SALEM'S LOT (1979)

Directed by Tobe Hooper.  Written by Paul Monash
Starring David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Reggie Nalder, Geoffrey Lewis, Lew Ayres
1979, 183 minutes, Color, Unrated, 1.33:1
Warner Archives, released 2016

Summary:
Novelist Ben Mears returns to his hometown of Salem's Lot, ostensibly to write his next book but also to work through a traumatic experience from his youth where he thinks he saw the ghost of the owner of the Marsten House.  Now an adult, he wants to explore the nature of evil and whether material things--such as a house--can be inherently evil.  He tried to rent the house but discovers that it's already been rented by two new businessmen, Mr. Barlow and Mr. Straker.  People start to die and Ben comes to think that Barlow and Straker are at fault.  In fact, he comes to think that the supernatural might be involved as some of the victims show evidence of bite marks and missing blood.

Salem's Lot by Stephen King was originally published in 1975 as his second novel.  King had considerable success with his first novel, Carrie, and Lot also sold like gangbusters in paperback.  From a literary standpoint, Lot represented a large jump in quality from Carrie, in that it is a real densely plotted story instead of the pastiche of styles that Carrie used*.  Taking clear influence from Bram Stoker's Dracula, King infuses that gothic base with melodrama worthy of any soap opera.  This is not meant as a criticism.  It's been a few years since I've read the book, but I've always thought it was absolutely fabulous, so at least for me King's approach worked.

SALEM'S LOT was originally broadcast over two nights in 1979.  I missed Part 1 but was scared silly by Part 2.   After those initial TV runs, it was only available on video in the 112-minute theatrical version released outside the U.S.  Besides being 70+ minutes shorter, this theatrical version also had at least two censorship differences from the original broadcast version, which will be discussed below.  I recall trying to watch the shorter version on VHS but not liking it—I kept missing parts in the longer version.  

The cast of SALEM'S LOT is above average for a television production, and by this I mean that James Mason is great.  Outstanding even.  He brings a fair amount of class to the proceedings and digs into his first true horror role with true aplomb.  The rest of the cast is a mixture of familiar TV faces with some out of the ordinary faces, at least for a television horror production.  David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia, and Lance Kerwin were all well-known TV staples at the time of filming, while Mason, Nalder, Ayres, and Lewis were perhaps better known at this time for their movie work.   Soul is not bad in the lead, and does not seem out of his league portraying an intellectual.  Bedelia is somewhat better, though she ultimately has little to do.  Kerwin is even better yet, playing an awkward teenager believable.  Reggie Nalder, as Barlow, is an imposing sight but does not really have much to do.  Lewis especially shines, being one of the few actors to attempt a New England accent and brings a real strength to his scenes as a vampire.

The film's structure largely follows the book's, except for a wraparound section that frames the entire story as a flashback.  In this prologue and epilogue, Soul and Kerwin travel the world and encounter a vampire they must kill.  It is not clear exactly what they are doing — whether they are in hiding or hot on the trail of more vampires.  One could argue that they were looking for Bedelia's character, but again, it not's made clear.  Reportedly, the wraparounds were done to facilitate a weekly series, or at least a sequel.  It is easily the film's weakest part.

The film generally handles the narrative smoothly, with subtle character shading and a clear, linear flow.  The buildup to Mr. Barlow's arrival from Europe is well handled, and although the last third feels a bit rushed, it is still very effective.  The film occasionally betrays its television origins with some variable set designs, such as Kerwin's bedroom.  Yet at other times the production design is outstanding, such as the interior of the Marsten house.  In his first television assignment, director Hooper generates real suspense in several scenes and includes some great, story-motivated jumps.

As mentioned previously, when the film was shortened for its theatrical release several alternate shots were used.  The differences are:

• When Cully Sawyer (George Dzundza) finds Larry Crockett (Fred Willard) with his wife, he holds a shotgun on him.  In the theatrical version, he makes Larry put the barrels of the gun in his mouth.  In the TV version, Larry holds the gun up to his face.
• When Bill Norton (Ed Flanders) is killed, we see him actually be impaled on the antlers.  The aftermath is also shown longer.
• The staking of Barlow (Reggie Nalder) at the end is somewhat gorier.
• The entire sequence in the basement at the end was reportedly darkened for television.  I have never seen this confirmed officially anywhere, so take this one with a grain of salt.

According to Producer Richard Kobritz these alternate shots were created for the European theatrical release and not intended for the television version***.  That said, every home video release after the VHS release of the movie version has used some or all of these shots.   At least some subsequent releases included the Larry Crockett scene but not the Flanders scene.  These variations were probably not intentional.   The full version was released on laserdisc and DVD in the 1990's.   The laserdisc version included the censored shots in the European cut, but I am not sure if the DVD did as well.  More recently, Warner Archives released the full version on Blu-Ray.   I put off rewatching the full miniseries for years, hoping to find a high-quality version.  Prior to this Blu-Ray the best version I had seen was an HD version available for streaming on the now-defunct Warner Archive site.  The Blu-Ray bests that HD version by a fair margin, offering a strong colorful image with almost no print damage on view.   

Cover of the Blu-Ray:

The excellent Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot: Studies in the Horror Film edited by Tony Earnshaw collects all previous literature of note on this film, and adds a fair amount of new work.  Long out of print, this is worth picking up if you can find it.

* I'm not implying that Carrie is a worse work mind you, but it's easier to put a story together that way than to write it all in one style and point of view.  I may, of course, be full of shit on this.

** Curiously, now that it's all but impossible to see the shorter cut I find I have a compelling urge to watch it again.

***Cinefantastique, Vol. 9, number 2.