bedelia Elisha Cook Jr. |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | 17 November 1979 (USA) |
| Running time | 184 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4,000,000 |
| Followed by | A Return to Salem's Lot |
| IMDb profile | |
Salem's Lot was a 1979 TV mini-series based on Stephen King's vampire novel, Salem's Lot. The film was directed by Tobe Hooper and starred David Soul, James Mason, Lew Ayres, and Bonnie Bedelia.
The lead vampire in the telefilm was inspired by the motion picture Nosferatu and became a cult classic. And like Nosferatu, the film is distinguished from other works of the vampire genre in that the vampires are portrayed as monstrous and repulsive rather than sexy and charismatic. Though based upon King's novel, the mini-series, due to time constraints and other factors, is not a literal adaptation, but was largely faithful to the book.
In 2004, the novel was adapted a second time. This new adaptation, title 'Salem's Lot, starred Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, and Rutger Hauer.
Contents |
[edit] 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
[edit] 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 and fearful of the mansion, Mears attempts to rent it, but finds that another new arrival has beat him to the property, the mysterious Richard Straker. 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. Intrigued by the new owners, Mears 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 Berk, 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 alluded to such as the real estate agent, Larry Crockett, who sells the property and also happens to be sleeping with his secretary. After Straker cryptically informs Crockett that he will be rewarded, he 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, who happens to be a horror fan. Though Danny exerts his hypnotic control over Mark, Mark seems aware of the danger as a horror aficionado, and resists Danny and drives him away with a small cross. 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 alaze 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 laying in his bed. It is clear that she is a vampire, and 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.
[edit] Production
1979. Directed by Tobe Hooper. Produced by Richard Korbitz. Teleplay by Paul Monash. Executive Producer Stirling Siliphant. Produced by Warner Bros for CBS-TV.
[edit] Cult Status
Salem's Lot has garnered a considerable cult following. Reasons for this include the adherence to King's original novel and the film's overall quality considering it was produced for television. Also, bearing in mind that it aired on the major network CBS, the film was indeed quite frightening and violent, with potentially inflamatory content such as children in mortal (and immortal) danger, murder, spousal abuse, alcoholism, vampirism, and implied satanism. King's reaction to the mini-series was quite favourable in comparison to many of his later works which would be made for television. He also responded much more positively to it than to Stanley Kubrick's infamous rendition of his novel, The Shining. King commented "I liked it much better than The Shining. It's got this sick, feverish energy running through it...It certainly wasn't typical of horror movies made for television." The dream-like, halluncinatory atmosphere of the film was also key to its success amongst horror fans, and the repulsive and zombie like quality of the vampires themselves has been much celebrated within the genre. Tobe Hooper's direction can also be praised for bringing a certain grittiness to the film that was evident in his 1974 classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Positive word of mouth over the years amongst genre and Stephen King fans alike has led to the film enjoying a rather successful and infamous life on VHS and DVD.
[edit] Additional info
- The rights to the novel was a hot topic within the industry and the genre for quite some time before the film was actually made. 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."
- Purists of King's novel were off-put by some of the deviations from the source material, but the film attracted a large viewing audience and received positive reviews from critics. The biggest complaint was heaped on the characterization of the villainous vampire Barlow. King in particular was not pleased with the Nosferatu-like depiction. King commented on the Nostferatu-Barlow decision in the book Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide. "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."
- A screening of the now benchmark horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, resulted in producer 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 had a reported budget of $4 million.
- Salem's Lot was filmed in Ferndale, Northern California.
- 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.
- In 1979, NAL/Signet Books published a paperback tie-in of the novel which included '8 pages of blood-chilling photos'.
- The film was originally broadcast as a two-part, four hour mini-series, on CBS-TV, from November 17-24, 1979.
- The film 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". Stephen King would however comment in Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, that "I like the movie version better, it just seems tighter."
- Larry Cohen wrote a draft of the script that proved unsatisfactory; 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.
- After the success of the mini-series, discussion of a potential Salem's Lot network series fell through rather quickly.
- George A. Romero, director of such cult classics as Night of the Living Dead, Martin (film), Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead and the subsequent Stephen King adaptation, The Dark Half,, was attached to direct the film when it was initially being considered for a theatrical release. He 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."
- George A. Romero would later be considered for the King adaptations Pet Sematary (film), It (1990 film) and The Stand (TV miniseries)
- 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.
[edit] Further reading
- Jones, Stephen. Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide. Billboard Books: 770 Broadway, New York.
