If you grew up haunting video stores in the ‘80s, this awkwardly cut-down 112 minute movie length version of Salem’s Lot was all you could dig up. A far cry from the 3 hour Tobe Hooper adaptation that aired in ’79. Whole subplots vanished. Character beats were snuffed. But for many of us who missed the original broadcast, it was still the scariest damn vampire movie we’d ever seen.
Even in this stripped down form, Salem’s Lot kept its fangs and Hooper’s vision still wafted with gothic dread. Barlow, now a silent Nosferatu-style creature, was even more terrifying in his restraint. The Marsten House loomed over the town like an empty hungry thing. And I’d be lying if that first window scene didn’t create enough nightmare fuel to keep me going to this very day. That fog-drenched image of Ralphie floating outside Danny’s room still haunts me no matter how many times I’ve seen it.
The uncut miniseries would eventually find its way to home video in the 90s, but for those of us raised on this truncated trip to Salem’s Lot, it became a welcome PG-level gateway to the horrors of Stephen King and Tobe Hooper.
For that alone, it staked a special place in my heart. -Pop
Salem’s Lot: The Movie premiered on Nov 17, 1979.