{"id":52308,"date":"2026-03-28T21:28:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T01:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=52308"},"modified":"2026-03-30T14:02:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:02:04","slug":"salems-lot-1979-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/28\/salems-lot-1979-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Salem’s Lot [1979] [Arrow 4k UHD LE]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The foundations of a small town crumble under the influence of a vampire in Tobe Hooper’s still-terrifyingly effective 1979 adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. Now on 4k UHD via Arrow Video.<\/p>\n

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The Films*<\/span><\/p>\n

The second of Stephen King<\/a>\u2019s (published) novels, in 1975, and the second of the adaptations, in 1979 (both after 1974\u2019s Carrie<\/a>, with its adaptation by Brian DePalma<\/a> in 1976<\/a>), Salem’s Lot remains one of the best, on both counts, film and novel. As a novel, it\u2019s my second favorite after its follow-up, The Shining<\/a>. The story of a writer returning home at the same time that a vampire and his familiar set up shop (literally) to drain the town\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Salem’s Lot has been adapted several times over the fifty years of publication: as an okay miniseries in 2004<\/a>, a decent but rushed 2024 film<\/a> from Gary Dauberman, used as a basis for the second season of the disappointing Castle Rock, the \u201cWTF is that\u201d of Larry Cohen<\/a>\u2019s A Return to Salem\u2019s Lot,\u00a0 and the 2021 Chappelwaite is a prequel, based on King<\/a>\u2019s short story \u201cJerusalem\u2019s Lot.\u201d (I\u2019ve not seen it, so can\u2019t comment on quality). But 1979\u2019s two-part, three-hour TV mini-series directed by master of horror Tobe Hooper<\/a> remains the best. Unless you count Mike Flanagan<\/a>\u2019s Midnight Mass, which is essentially \u2018Salem’s Lot mixed with Storm of the Century and other King<\/a> work, the most King<\/a>-like a story can be without being King. Ahem, I digress.<\/span><\/p>\n

Salem\u2019s Lot is, or was, unlike other horror or vampire novels of the time. It\u2019s a homegrown, grounded, human drama based on the horror of the vampire, a metaphor for the secret histories and dwindling nature of the small town.\u00a0 It\u2019s been much described as \u201cPeyton Place With Vampires\u201d (fitting as Paul Monash, the writer of the miniseries, wrote for the TV version of Peyton Place), the unspoken nasty underbelly of a seemingly perfect small town is exposed (see also David Lynch\u2019s Blue Velvet<\/a>). The supernatural intrusion of Barlow, svelte and Dracula<\/a>-like in the novel, is altered to a scarily effective snarling Nosferatu-type here (on screen for only 90 seconds, but making a hell of an impression), bringing it all to the surface, stirring up the darkness to tear it apart while sucking it dry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes it effective. It\u2019s simple and without unnecessary flourish. It\u2019s a comfortable, lived-in terror of a small town and its people. The growing terror and unease hang over getting to know the people who populate the town. They are real people in their regular, work-a-day blue-collar jobs. Many audience\/author surrogate Ben Mears, a grounding David Soul of Starsky & Hutch<\/a>, meets as he returns to Salem\u2019s Lot after 30 years are kind and helpful like a radiant Bonnie Bedelia<\/a> as love-interest Susan (the script gives her more than King did), her kindly father, his old English teacher, said teacher\u2019s students such as monster kid Mark Petrie, and more. Others are not so kind, like the stand-offish Sheriff, or Susan\u2019s ex. Others have their own worlds going on: Fred Willard<\/a>\u2019s realtor and his affair with Bonnie; a pulled form life result is striking, favorite character actor Geoffrey Lewis<\/a> pushing through as a blue-collar handyman, or Elisha Cook, Jr’s town drunk. They set up the town and its people, giving it a solid microcosm of the small town.\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On top of the realness is the effective horror Hooper<\/a> translates from the novel. The horror that gave generations of kids nightmares. Danny Glick coming through the window. His mother sitting up in the morgue. For me, it\u2019s always been Lewis in the rocking chair. It\u2019s literally a man in a chair talking (hissing?) to his former friend, but it works. Barlow, being Barlow James Mason, as Straker, eerily and icily giving \u201cthis is totally off vibes.\u201d The whole of the Marsten House, the rotting hulk of decades of an evil seeping down from the hill to the town; as degraded as moss-covered as Crimson Peak, and half-decorated after the Sawyer home of Texas Chain Saw Massacre (so many stuffed animals and antlers). The whole film has a sickly malaise and discomfort. That\u2019s a Hooper specialty: no one can deny the ever-present atmosphere of Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Eaten Alive, or Poltergeist<\/a>. (Even the more wild cocaine-fueled later 80s oddities like Lifeforce, TCM2- my favorite, and Invaders from Mars still have atmosphere but different).\u00a0 There is no skimping in making a great film from Hooper, just because it\u2019s meant for TV audiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hooper\u2019s Salem’s Lot remains an effective and scary, with great performances and world building, after nearly 50 years. It\u2019s still nightmare-inducing and engaging. It\u2019s telling the story has been told a few times since, but none have hit as strongly, save Midnight Mass. At three hours, it\u2019s the perfect length to keep the depth of character of King\u2019s novel and play it out with a quickness. Salems Lot is a prime example of how to streamline a hefty novel into a fantastic screen adaptation, something too many filmmakers failed to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a personal note, I love the nature of 70s TVs. It\u2019s a plethora of scrappy but very solid made-for-TV horror films like the film in question, Don\u2019t Be AFraid of th Dark, Dark Night of the Scarecrow (okay that\u2019s 1981, but close enough like Cutter\u2019s Way<\/a> is a 1981 70s film), and works by both Craven<\/a> (Summer of Fear) and Carpenter<\/a> (Somebody\u2019s Watching Me) even as they made full features. But I also love the cheesy variety shows, go for broke oddity of the era. The weird commercials, it’s all a strange era. For fun, while watching the first half of the miniseries version, complete with \u201cmelodramatic teasers,\u201d I put on a few commercials at each \u201cyour nightmares will be right back\u201d fade out to replicate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[want more? Read Felix\u2019s review here<\/a>]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n