Salem’s Lot - also known as Salem’s Lot: The Movie, Salem’s Lot: The Miniseries and Blood Thirst - is a 1979 American television adaptation of the novel of the same name by Stephen King. It was directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; Poltergeist) and stars David Soul, James Mason, and Reggie Nalder.
Plot:
The prologue shows a church in Guatemala in which two men, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, are filling small bottles with holy water. When one of the bottles begins to emit an eerie supernatural glow, Mears tells Petrie “They’ve found us again.”
The story then flashes back two years, to the small town of Salem’s Lot (formally known as Jerusalem’s Lot) in Maine in the United States. Ben Mears, an author, has returned to the town after a long absence to write a book about the Marsten House, an ominous old property on a hilltop which has a reputation for being haunted. Mears attempts to rent the house but finds that another new arrival in town, the mysterious Richard Straker, has recently bought it. Straker also opens an antique shop with his oft-mentioned but always absent business partner, Kurt Barlow. Meanwhile, Mears moves into a boarding house in town run by Eva Miller, and develops a romantic relationship with a local woman, Susan Norton. He befriends Susan’s father, Dr. Bill Norton, and also renews his old friendship with his former school teacher, Jason Burke. Mears tells Burke that he feels the Marsten House is somehow inherently evil, and recalls how he was once traumatised in the house when he was a child.
After a large crate is delivered to the Marsten House one night, an increasing number of the townsfolk begin to disappear or die in strange circumstances. Both Mears and Straker are initially the main suspects as they are new in town, but it becomes clear that the crate contained Straker’s mysterious business partner, Kurt Barlow, an ancient master vampire who has come to the town after having sent Straker to make way for his arrival…
Trailer:
Wikipedia | Gif courtesy of The Horror of Truant!
Buy: Amazon.com
Buy Eaten Alive at a Chainsaw Massacre: The Films of Tobe Hooper from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Leave a Reply