Salem's Lot

1979, US, Directed by Tobe Hooper
Colour, Running Time: 106 minutes
Review Source: VHS, PAL, Warner Home Video; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: Mono

Returning to the town of his upbringing, author Ben Mears intends to write a book about a solitary house that sits on the outskirts of town, a place that has intrigued him since breaking into it for a dare as a child and witnessing apparitions of some kind. Due to what he thinks he saw inside Mears has come to believe that the Marsten house is inherently evil and therefore attracts evil people; complying with his theory it has recently been purchased by the apparently malevolent Mr Straker, an outsider who is opening up an antiques shop in town. After a study session one night two schoolboys are walking home via a short cut through the woods. Becoming separated one of them manages to reach home but not before something has happened to him to result in hospitalisation. During his stay his missing brother makes a nocturnal visit to his room window where, upon entering, the deathly child bites his brother’s neck draining him of blood and life. Soon the town is in the grip of a vampire curse which begins multiplying and Mears reasons that it has something to do with Straker and his associate, Mr Barlow, a ominous man nobody has actually seen.

This is the theatrical cut of the original three hour made-for-TV version of Stephen King’s novel. They basically took the full version, removed a large portion of material (notably the vials that glow in the vicinity of the undead), inserted a couple of gorier shots and sent it out to cinemas. I always felt it was a tight and concise edit though the rapid pace of character introduction and development early on betrays the fact that footage has been excised - fans of the novel may be disappointed. 70s pop and TV icon David Soul (most famously Starsky & Hutch of course) plays the obsessive lead role well and the articulate presence of James Mason brings a touch of class. The vampires are suitably inhuman and remain a near definitive rendition of cinema’s extensively-used bloodsuckers, in particular Barlow himself, who might just be the most repulsive and frightening vampire on celluloid. All traces of the romanticism that often pervade the sub-genre have been eliminated resulting in creatures that are uncanny and unnerving because of their utter lack of humanity - rotting shells devoid of souls. Harry Sukman's brooding score is reminiscent of an earlier era and aptly supports the material; Salem’s Lot is innately an old-fashioned chiller that relies on atmosphere rather than shocks (although there are a few) and outright bloodshed (of which there is hardly any on screen). The fact that it was made for TV possibly worked in its favour - nowadays, because film-makers can show everything, they often do, sometimes forgetting about what else might make a horror project effective in the process. One of the better King adaptations, this is also one of Tobe Hooper’s finest hours, a man who perennially seems unable to repeat the success of his groundbreaking first movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Surprisingly there was a ’sequel’ in 1987, A Return to Salem’s Lot: it’s elusive nowadays and, whilst obviously a cash-in, it wasn’t too bad if my memory serves me well.

Why hold on to this ailing video cassette? Well, Warner have been kind enough to digitally grant us with the full length TV version but there is no sign that the theatrical edit will ever make it to DVD or Blu. The ideal disc package would obviously contain both. While people often want the longest version of a film possible I believe that in this case the shorter version provides a satisfying way to experience the film. There was also ostensibly a European cut that incorporated a couple of slight differences. Full-frame picture quality on the UK tape leaves a lot to be desired as does the muffled sound, but until this becomes available on disc (whether it be SD or HD) I’ll be holding on to this tape.