Salem's Lot (1979) Review

Salem’s Lot (1979) Review

Stephen King’s second novel, Salem’s Lot is a tribute to the classic gothic vampire tales like Nosferatu and Dracula. The made-for-TV movie adaptation, directed by Poltergeist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper, is not only a great adaptation, but one of the best vampire films of its era.

A writer returns to the small town of Jerusalem’s Lot (A.K.A ‘Salem’s Lot) to write about a mysterious old house that he believes is inherently evil, because of something he saw there as a kid. The writer doesn’t look like much, but he’s a smooth-talking no-nonsense intellectual determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. Living in the house is a creepy, elderly British shopkeeper, who you just know is bad news from the way he talks and behaves. The writer develops a relationship with a local woman, played by Bonnie Bedelia, who’s probably best known for playing John McLane’s wife in Die Hard. After an oddly cold crate is delivered to the old house and townspeople start dying then coming back to life with shiny eyes and pale skin, they uncover the truth: the shopkeeper is housing an ancient vampire.   

Not only is Salem’s Lot the best TV movie/mini-series based on a story by Stephen King that I’ve seen, it’s one of the best made-for-TV horror movies I’ve ever seen in general. Why can’t more high-quality TV horror movies like this be made today? Salem’s Lot doesn’t rely on excessive gore and jump scares, it creates tension and a haunting atmosphere with a deliberate build-up that is slow, but in a way that works, not in a way that feels boring—pretty impressive considering its daunting length.

The old dark house cliché doesn’t feel cliché here, because the house is repeatedly shown from the outside, but the inside isn’t really shown until the end. When it is eventually shown, it’s really eerie, and reminiscent of the cannibal’s house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The whole movie has Tobe Hooper’s unmistakable directing style, but the real reason the movie works is because of the believable characters and the equally believable bloodsuckers. 

The master vampire looks like the classic Nosferatu-style vampire and, like the inside of the house, isn’t shown until close to the end, but he looks truly frightening. The effects, though simple, hold up surprisingly well, and the production design is on-par with theatrically-released movies of that time. The movie actually did receive a re-edited theatrical release in Europe, and that version was also released on VHS. 

As great as this movie is, it’s not without some flaws and poorly-aged elements. At a couple key scary moments, the image turns to freeze frame and zooms in as loud music plays. This was probably more acceptable back in the late 70’s when it was shown on TV and it immediately cut to a commercial after this, but watching it today, it’s just laughable. This isn’t the only time the music stands out in a bad way, either. It’s frequently over-bearing, but becomes less so in the later scenes. 

One of the most effective scares is when a kid, who gets turned into a vampire, floats outside his friend’s window amid wispy fog, which was filmed in reverse to add an extra creep factor, and it works. But then the kid returns to do it again. Then a third time. By this point it starts to feel repetitive. There are attempts to make it not feel exactly the same every time—one of the times the kid in bed gets a cross and repels his vampiric friend—but it’s not enough to overcome the repetitive feeling. 

Aside from the few flaws, Salem’s Lot uses old-school scares to great effect, and has stood the test of time. It was very recently released on blu ray, and I definitely recommend picking it up. The picture and sound quality are fantastic, especially for an old TV movie, and all three hours of it plays uninterrupted.