Salem's Lot (1979)

This was a Letterboxd Exclusive, but I don't think I've ever written anything for Salem's Lot on this blog! That is insane!

I'm sort of doing a Spring of King for the next two months, and I have had the Blu Ray for a few months. I thought, "Why not kick off that Spring of King with 'Salem's Lot'?" Great choice, methinks.

I really appreciated the choice of contacts for the vampires and the fangs. Going more towards the Murnau Nosferatu vampire, the creep factor of Max Schreck is alive and well. You know, I could see why some might find the lack of Reggie Nalder's Barlow to be a mistake, but perhaps holding onto the shock of his appearance until later had much more impact, more punch. I love how grotesque he is.

This puts to rest that Tobe Hooper was some one-trick pony. Granted I love a bunch of his movies. It is just ridiculous to weaponize "he peaked early" with TCM when this excellent television movie exists.

James Mason as Straker, the antiquities salesman and servant of Barlow, is perfectly suspicious, smug, and sinister...he very well knows Barlow's vampirism will spread like a plague throughout Salem's Lot. Lew Ayres as the school teacher joining forces with Soul, Bonnie Bedelia (who is just so young and lovely) as David Soul's romantic interest certain to have her life threatened, Geoffrey Lewis as the cemetery caretaker (his rocking chair scene is about as chilling as the eerie visitations of the vampire boys "floating" up to the window, with their finger nails scratching the glass) who acts like a viper planning to strike ("Look at me! Looooookkkk!" brings the goosepimples!), little Kerwin as the young boy who "loves monsters and magic", Flanders as Bedelia's pops (wearing a hairpiece) and doctor with a clinic starting to fill up with more patients, and Fred Willard early in the film as a realtor make up quite a fantastic cast. Marie Windsor (as Soul's apartment leaser), Kenneth McMillan as the Salem's Lot constable, Dzundza (of Law and Order) as a truck driver with a shot gun stuck in Willard's face for sleeping with his wife, and Barbara Babcock as Kerwin's mom are other memorable faces in the cast.

I thought the tension between Soul and Mason was really well done. Those two, from the very start, would clearly be adversaries. I just like how Hooper established that off the stellar screenplay foreshadowing much later in the film...Soul felt the Marsten house Barlow and Straker occupy was inherently evil since its history was so filled with evil activity. But it was Straker and Barlow who are evil, the house is but a structure.

Kickass sequence...

Straker is just tickled when Barlow intrudes upon the home of the Petries and Barlow will vanquish a priest as boy Mark vows to kill them for the death of his parents. Barlow in full form is hideous but it is Straker who even usurps him as the really nasty villain since he clearly delights in the situation and murder committed.

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These are additions that just come to mind while I work.

Kenneth McMillan's Constable is really into investigating Mason's antiquities salesman, but once his little Maine town starts to fall to the vampire plague, he's like, "I'm outta here." Soul's Mears didn't have a prayer of convincing him to help stop Straker, much less Barlow. 

I did feel that if this was done today for a streamer, you would probably have more definition on the constable. And Elisha Cooke's wide-eyed drunk sort of gets a few minutes with the constable (who mocks him, since he's the unshaven, crazy-haired, alleycat drunk who sees everything and knows everything) and doesn't factor much more in the remainder of the film.