Salem's Lot Wikipedia pages

Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King)
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Jerusalem's Lot, Maine (often shortened to 'Salem's Lot or just the Lot) is a fictional town and a part of writer Stephen King's fictional Maine topography. 'Salem's Lot has served as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. 'Salem's Lot first appeared in King's 1975 novel 'Salem's Lot, and has reappeared as late as his 2013 novel Doctor Sleep (see list below). The town is described as being located in Cumberland County, between (or including parts of) the towns of Falmouth, Windham, and Cumberland, near the southern part of the state about twenty miles north of Portland.[1] A map on King's official website, though, places 'Salem's Lot considerably further north, approximately in Northwest Piscataquis.[2]
King, a native of Portland, Maine, created a trinity of fictional Maine towns – Jerusalem's Lot, Castle Rock and Derry – as central settings in more than one work. King has stated that writer H. P. Lovecraft was responsible for King's own fascination with horror and the macabre, and was the single largest figure to influence his writing.[3][4][5] King's trinity of Maine locations is similar to the fictional Massachusetts locations of Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport, found repeatedly in Lovecraft Country.


Contents  [hide]
1 Origin and Inspiration
2 Works set in Jerusalem's Lot
3 Works referring to Jerusalem's Lot
4 Fictional history and myth
5 Use by third parties
6 Other Maine creations in King's work
7 References

Origin and Inspiration[edit]
In Danse Macabre, King's non-fiction, semi-autobiographical review of horror in all media forms, King confesses that 'Salem's Lot was largely derived from the town of Durham, Maine; specifically the area in which he resided as a youth known locally as "Methodist Corners." The Marsten House of Salem's Lot was based upon a vacant house of the same name in Methodist Corners; he and his friends had explored the real Marsten House as children.[6]
Works set in Jerusalem's Lot[edit]
novel 'Salem's Lot
prequel short story "Jerusalem's Lot"
sequel short story "One for the Road"
Works referring to Jerusalem's Lot[edit]
The Shining
The Dead Zone
The Body
Pet Sematary
Dolores Claiborne
Dreamcatcher
Doctor Sleep
the last three books of the The Dark Tower series:
Wolves of the Calla
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower
Fictional history and myth[edit]
The town that would become Jerusalem's Lot was founded in 1710 by a preacher named James Boon, the leader of a cult of schismatic Puritans. The cult became notorious in the region for its open embrace of witchcraft and for its amoral sexual practices, including inbreeding.[7] Jerusalem's Lot became an incorporated town in 1765, but was abandoned in 1789 after Boon and his followers mysteriously vanished. The mass disappearance occurred not long after Philip Boone, a wealthy individual and unknowing descendant of James Boon, obtained an occultic book known as De Vermis Mysteriis; Philip Boone disappeared along with the rest of the village.
When Jerusalem's Lot was incorporated in 1765, Maine was still part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town got its name from a myth about one of the earliest residents, Charles Belknap Tanner, who raised pigs; one of these pigs was named Jerusalem. One day, Jerusalem escaped from her confines into a nearby forest, and became aggressive and wild. Tanner began warning young children who trespassed on his property to "Keep 'ee out o' Jerusalem's wood lot," lest the pig devour them. Eventually, the phrase "Jerusalem's Lot" was adopted as the town name.[8]
At an unknown date sometime after Boone and McCann's exploration, people began inhabiting the town again. The town had a representative named Elias Jointner in the House of Representatives by 1896.[8] As chronicled in the novel 'Salem's Lot, Jerusalem's Lot has been identified as a residence for great and mysterious evil, particularly vampires.
Use by third parties[edit]
Following the success of the 1979 television mini-series Salem's Lot, adapted from King's novel, a 1987 mini-series sequel, A Return to Salem's Lot, was produced.
King's original novel was also adapted for the 1995 BBC radio drama Salem's Lot, and the 2004 television mini-series Salem's Lot.
The town is mentioned in Alan Moore's 2002/03 comic book series The New Traveller's Almanac.
It is mentioned by rapper Eminem in his 2002 song Lose Yourself.
Other Maine creations in King's work[edit]
Besides the oft-used trinity of Jerusalem's Lot, Castle Rock, and Derry, King has created other fictional Maine towns, including Chamberlain in Carrie, Ludlow in Pet Sematary and The Dark Half (unrelated to the real Maine town of Ludlow), Haven in The Tommyknockers, Little Tall Island in Dolores Claiborne and Storm of the Century, and Chester's Mill in Under the Dome.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ As stated in Salem's Lot and "One for the Road"
2.Jump up ^ Stephen King's Map of Maine
3.Jump up ^ Wohleber, Curt (December 1995). "The Man Who Can Scare Stephen King". American Heritage 46 (8). Retrieved September 10, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, Del Rey Books, 1982, front cover.
5.Jump up ^ King, Stephen (February 1987). Danse Macabre. Berkley. p. 63. ISBN 9-780-42510-433-0. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
6.Jump up ^ http://www.librosgratisweb.com/pdf/king-stephen/danse-macabre.pdf Pg. 159
7.Jump up ^ Stephen King, Night Shift, "Jerusalem's Lot"
8.^ Jump up to: a b Stephen King, Salem's Lot, part 1 chapter 2.


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A Return to Salem's Lot
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A Return to Salem's Lot
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987).jpg
UK VHS cover

Directed by
Larry Cohen
Produced by
Larry Cohen
 Paul Kurta
Written by
Larry Cohen
 James Dixon
Starring
Michael Moriarty
Andrew Duggan
Samuel Fuller
Evelyn Keyes
June Havoc
Music by
Michael Minard
Editing by
Armond Leibowitz
Release dates
September 11, 1987
Running time
100 minutes
Country
United States
A Return to Salem's Lot is a 1987 horror film written and directed by Larry Cohen.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Release
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

Plot[edit]
Michael Moriarty plays an amoral anthropologist who has been lumbered with his dysfunctional adolescent son and who returns to Salem's Lot, the town of his birth, to find that it has been taken over by the undead. A few living people are kept around to provide blood for the vampires and to operate the gas station and shops in the daytime. Knowing of the anthropologist's refusal to moralise about other people's lifestyles (in the opening scene he is seen refusing to interfere in a human sacrifice and concerned only for the quality of the film he is shooting), the vampires employ him to write their story. As the vampires' evil nature becomes clear, the anthropologist is joined by a Nazi hunter (played by Samuel Fuller) who helps him save his son, and at the climax the master vampire is impaled on the American flag instead of the traditional stake. As the trio escapes Salem's Lot, the vampires are left in the sun to burn along with their homes.
Cast[edit]
Michael Moriarty as Joe Weber
Samuel Fuller as Van Meer
Andrew Duggan as Judge Axel
Evelyn Keyes as Mrs. Axel
June Havoc as Aunt Clara
Jill Gatsby as Sherry
Ricky Addison Reed as Jeremy Weber
James Dixon as Rains
David Holbrook as Assistant
Katja Crosby as Cathy
Tara Reid as Amanda
Brad Rijn as Clarence
Release[edit]
The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Warner Bros. in 1987. It was released on VHS by Warner Home Video the following year.[2] The film was released to on demand DVD by the Warner Archive Collection in 2010.[3]
Reception[edit]
Critical reception has been mixed to negative.[4] DVD Talk commented that the film was "Too interesting to miss, but regrettably not very scary".[5]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Kings of Horror Day 13: A Return to Salem’s Lot". STYD. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
2.Jump up ^ "Company Credits for A Return to Salem's Lot". imdb.com. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
3.Jump up ^ "Return to Salem's Lot (DVD)". wbshop.com. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
4.Jump up ^ "A Return to Salem's Lot". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
5.Jump up ^ "A Return to Salem's Lot (review)". DVD Talk. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
External links[edit]
A Return to Salem's Lot at the Internet Movie Database
A Return to Salem's Lot at AllMovie


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Categories: 1987 films
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1987 horror films
Vampires in film
Newbury, Vermont
Films directed by Larry Cohen


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One for the Road (short story)
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Question book-new.svg
 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)

"One for the Road"

Author
Stephen King
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre(s)
Horror short story
Published in
Night Shift
Publisher
Doubleday
Media type
Print (Paperback)
Publication date
1978
Preceded by
"'Salem's Lot"
One for the Road is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the March/April 1977 issue of Maine, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.
Plot summary[edit]
This tale is narrated in the first person by Booth, an elderly resident of a small town that neighbors Jerusalem's Lot, Maine. The main part of the story is set a couple of years after the events of 'Salem's Lot. Booth describes a winter's night years ago, when he and his friend, a bar owner named Herb "Tookey" Tooklander, attempted to rescue the family of a motorist named Gerard Lumley, whose vehicle had become stranded in a ferocious blizzard. At first mildly contemptuous of Lumley for driving in such weather, both men are horrified when they realize that Lumley's vehicle is stranded in Jerusalem's Lot. It is widely known that "the Lot" has gone bad, but they still decide to drive out in Tookey's Scout and attempt to save Lumley's family. Instead, they barely manage to save themselves from the man's wife and daughter, who have been turned into vampires, while Lumley himself ends up being vampirized by his wife. The story ends with Booth warning the reader that if they ever find themselves on the road through 'Salem's Lot, they should keep on driving and not stop for any reason.
Connection to King's other works[edit]
This story acts as a sequel to 'Salem's Lot, and is also connected to the story of "Jerusalem's Lot" which is a prequel to both, and also appears in Night Shift. Both stories were later collected in the 2005 'Salem's Lot Illustrated Edition.
See also[edit]
Stephen King short fiction bibliography


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Jerusalem's Lot
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Question book-new.svg
 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)
This article is about the short story. For the novel, see 'Salem's Lot. For the fictional town the short story and the novel take place in, see Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King).

"Jerusalem's Lot"

Author
Stephen King
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre(s)
Horror short story
Published in
Night Shift
Publisher
Doubleday
Media type
Print (Hardcover)
Publication date
1978
Followed by
"'Salem's Lot"
"Jerusalem's Lot" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in King's 1978 collection Night Shift. The story was also printed in the Illustrated Edition of Salem's Lot.


Contents  [hide]
1 Setting and style
2 Plot
3 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
4 See also

Setting and style[edit]
"Jerusalem's Lot" is an epistolary short story set in the fictional town of Preacher's Corners, Cumberland County, Maine, in 1850. It is told through a series of letters and diary entries, mainly those of its main character, aristocrat Charles Boone, although his manservant, Calvin McCann, also occasionally assumes the role of narrator.
Plot[edit]
Charles Boone, in a series of letters addressed to an acquaintance nicknamed "Bones", describes the arrival of himself and his manservant, Calvin McCann, at Chapelwaite, the neglected ancestral home of Charles's estranged late cousin, Stephen. While running errands, Calvin finds that many people in the nearby town of Preacher's Corners think them mad living in the mansion. The house is said to be "a bad house", with a history of sad events, disappearances, and mysterious noises which Charles attributes to "rats in the walls". Not long after their arrival, Calvin finds a hidden compartment in the library. It contains an old map of a nearby deserted village called Jerusalem's Lot, a mysterious area the townsfolk avoid. Their curiosity piqued, Charles and Calvin set out to explore the village the next day.
The two men find a quaint-yet-severely decayed Puritan settlement; the village, in Charles' words, is "sour". It is clear that no one has set foot in the town since its abandonment; not looters, collectors, children, nor animals. As Charles and Calvin explore a church described on the map, they discover an unspeakably obscene parody of the Madonna and Child, as well as an inverted cross. At the pulpit, they find a book filled with Latin and Druidic runes entitled De Vermis Mysteriis, or "The Mysteries of the Worm". When Charles touches the book, the church shakes and the two men sense something gigantic moving in the ground beneath them. The evil of the place overcomes both men, and they quickly leave the town.
Later, in Preacher's Corners, Charles becomes feared and cursed by all, to the point of being chased away from one house with rocks and guns. Charles turns to the Chapelwaite's former maid, who gives him information about its connection with Jerusalem's Lot. She reveals that a long-standing rift in Charles' family was caused when his grandfather, Robert Boone, attempted to steal De Vermis Mysteriis from his brother Philip, presumably to destroy it. She explains that Philip was a minister who was heavily involved in the occult. On October 31, 1789, Philip vanished along with the entire populace of Jerusalem's Lot. Charles attempts to dismiss it all as superstition, but he is unable to forget what he saw in the church.
Calvin discovers a diary in the library, encrypted with a Rail Fence Cipher. Before he can translate it, Charles has him venture into the cellar to check for rats, due to the continuing noise in the walls. Two days pass before Charles has recovered enough to describe what they found hidden behind the walls: the ancient, undead corpses of two of his relatives, Marcella and Randolph Boone, whom Charles recognizes as "nosferatu". The two men fled the cellar, and Calvin immediately barred the door to prevent any pursuit from the creatures.
As Charles recovers from the encounter, Calvin cracks the cipher. He is able to translate the diary, which contains a history of Jerusalem's Lot and a record of the events leading up to its abandonment in 1789. It is revealed that the town was founded by one of Charles' distant ancestors, James Boon, who was the leader of a cult of witchcraft and inbreeding that had split from the Puritans. The journal explains how Philip and Robert Boone took up residence in Chapelwaite, how Philip was taken in by Boon's cult, and how he acquired De Vermis Mysteriis at Boon's behest. Philip descended into madness. Philip and Boon are said to have used the book to call forth a supernatural force referred to by Philip as "The Worm". In his final entry, Robert curses the Whip-poor-will birds that have descended upon Chapelwaite.
Charles feels compelled to return to Jerusalem's Lot. Calvin does his best to prevent it, but he eventually gives in and accompanies his master to the village. Returning to the church, they discover a horribly butchered lamb on the altar, lying on top of De Vermis Mysteriis. Charles moves the lamb and takes the book, intending to destroy it, but a congregation of evil undead entities begins to emerge, including James Boon and Charles' great-uncle, Philip. Charles becomes possessed and begins to chant, summoning forth the Worm with an ancient spell. Calvin knocks down Charles, which snaps him out of his possessed stupor. Charles then sets fire to the book. The gigantic Worm, heavily hinted to be a form or incarnation of the Cthulhu Mythos deity Shudde M'ell, lashes out from below, killing Calvin, and then disappears. Before Charles can recover Calvin's body, James Boon emerges from the Worm's hole, forcing Charles to flee the Church once more. In his final letter to Bones, Charles announces his intention to commit suicide, thereby ending the Boone family line and its connection to the evil of Jerusalem's Lot.
The book concludes with an "editor's note" that attributes Charles' letters (as well as the death of Calvin McCann) to insanity, dismissing his claims of supernatural occurrences in Jerusalem's Lot. Finally, the editor notes that Charles was not, in fact, the last of his line; that a bastard relative still exists—the editor himself, James Robert Boone. He has moved to Chapelwaite, hoping to clear the family name, and notes that Charles was right about one thing: "This place badly needs the services of an exterminator. There are some huge rats in the walls, by the sound". The note is dated October 2, the same date as Charles's first letter.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations[edit]
"Jerusalem's Lot" has been adapted by artist Glenn Chadbourne for the book The Secretary of Dreams, a collection of comics based on King's short fiction released by Cemetery Dance in December 2006.
See also[edit]
Stephen King short fiction bibliography


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Salem's Lot (2004 TV miniseries)
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Salem's Lot
Salempromo1.jpg
Directed by
Mikael Salomon
Produced by
Jeffrey M. Hayes
 Brett Popplewell
 Marc van Buuren
 Mark Wolper
Screenplay by
Peter Filardi
Based on
'Salem's Lot
 by Stephen King
Starring
Rob Lowe
Andre Braugher
Donald Sutherland
Samantha Mathis
Rutger Hauer
James Cromwell
Robert Mammone
Dan Byrd
Music by
Christopher Gordon
Lisa Gerrard
Language
English
Original channel
TNT
Release date
June 20, 2004

Running time
181 minutes
Salem's Lot is a 2004 American television mini-series which first aired on TNT from June 20–21, 2004. It is the second television adaptation of Stephen King's 1975 vampire novel of the same name (the first version was made in 1979).
Although the novel and original miniseries were both set in the 1970s, this version updates the story to take place in the 2000s. Though the story is still set in a small Maine town, the mini-series was actually shot on location at Creswick and Woodend, in Central Victoria, Australia.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Cast 2.1 Main
2.2 Supporting 2.2.1 King casting connections

3 Differences from the book
4 External links

Plot summary[edit]
The story opens with Ben Mears attacking the priest Donald Callahan in a homeless shelter in a big city. They fall together from a high window into the street. In the hospital, Ben Mears tells his story and the reasons behind his fight with the priest to an orderly.
Ben, a successful writer, returns to his hometown, Jerusalem's Lot (also known as 'Salem's Lot), intending to write a novel while he deals with the demons of his past. He tells Susan Norton (a waitress and former art student whom he has befriended), that as a child he accepted a dare to enter the house of Hubie Marsten. Local legend said that there was something wrong with the house and/or its owner, suggesting that he tortured and murdered children. The night he went into the house, Ben overheard something horrible — including Hubie begging for his life before committing suicide. Ben believes that he also heard Hubie Marsten's last victim crying for help, but Ben was too afraid to find or help him. Ben plans to rent the house to bring catharsis to himself and to gather material for his novel, but he discovers that it has recently been sold by Larry Crockett to a pair of antique dealers, Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow.
Shortly thereafter, the dark secrets of the town's residents begin to emerge. Crockett is sexually abusing his teenage daughter Ruth. When she spends time with a cripple named Dud Rodgers whom Crockett employs, Crockett fires him. Eva Prunier, who runs the boarding house where Ben stays, played evil games with Hubie Marsten when they were teenagers. Charlie Rhodes, the school bus driver, is a bully who loves to torment the children he transports, forcing those he doesn't like to walk home. Soon after newcomers Richard Straker and his little-seen partner Kurt Barlow arrive, a local child named Ralphie Glick vanishes. His brother Danny then sickens and dies after being visited by Ralphie, who has now been turned into a vampire. Barlow meets Dud Rodgers one night and offers him a chance to be free of his physical disability, which he accepts. Barlow then vampirizes him. Laborer Mike Ryerson buries Danny, then also gets sick and dies. He returns from the grave (complete with autopsy scars) to tempt high school teacher Matt Burke, who repels him but suffers a heart attack. Ben's blossoming relationship with Susan causes jealousy with her old boyfriend Floyd Tibbits. However, Floyd is bitten by Dud Rodgers and slowly becomes a vampire him. After starting a fight with Ben, Floyd and Ben spend the night in jail for causing an affray, and Floyd uses his new supernatural abilities to crawl through the ventilation shaft to Ben's cell to taunt him. Ben is persuaded by the mounting evidence that the town is plagued by vampirism. He and his allies, Dr. Jimmy Cody, Father Donald Callahan, and schoolboy Mark Petrie begin acting as vampire hunters, although they are horrified to discover that Susan Norton has now become a victim. Ben insists upon targeting Barlow in the hopes that Barlow's victims might be restored upon his destruction.
The characters face their own psychological demons as the physical demons surround them. After Barlow kills Mark's mother, Father Callahan tries to save Mark by confronting Barlow by himself, but finds his faith is not strong enough. Callahan is forced to drink Barlow's blood, turning Callahan into Barlow's servant. Larry Crockett, who invited the vampire to the town in the first place, sees his daughter willingly join the vampiric Dud Rodgers in the night. Most of all, Ben still wrestles with his own guilt and personal failures.
In the course of the hunt, Cody and Burke are killed. Crockett, who abandons Ben and Mark to find his daughter, is killed and devoured by Dud and the other vampires instead of being turned into one of them. Ben and Mark finally manage to destroy Barlow, but not before he taunts Ben, likening Ben to himself as another parasite who preys on the tragedies of others. To Ben's dismay, destroying Barlow has not saved Susan who is still a vampire. She tells him that the boy he failed to rescue all those years ago was already dead when Marsten died, and Ben was never to blame. But when Susan turns to attack Mark, Ben is forced to destroy her. In the end, Ben and Mark set the Marsten House alight, and during a chase with the school bus driver, who was turned into a vampire by the children in the town, a gas station is damaged and goes up in flames. As the fires begin to spread throughout the town, Callahan vows revenge against Ben as the town's now vampirized population flocks to him.
As Ben concludes his story, the orderly is deeply moved and frightened by the story, then realizes that Ben wasn't acting alone. The orderly looks in on Father Callahan, but finds him dead, suffocated with a pillow. While he is absent, Mark slips into Ben's room and tells him that the vampire hunt is now over. Ben suffers a cardiac arrest. The orderly finds Mark at a locked exit to the hospital but decides to let him go. Ben passes away, finally at peace.
Cast[edit]
Main[edit]
Rob Lowe as Ben Mears
Andre Braugher as Matt Burke
Donald Sutherland as Richard Straker
Samantha Mathis as Susan Norton
Rutger Hauer as Kurt Barlow
James Cromwell as Father Callahan
Supporting[edit]
Robert Mammone as Dr. Jimmy Cody
Dan Byrd as Mark Petrie
Andy Anderson as Charlie Rhodes
Robert Grubb as Larry Crockett
Steven Vidler as Sheriff Parkins
Brendan Cowell as Dud Rogers
Christopher Morris as Mike Ryerson
Todd MacDonald as Floyd Tibbits
Paul Ashcroft as Royce McDougall
André De Vanny as Danny Glick
Bree Desborough as Sandy McDougall
Elizabeth Alexander as Ann Norton
Julia Blake as Eva Prunier
Martin Vaughan as Ed "Weasel" Craig
Betty Bobbitt as Nurse (uncredited)
King casting connections[edit]
Samantha Mathis, Christopher Morris and Martin Vaughan also appeared in Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, written by Peter Filardi.
Rob Lowe played Nick Andros in the TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand.
Andre Braugher appeared as Brent Norton in the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist.
James Cromwell played Warden Hal Moores in The Green Mile.
Dan Byrd played Paul in the Stephen King sequel Firestarter 2: Rekindled.
Differences from the book[edit]
In the novel, Ben Mears is a writer of fiction who tells the story of Jerusalem's Lot to a priest in Mexico. Mears does not die in the novel. In this adaptation, he is a war correspondent/journalist who writes non-fiction, tells his story to a doctor in a hospital and dies at the end.
In the novel, Hubie Marsten was a Satan-worshipping gangster from Boston who committed unnamed atrocities in his house in the 1930s. Ben Mears saw a vision of the undead Marsten when he went inside the Marsten house as a boy. In this adaptation, Marsden is alive when Mears is a youth, and Mears overhears Marsden committing a murder and then committing suicide.
In the novel, Susan Norton is a college graduate with an art degree and a budding artist living at home, and is not employed. In this adaptation, she only alludes to an interest in art, and is working as a waitress in her mother's cafe.
In the novel, Mark Petrie is 12 years old and still in the sixth grade. He is a nice, studious boy who just moved to 'Salem's Lot. In this adaptation, he is in his mid-teens and is a troubled delinquent.
In the novel, Straker is bald, physically slight but immensely powerful, and courtly. In this adaptation, he is white-haired and heavily bearded.
In the novel, Eva Miller is a widow who has no relationship to Hubie Marsten. In this adaptation, she is called Eva Prunier who inadvertently assisted Marsten when she was younger.
In the novel, Larry Crockett is a loving father to Ruthie, and the hunchbacked Dud Rogers secretly lusts for her. In this adaptation, it is implied that Crockett commits incest with his daughter and Dud Rogers is Ruthie's gentle-souled friend.
In the novel, Father Callahan is a kind-hearted, alcoholic priest struggling with his faith. When Mark Petrie is captured by Barlow, Father Callahan challenges the vampire to a test of faith. Barlow lets Mark go, Callahan loses the battle of wills, and Callahan is forced to drink Barlow's blood. His faith broken and his body now "unclean" so that he cannot enter a church, he then just leaves town a broken man (knowing that everyone else is likely to die). In this adaptation, Callahan becomes Barlow's living servant and stays in 'Salem's Lot to rally the vampires after Ben and Mark flee the town. Ben hunts him down and the story opens with their final struggle.
In the novel, Matt Burke is a white male who dies in the hospital of a heart attack and never joins the vampire hunt. In this adaptation, he is an African American who joins the hunt in the town, suffers a heart attack but is killed by Father Callahan in his hospital bed.
In the novel, Susan Norton dies late in the story, and only Mark encounters her (she appears at his window one night). Ben Mears kills her while she sleeps during the day in the basement of the Marsten House. In this adaptation, Susan becomes a vampire slightly earlier, and Ben kills her at Eva's boarding house as she is about to attack Mark.
In the novel, Larry Crockett never realizes there are vampires in 'Salem's Lot. He dies near the end of the story in his office, apparently having been repeatedly bitten by his vampiric daughter, Ruthie. In this adaptation, Crockett tries to commit suicide but is saved by Ben and Dr Cody, but is killed at the end by the whole town of vampires when they consume his flesh.
In the novel, Ben's vision of Hubie Marsten is never explained (it is explained in a later Stephen King short story titled "Jerusalem's Lot", in which the reader learns of the extensive Satanic rites conducted in Salem's Lot in the 1800s and other people's experiences with similar ghouls). In this adaptation, a vampiric Susan explains the truth about the incident to Ben and oddly absolves him of guilt over the death of one of Marsten's child victims.
In the novel, Ben and Mark drive away after killing Barlow, and live in Mexico. It is a year before they go back to the town, after reading in a Maine newspaper about strange disappearances in the 'Salem's Lot area. Ben and Mark then set fire to the woods, knowing the fire will spread and destroy the town. Knowing that, without their leader Barlow, the remaining vampires will be more vulnerable and Ben and Mark intend to hunt the rest of the vampires over the coming months and years. In this adaptation, Ben sets fire to the town before he and Mark depart, ensuring that the vampires will have no place to hide when the sun comes up, and they never return to the town.
In the novel, Dr. James Cody is a likeable doctor with no backstory. In this adaptation, he is being blackmailed because he is sleeping with another man's wife.
In the novel, Parkins Gillespie is the town constable, and Homer McCaslin is the county sheriff. In this adaptation, Parkins is the county sheriff and there is no constable.
External links[edit]
Salem's Lot at the Internet Movie Database
Salem's Lot at Rotten Tomatoes
Online Review of the DVD with screencaps
Official Website
Another review with pictures


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Salem's Lot (radio drama)
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Question book-new.svg
 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)
Salem’s Lot was a 1995 BBC Radio 4 dramatization of Stephen King’s novel 'Salem's Lot written by Gregory Evans. It combines the psychological thriller and the classic horror genres, making references to Bram Stoker’s Dracula at several points and sometimes replicating its storyline.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Cast and crew
3 Trivia
4 Differences between the novel and radio adaptation

Plot summary[edit]
Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in the (fictional) town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine (known to locals as "Salem's Lot" or "The Lot"), has returned home following the death of his wife. Ben plans to write a book about the “Marsten House”, an abandoned mansion that gave him nightmares after a traumatic (and possibly supernatural) childhood experience. Once in town, he meets local high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate.
Mears discovers that the Marsten house has been bought by Mr. Straker and Mr. Barlow, a pair of businessmen who are also new to the town, although only Straker has been seen. Their arrival coincides with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the suspicious death of his brother Danny. It then becomes clear that Barlow is a vampire, and is taking over the town with Straker's help. Ben, Matt, Susan, and a few other residents of the Lot try to prevent the vampires from spreading. In the end, Ben and young Mark Petrie succeed in neutralizing Straker and destroy the master vampire Barlow, but, lucky to escape with their lives, are forced to leave the town to the newly created vampires.
Cast and crew[edit]
Stuart Milligan as Ben Mears
Theresa Gallagher as Susan Norton
Danny Cannaba as Mark Petrie
Doug Bradley as Kurt Barlow
Gavin Muir as Matt Burke
Kerry Shale as Jimmy Cody
Don Fellows as Parkins Gillespie
Nigel Anthony as Father Callahan
George Parsons as Nolly Gardner
Lorelei King as June Petrie
Vincent Marzello as Henry Petrie
Music by Elizabeth Parker of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Dramatised by Gregory Evans
Directed by Adrian Bean
Trivia[edit]
Mark's parents, Henry and June Petrie, are played by the husband-and-wife actors Vincent Marzello and Lorelei King
The principal villain, Kurt Barlow, is played by Doug Bradley, best known for his role as Pinhead in the Hellraiser movies.
Differences between the novel and radio adaptation[edit]
Although the story's overall structure remains similar, several lines have been consolidated and/or simplified, in keeping with the much-shortened radio format (seven 30-minute broadcasts).
Ralphie Glick's role is reduced
Dud Rogers and the junkyard see only cursory mention (much of the Barlow/Dud Rogers dialogue having been rescripted into the Barlow/Larry Crockett death scene)
Danny Glick's rise from the grave (and the death of Mike Ryerson) are now enabled/supervised by Barlow, who mesmerizes Ryerson and calls Danny forth
Father Callahan and Dr. Cody become quick/willing vampire-hunters, with virtually no complaint or skepticism
Mark Petrie uses shards of broken glass (rather than contortionist rope-tricks) to free himself from Straker's knots
The entire narrative is framed by Ben Mears' confession to a Mexican priest (who periodically interrupts the retelling with specific questions)


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Characters
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Adaptations
Salem's Lot (1979 TV miniseries) ·
 Salem's Lot (1995 radio drama) – ·
 Salem's Lot (2004 TV miniseries)
 

Series
"Jerusalem's Lot" (prequel) ·
 One for the Road (sequel)
 

Related
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) – in-name only sequel to 1979 miniseries ·
 Jerusalem's Lot ·
 The Dark Tower series  (related works)
 
 

 


Categories: British radio drama
1995 radio dramas
Adaptations of works by Stephen King
Vampires in popular culture





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Salem's Lot (1979 TV miniseries)
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Salem's Lot
Salemslotthemovie.jpg
Poster art

Genre
Horror
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Directed by
Tobe Hooper
Produced by
Richard Kobritz
Stirling Silliphant
 Anna Cottle
Written by
Paul Monash
Starring
David Soul
James Mason
Lance Kerwin
Bonnie Bedelia
Lew Ayres
Music by
Harry Sukman
Cinematography
Jules Brenner
Editing by
Carroll Sax
Budget
US$4,000,000 [1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Original channel
CBS
Original run
November 17, 1979  – November 24, 1979
Running time
184 minutes
No. of episodes
2
Followed by
A Return to Salem's Lot
Salem's Lot (also known as Salem's Lot: The Movie, Salem's Lot: The Miniseries and Blood Thirst) is a 1979 American television adaptation of the novel of the same name by Stephen King. Directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul and James Mason, the plot revolves around a writer returning to his home town and discovers the citizens are turning into vampires. It combines elements of both the vampire film and haunted house subgenres.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Adaptation from source material
3.2 Casting
3.3 Direction
3.4 Design and effects
3.5 Music
4 Inspirations and influences
5 Release 5.1 Theatrical cut
5.2 Home release
6 Reception
7 Awards and nominations
8 Sequels and other adaptations
9 References
10 External links

Plot[edit]
The prologue shows a church in Guatemala in which a man and a boy, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, are filling small bottles with holy water. When one of the bottles begins to emit an eerie supernatural glow, Mears tells Petrie "They've found us again." Knowing an evil presence is there, they decide to fight it.
The story then flashes back two years, to the small town of Salem's Lot (formally known as Jerusalem's Lot) in Maine in the United States. Ben Mears, an author, has returned to the town after a long absence to write a book about the Marsten House, an ominous old property on a hilltop which has a reputation for being haunted. Mears attempts to rent the house but finds that another new arrival in town, the mysterious Richard Straker, has recently bought it. Straker also opens an antique shop with his oft-mentioned but always absent business partner, Kurt Barlow. Meanwhile, Mears moves into a boarding house in town run by Eva Miller, and develops a romantic relationship with a local woman, Susan Norton. He befriends Susan's father, Dr. Bill Norton, and also renews his old friendship with his former school teacher, Jason Burke. Mears tells Burke that he feels the Marsten House is somehow inherently evil, and recalls how he was once traumatized inside the house when he was a child.
After a large crate is delivered to the Marsten House one night, an increasing number of the townsfolk begin to disappear or die in strange circumstances. Both Mears and Straker are initially the main suspects as they are new in town, but it becomes clear that the crate contained Straker's mysterious business partner, Kurt Barlow, an ancient master vampire who has come to the town after having sent Straker to make way for his arrival. Straker kidnaps a young local boy, Ralphie Glick, as an offering to Barlow, while Barlow himself kills local realtor Larry Crockett. The Glick boy then returns as a vampire to claim his brother, Danny, who himself becomes undead. In turn, Danny infects the local gravedigger Mike Ryerson who was entranced by the dead child's open eyes. Danny then attempts to kill his schoolfriend Mark Petrie, however, Mark is a horror film buff who manages to repel Danny with a crucifix.
Slowly, the vampires spread as Mears, Burke and Bill Norton figure out what is happening to the town and attempt to do something to stop it. They are attacked by the presumed dead Marjorie Glick (Ralph and Danny's mother) awakens on the mortician's table. Mark's parents are both killed by Barlow, though Mark is allowed to escape when the local priest, Father Callahan, holds him at bay. Jason Burke, however, falls prey to a heart attack following an encounter with the newly vampirised Mike Ryerson. In the end, Susan Norton and Mark Petrie are captured by Straker after breaking into the Marsten House. Mears and Dr. Norton head over to the house to destroy Barlow when they run into Mark who has managed to escape. Inside the house, Dr. Norton is killed by Straker, who is himself then killed by Mears using a pistol. Afterwards, Mears and Petrie find Barlow's coffin in the cellar and destroy him by driving a stake through his heart. They then escape from the other vampires in the cellar (the various townsfolk), and set fire to the house. However, Susan is nowhere to be found. As the house burns, the wind begins to carry the fire towards the town itself. Mears and Petrie then flee Salem's Lot knowing that the fire will drive all the other vampires from their hiding places and purify the town from the evil that has engulfed it.
The story then returns to Mears and Petrie at the church in Guatemala two years later. It quickly becomes clear that they are on the run from the surviving vampires from Salem's Lot, who have been relentlessly pursuing them. Their supplies of holy water glow whenever a vampire is nearby. Realising that they have been tracked down yet again, Mears and Petrie return to their lodgings to collect their belongings. However, once there, Mears finds Susan lying in his bed. Now a vampire, she prepares to bite him as he leans down to kiss her, but he drives a stake through her heart. Filled with grief, he and Petrie leave, knowing that vampires are still hunting them.
Cast[edit]
David Soul as Ben Mears
James Mason as Richard Straker
Lance Kerwin as Mark Petrie
Bonnie Bedelia as Susan Norton
Lew Ayres as Jason Burke
Ed Flanders as Bill Norton
Fred Willard as Larry Crockett
Julie Cobb as Bonnie Sawyer
Kenneth McMillan as Constable Parkins Gillespie
Geoffrey Lewis as Mike Ryerson
Barney McFadden as Ned Tebbets
Marie Windsor as Eva Miller
 Bonnie Bartlett as Ann Norton
George Dzundza as Cully Sawyer
Elisha Cook Jr. as Gordon "Weasel" Phillips
Clarissa Kaye-Mason as Marjorie Glick
Ned Wilson as Henry Glick
Barbara Babcock as June Petrie
Joshua Bryant as Ted Petrie
James Gallery as Father Callahan
Brad Savage as Danny Glick
Ronnie Scribner as Ralphie Glick
Reggie Nalder as Kurt Barlow

Production[edit]
After Warner Bros. acquired the rights to 'Salem's Lot, the studio sought to turn the 400-page novel by Stephen King into a feature film, while still remaining faithful to the source material. Producer Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter Robert Getchell, and writer/director Larry Cohen all contributed screenplays but none proved satisfactory. "It was a mess," Stephen King said. "Every director in Hollywood who's ever been involved with horror wanted to do it, but nobody could come up with a script."[1]
The project was eventually turned over to Warner Bros. Television and producer Richard Kobritz decided Salem's Lot would work better as a television miniseries than as a feature film format due the novel's length. Television writer Paul Monash was contracted to write the teleplay, having previously produced the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Carrie and worked on the television series Peyton Place and as such was familiar with writing about small towns. A screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), resulted in Richard Kobritz selecting Tobe Hooper as director.[1]
With a budget of $4 million, principal photography began on July 10, 1979, in the Northern California town of Ferndale, with some scenes filmed at the Burbank studios. Filming officially wrapped on August 29, 1979.[1]
Adaptation from source material[edit]
Although generally the same story, the television adaptation takes several liberties with King's source novel. Many characters have been combined or merely deleted, as have certain subplots, and the character of Barlow is totally different in the miniseries than he is in the novel. However, Stephen King praised Paul Monash's screenplay and commented "Monash has succeeded in combining the characters a lot, and it works".[1]
However, much of the violence and graphic scenes in the novel had to be omitted to meet broadcast restrictions. Producer Richard Kobritz, who took a strong creative interests in his films, also added several changes to Monash's script including turning the head vampire Kurt Barlow from a cultured human-looking villain into a speechless demonic-looking monster. Kobritz explained:
“ We went back to the old German Nosferatu concept where he is the essence of evil, and not anything romantic or smarmy, or, you know, the rouge-cheeked, widow-peaked Dracula. I wanted nothing suave or sexual, because I just didn't think it'd work; we've seen too much of it. The other thing we did with the character which I think is an improvement is that Barlow does not speak. When he's killed at the end, he obviously emits sounds, but it's not even a full line of dialogue, in contrast to the book and the first draft of the screenplay. I just thought it would be suicidal on our part to have a vampire that talks. What kind of voice do you put behind a vampire? You can't do Bela Lugosi, or you're going to get a laugh. You can't do Regan in The Exorcist, or you're going to get something that's unintelligible, and besides, you've been there before. That's why I think the James Mason role of Straker became more important."[1] ”
Other changes by Kobritz included having the final confrontation with Barlow in the cellar of the Marsten House whereas in the book it is in the basement of Eva Miller's boarding house, a concept Kobritz felt "Just doesn't work. I mean, from a point of sheer construction in a well-written screenplay, he's got to reside in the inside of the Marsten House. He's a major star in the picture - the third or fourth most important character - he's got to be there. It may have worked in the book, but not in the movie." Susan's death was also moved to the climax, to give her death "more impact and provide the film with a snap ending."[1]
Casting[edit]
On playing Ben Mears, David Soul said "I cleaned up my speech pattern a little bit. I sound like a writer, a man who's at home with words."
For the roles of Richard K. Straker and the vampire Kurt Barlow, James Mason and Reggie Nalder had been on producer Richard Kobritz' "wish list".[2] Kobritz sent Mason a copy of the script, who loved the part and his wife, Clarissa Kaye-Mason, was also cast as Marjorie Glick.[1] However, Nalder was less impressed. "The makeup and contact lenses were painful but I got used to them. I liked the money best of all."[3]
The miniseries also features Elisha Cook, Jr. as Weasel Philips and Marie Windsor as Eva Miller, two characters with a relationship. This casting was an inside joke by producer Kobritz, a fan of Stanley Kubrick; Cook and Windsor had previously played a couple in Kubrick's The Killing (1956).[1]
Direction[edit]
Salem's Lot does not rely on the same kind of dynamics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. "This film is very spooky - it suggests things and always has the overtone of the grave. It affects you differently than my other horror films. It's more soft-shelled," director Tobe Hooper explains. "A television movie does not have blood or violence. It has atmosphere which creates something you cannot escape - the reminder that our time is limited and all the accoutrements that go with it, such as the visuals."[1]
Although Salem's Lot was aimed at television, a European theatrical release was planned from the start, which would include more violence. Two versions of the scene where Cully Sawyer threatens Larry Crockett with a shotgun were shot. In one version, Larry holds the gun barrel in his mouth, while in the mini-series the barrel is in front of his face. "They worked at a feature film pace instead of a TV pace," recalled actor Lance Kerwin on the filming. "It's really even hard to tell the flow of the film. It was a miniseries originally, then we shot a feature film version for Europe at the same time. They've edited and cut together so much."[4]
Design and effects[edit]



 A full scale mock-up of the Marsten House was built over a smaller house.
Unable to find a house in Ferndale that resembled the Marsten House from the book, an estimated $100,000 was spent on constructing a three-story facade over an already-existing house on a hillside, overlooking Ferndale and the Eel River Valley. Designed by Mort Rabinowitz, it took 20 days to build. Another $70,000 was spent on constructing the interior set of the house which proved even more difficult for designer Rabinowitz,[1] who also designed the building of Straker's antique shop and the small village in Guatemala where the beginning and end of the miniseries is set.[1]
The vampire make-up involving glowing contact lenses were invented by Jack Young. According to Tobe Hooper, the make up on actor Reggie Nalder would constantly fall off, as well as the fake nails, teeth and the contact lenses would go sideways.[5] The contact lenses could only be worn for 15 minutes at a time before they had to be removed to let the eye rest for 30 minutes.[1]
The vampire levitations were accomplished by placing the actors on a boom crane instead of traditional wires, "We didn't fly our vampires in on wires, because even in the best of films you can see them," producer Richard Korbitz explained. "We wanted to get a feeling of floating. And the effect is horrific, because you know there are no wires. It has a very spooky, eerie quality to it."[1] The levitation sequences were also shot-in-reverse to make the scenes more eerie.[1]
Music[edit]
With producer Richard Korbitz wanting "a good, atmospheric, old-fashioned, Bernie Herrmann-type score", the score was composed and conducted by Harry Sukman, whom Korbitz described as "a former cohort and protege of Victor Young".[1] It was the composer's last work before he passed away in 1984. Although the score has not had an official release, bootlegs have surfaced on the net for download and eBay.[6][7]
Inspirations and influences[edit]
Tobe Hooper, a great admirer of Alfred Hitchcock, pays several homages to Psycho (1960) in Salem's Lot. The appearance of Kurt Barlow is an homage to Count Orlock in Nosferatu (1922).[1]
Salem's Lot had a significant impact on the vampire genre, as it inspired horror films such as Fright Night (1985) and the scenes of vampire boys floating outside windows would be referenced in The Lost Boys (1987) (and later spoofed in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror IV"). Salem's Lot has also been cited as one of the primary influences for Joss Whedon's hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[8] Swedish heavy metal band Ghost's debut album Opus Eponymous has a cover that is a tribute to the Salem's Lot film poster.
Writer Bryan Fuller stated that the scene where a character is impaled on a deer's antlers in Salem's Lot inspired him to do a similar scene in his 2013 TV series Hannibal because the original scene frightened him so much a a child.[9]
Release[edit]
Salem's Lot originally aired on CBS on November 17 and 24 of 1979 in two 2-hour segments. The following year, CBS aired an edited version of the miniseries in one 3-hour segment. NAL/Signet Books also published a paperback tie-in of the novel which included "8 pages of blood-chilling photos".
Theatrical cut[edit]
A 112-minute edit of the miniseries was subsequently given a theatrical release in Europe. The theatrical cut of Salem's Lot features different musical cues, alternative scenes, and deletes many scenes, including the prologue and epilogue with Ben Mears and Mark Petrie in Guatemala as well as Susan's fate.
Home release[edit]
The theatrical cut also aired on cable television and was titled Salem's Lot: The Movie for its VHS release. It was later released alongside A Return to Salem's Lot on VHS as a "Movie Double Feature". Warner Bros. eventually released the full-length miniseries on to VHS, as well as on DVD. The DVD release includes all of the extra scenes from the theatrical version, except the alternative scene of Larry Crockett putting Cully Sawyer's gun in his mouth.
Reception[edit]
Salem's Lot has received generally positive reviews. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports 82% of critics gave the movie positive write-ups based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10.[10] British film critic Mark Kermode has called it "very scary"[11] and "one of the very best screen adaptations of a Stephen King novel to date."[12] Helen O'Hara of Empire Magazine gave the film three out of five stars.[13] American critic Leonard Maltin called it "A well-made hellraiser."[14] Time Out praised "Hooper's fluid camerawork, creepy atmospherics, and skilful handling of the gripping climax."[15] Salem's Lot was also placed on Time Out's list of best vampire films.[16] The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review called it "one of the most underrated of all King adaptations".[17] Brian McKay of eFilm Critic wrote "Although I'll admit it is incredibly dated, it still manages to be thoroughly creepy."[18]
Salem's Lot was featured on AMC's list of Remembering Made-for-TV Terrors[19] and Reggie Nalder's Nosferatu-like portrayal of Kurt Barlow was ranked #8 on Entertainment Weekly's "20 Greatest Vampires".[20] Ronnie Scribner's infamous "window" scene as the child vampire Ralphie Glick was ranked #4 on Empire Magazine's list of "Top 10 Scariest Movie Scenes"[21] and was ranked #42 on the UK Channel 4's 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003).[22]
The 112-minute "movie" version of the miniseries has been mostly disparaged in recent years,[23] though it was preferred by some people including Stephen King himself.[24]
Awards and nominations[edit]

Year
Award
Category
Nominee
Result
1980 Edgar Award Best Television Feature or Miniseries Paul Monash[25] Nominated
1980 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences Gene Kraft[26] Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Makeup Ben Lane and Jack H. Young[26] Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Limited Series or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) Harry Sukman[26] Nominated
Sequels and other adaptations[edit]
A sequel television series, intended to air on NBC, was originally planned. The series was to be produced by Richard Korbitz and involved Robert Bloch, and was set to continue the vampire hunting actives of Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, though it was ultimately never made.[27]
In a 1989 Fangoria interview, actor Reggie Nalder acknowledged to have spoken with production people about a sequel to Salem's Lot, but nothing came out of it.[2] In 1987, a loose sequel named A Return to Salem's Lot was released, directed and written by Larry Cohen. The sequel used the poster art from the original depicting Nalder as Kurt Barlow, however the film features neither the character nor the actor.[2]
In 2004, a new television adaptation of Salem's Lot was made by TNT in association with Warner Bros. Directed by Mikael Salomon, the remake was shown in two parts with a similar running length to the original 1979 miniseries. It stars Rob Lowe as Ben Mears, Donald Sutherland as Richard Straker, Rutger Hauer as Kurt Barlow, and James Cromwell as Father Callahan (a substantially expanded role compared to the 1979 version).
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cinefantastique magazine vol. 9 #2
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Fangoria #82 (1989)
3.Jump up ^ http://www.kinoeye.org/03/02/delvalle02.php Kinoeye|Interview: Horror actor Reggie Nalder
4.Jump up ^ Interview with Lance Kerwin
5.Jump up ^ Interview with Tobe Hopper
6.Jump up ^ http://soundtracklistcovers.blogspot.com/2008/10/salems-lot-harry-sukman.html
7.Jump up ^ The Unofficial Score Database
8.Jump up ^ Fused Film - Interview with Joss Whedon (2009)
9.Jump up ^ "Bryan Fuller's graphic photo of woman impaled on antlers".
10.Jump up ^ Salem's Lot at Rotten Tomatoes.
11.Jump up ^ Twilight of the blogs
12.Jump up ^ Tobe Or Not Tobe - Channel 4 Film feature
13.Jump up ^ http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=117333
14.Jump up ^ Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide
15.Jump up ^ http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/73934/salems_lot.html
16.Jump up ^ http://www.timeoutsydney.com.au/timein/vampire-films.aspx
17.Jump up ^ http://www.moria.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3204&Itemid=1
18.Jump up ^ http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=2414&reviewer=258
19.Jump up ^ http://blogs.amctv.com/monsterfest/2008/04/made-for-tv-terrors.php
20.Jump up ^ "20 Greatest Vampires". Entertainment Weekly. July 31, 2009.
21.Jump up ^ http://www.empireonline.com.au/news/Top10.asp?id=46 Scariest Movie Scenes - Empire: Movie News
22.Jump up ^ 100 Greatest Scary Moments: Channel 4 Film
23.Jump up ^ http://www.eofftv.com/s/sal/salems_lot_main.htm
24.Jump up ^ Jones, Stephen (2002). Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide. Billboard Books. ISBN 978-0-8230-7884-4.
25.Jump up ^ Best Mystery TV Feature or Mini-series Edgar Award Winners and Nominees
26.^ Jump up to: a b c Primetime Emmy Award Database
27.Jump up ^ Films that never saw the light of day... - '80s and '90s Sci-Fi and Horror - Tomorrow's Classic
External links[edit]
Salem's Lot at the Internet Movie Database


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Father Callahan
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Father Callahan from Wolves of the Calla. Art by Bernie Wrightson.
Father Callahan

Gender
Male 
Occupation
Priest
Allies

Enemies
Vampires

First appearance
'Salem's Lot
Created by
Stephen King
Father Donald Frank Callahan is a fictional character created by Stephen King. He originally appeared in 'Salem's Lot and later the Dark Tower, appearing in The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah and finally The Dark Tower. He is at first an alcoholic with a troubled faith, but seems to find his peace in the Dark Tower books, and his faith is restored.


Contents  [hide]
1 History 1.1 Salem's Lot
1.2 Wolves of the Calla
1.3 Song of Susannah
1.4 The Dark Tower
2 Other Versions 2.1 Deleted Scene
2.2 1979 Miniseries
2.3 1995 radio drama
2.4 2004 Miniseries


History[edit]
Salem's Lot[edit]
Father Callahan is the local Roman Catholic priest of the small Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot. Callahan presides over the funeral of Danny Glick, a young boy who was, unbeknownst to the townsfolk, killed by the vampire Kurt Barlow. Life goes on as normal, until more and more of the populace disappear and are turned to vampires. Ben Mears, a local writer, discovers the epidemic that has been propagating during the nighttime. Joined by his girlfriend Susan Norton, local teacher Matt Burke, doctor Jimmy Cody, and the young Mark Petrie, he convinces Callahan of the vampire presence and enlists him to help.
Unfortunately, while making an attempt to slay Barlow, Susan is captured and bitten. Callahan leads a daytime assault on Barlow's manor, only to find that the vampire has vacated the premises in anticipation of their attack. However, the group uses the opportunity to slay the vampiric Susan, and purify the house against future vampire occupation.
His faith falters in Barlow's presence. After saving Mark Petrie from the vampire, his faith fails and he is dependent on his crucifix which soon loses its powers. Barlow tears open his own throat and forces the priest to drink his blood, taunting him by calling him 'shaman' and ultimately damning him. Defeated, Callahan returns to his church, but burns his hand on the door and is refused entrance. Callahan leaves the town on a bus, bemoaning how "unclean" he has become.
Wolves of the Calla[edit]
After fleeing 'Salem's Lot, Callahan arrives in New York City, and becomes a vagrant. Now able to sense vampires, he realizes that they live and hunt all around him. His alcoholism gets worse but after he starts working at a homeless shelter, he begins to recover. He befriends several people, such as Rowan Magruder and Lupe Delgado. Callahan later develops a deep fondness for Lupe and later admits to having fallen in love with him. He wonders if this means he is gay, but despite a brief kiss on the cheek, nothing physical occurs between them.
Callahan learns that there are three types of vampires. The Type Ones are the most powerful ones and are almost immortal. They can spread vampirism to others and create Type Two vampires. Kurt Barlow was a Type One. Type Twos are more common and can create other Type Twos or Type Threes. Lastly, the Type Threes cannot spread vampirism but can spread diseases that travel by blood, such as HIV. Callahan refers to them as 'mosquitoes'. After Lupe is infected by a Type Three vampire and dies from AIDS, Callahan begins to kill vampires (mostly Type Threes). This attracts the attention of the Crimson King and his soldiers, the Low Men or "can-toi". The Hitler Brothers, two hoodlums who murder Jews, black people and homosexuals and carve swastikas on their victim's foreheads, are hired to find Callahan. They torture Rowan Magruder, who later dies of his wounds, in hopes of finding him.
They later find and attack Callahan, and carve a cross on his forehead, intending it to become a swastika. But before they can finish the swastika, Callahan is rescued by Calvin Tower and Aaron Deepneau, two men who figure prominently later in Roland's quest. The Hitler Brothers flee, and are later killed by the Low Men. Callahan is later lured into a building by Richard Sayre, a Low Man, and several vampires. Rather than being infected, he jumps out a window committing suicide.
After his death, he wakes up in the Way Station, where he encounters Walter o'Dim who gives him Black Thirteen, one of the "Bends" in the Wizard's Rainbow. Walter apparently does so in the hopes that it will kill Roland Deschain later in his journey. It transports him to the Doorway Cave outside Calla Bryn Sturgis, where he leads a new life and over the next five years attempts to teach the locals his religion.
Roughly every twenty-three years, the Callas are raided by Wolves, which turn out to be robotic soldiers serving the Crimson King. These Wolves steal half of the Calla's children, who return a few months later "roont". "Roont" (ruined) children are sterile, mentally handicapped, grow to be larger and stronger than other children, and die painfully at a younger age. When Roland and his ka-tet arrive, Callahan seeks their help to defeat the Wolves. During their stay, he shares with them his story since the events of 'Salem's Lot. The Wolves are defeated with the help of the ka-tet, but Susannah becomes possessed by the demon succubus known as Mia and escapes via the Doorway Cave. There, Callahan discovers a copy of the novel 'Salem's Lot, in which he is a major character, causing him to question his reality.
Song of Susannah[edit]
Immediately after the events of the previous book, the ka-tet regroups in Callahan's house, where they lay down their plans of action; Roland and Eddie would follow Susannah to New York while Jake and Callahan would be sent to Maine, in order to visit Calvin Tower (the man who saved Callahan from the Hitler Brothers) as well as Stephen King, in order to ensure that the remaining books are written. While there, Callahan planned on questioning King about his existence, but something goes wrong when the door is opened. The group is uncontrollably sucked through and separated, with Roland and Eddie ending up in Maine and Jake, Callahan, and Oy landing in New York City in the year 1999.
The trio lands violently in the middle of a busy street, and Oy is very nearly run down by a speeding cab. Preventing a potentially deadly response from an angry Jake, Callahan beats down the aggressive driver and bribes him (before Jake had the opportunity to shoot him), and they remove themselves from the scene.
Thanks to Jake's psychic connection with Susannah, they find the hotel where Susannah/Mia left Black Thirteen. They attempt to remove it safely, but it awakens and forces them both to their knees, urging them to murder each other. They nearly succumb to the suicidal whisperings, but Callahan uses his restored faith to silence the orb, putting it back into its slumber and saving their lives.
In search of a safe storage place, he and Jake move Black Thirteen to a long-term storage locker underneath the World Trade Center, with the hope that either it will stay dormant or Roland will at some point come to destroy it. (Rather aptly, they comment on how a building falling on it might destroy it, foreshadowing that the future terrorist attack will be the end of the crystal ball.
They go to the Dixie Pig, the restaurant stronghold of the Low Men and vampires where Susannah is being held, where they prepare to ambush the unknown forces within.
The Dark Tower[edit]



 Father Callahan from The Dark Tower. Art by Michael Whelan.
Jake and Callahan burst into the Dixie Pig, where they are greeted by a preponderance of Low Men and lesser vampires, as well as a gathering of "Type One" vampires (of which there are only a small number in existence).
Seeing the overwhelming odds against them, Callahan sends Jake on ahead to rescue Susannah while he draws their attention. After dispatching several Low Men and Type Ones, he is goaded to toss away both his cross and the sigul of the turtle (the magical ornament that incapacitates the Low Men). At this point Callahan realizes what he did not understand while facing Barlow in 'Salem's Lot; the power of his faith transcends such objects.
Eventually, once Jake reached relative safety, he was overwhelmed and swarmed by the vampires. Before the beasts can assault him, he once again escapes their clutches by shooting himself under the chin. Before taking his own life, he converses briefly with Roland, who bears witness to the scene across time and space. His final words to Roland and in life were a benediction to the Gunslinger: "May you find your Tower, Roland, and breach it, ...and may you climb to the top!"
Jake in particular was disturbed by his death, and the ka-tet mourned the loss of their friend and compatriot. When Roland finally made it to the Dark Tower, Callahan's is one of the names shouted by Roland as he walks through the field of roses, showing Roland's respect and love for the redeemed Priest.
Other Versions[edit]
Deleted Scene[edit]
The original draft of "Salem's Lot" originally depicted a different fate for Callahan. Rather than forced to drink Barlow's blood and leaving town damned, he marks the vampire with a knife before committing suicide. Furious, the vampire desecrates the priest's body, decapitating it and hanging it upside down. This scene was changed by King before he originally published the story, though it was included in a section of deleted scenes featured in the deluxe limited edition released by Centipede Press in 2005 and the later trade edition.
1979 Miniseries[edit]
In the 1979 Salems Lot miniseries, Father Callahan is featured only as a minor character. He is played by James Gallery. Callahan is first briefly seen officiating at the funeral of Danny Glick. Later, Ben Mears and Susan Norton have a brief interview with him where they try to convince him to join them against the evil in the town. Callahan is skeptical and makes a brief comment on how the Church's view of evil has changed. Soon afterwards, Callahan is at the Petrie house to talk to Mark and his parents about Mark's nocturnal experiences. Abruptly, with a surge of electricity and a tremor, the vampire Barlow enters, kills the Petrie parents, seizes Mark and challenges Callahan. The exchange, although shortened, is much the same as in the original novel, only with Straker, now also present, interpreting for the more monstrous and less articulate Barlow. Barlow lets Mark go in order to confront Callahan, who falteringly hold on to his crucifix while facing the vampire. Barlow plucks the Crucifix from the priest's hand, and Callahan is not seen again, presumably killed.
1995 radio drama[edit]
In the (1995) BBC radio-dramatization of the 'Salem's Lot novel, Callahan was voiced and played by Nigel Anthony.
2004 Miniseries[edit]



 James Cromwell as Father Callahan.
In the 2004 Salem's Lot miniseries, Father Callahan was portrayed by James Cromwell. The beginning of the film shows an event taking place after most of the story; Ben Mears enters a homeless shelter and sees Callahan giving out food.
Mears confronts Callahan and chases him up some stairs where they struggle. Mears pushes Callahan out a window; the two of them land on a police car. The rest of the film is told in flashback as Ben explains to a hospital orderly why he attacked Callahan.
Callahan is generally portrayed as in the novel (although there is a scene with him browsing what could be a Satanic porn site), but after Barlow forces him to drink his blood, Callahan does not leave town in shame. Instead, he takes Straker's place as Barlow's slave. Callahan later visits Matt Burke in the hospital and impales him with his cane.
As Ben Mears tells his story to the orderly, Callahan is suffocated with a pillow by Mark Petrie in the hospital.
These events contradict the last three Dark Tower books, which feature the return and redemption of Callahan.


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Kurt Barlow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kurt Barlow
RutgerBarlow1.jpg
Rutger Hauer as Barlow, climbing the celling in 'Salem's Lot (2004)

First appearance
'Salem's Lot
Last appearance
'Salem's Lot
Created by
Stephen King
Portrayed by
Reggie Nalder (1979)
Rutger Hauer (2004)
Information

Aliases
Breichen
Gender
Male
Occupation
Antique dealer
Kurt Barlow is a fictional character in Stephen King's 1975 horror novel, 'Salem's Lot. The character is a master vampire, who terrorizes the small Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot. Although his true age is unknown, he claims to be ancient, so old that he predates the founding of Christianity by centuries.


Contents  [hide]
1 History 1.1 'Salem's Lot
1.2 Dark Tower
2 Novel adaptations 2.1 1979 Miniseries
2.2 1995 radio drama
2.3 2004 Miniseries
3 Straker

History[edit]
'Salem's Lot[edit]
Before the events of the novel, it is suggested that Barlow's original name or alias was Breichen and that he was an Austrian nobleman. As Breichen, Barlow corresponded for twelve years with Hubert "Hubie" Marsten, a former Depression-era hitman living in Jerusalem's Lot, Maine. Marsten murdered his wife and committed suicide, but not before burning his letters with Barlow. The novel strongly implies that Marsten entered into an agreement with Barlow that allowed him to eventually come to Jerusalem's Lot.
In 1975, Barlow arrives the town of Jerusalem's Lot in a box shipped overseas by his human assistant, Richard Straker. The two take residence in Marsten's abandoned mansion, considered haunted by the townsfolk. Barlow and Straker pose as antiques dealers and open a shop in the town; Straker tends to the shop and handles business arrangements while Barlow is seldom seen in public. Straker kidnaps a local boy, Ralphie Glick, and makes a human sacrifice of the child in an appeasement ritual. Ralphie's brother, Danny, becomes a vampire and begins to infect other locals.
Barlow makes his first appearance in the book when he encounters Dud Rogers, a hunchbacked dump custodian. Barlow also comes upon Corey Bryant, a young telephone worker who has been tortured and ordered to leave town by Reggie Sawyer, the man Bryant was cuckolding. Knowing their desires, Barlow claims Rogers and Bryant as his first victims.
Danny Glick later pays a night-time visit to one of his schoolmates, Mark Petrie. However, Mark, an intelligent and resourceful child, identifies Glick as a vampire and drives him off with a plastic cross. Mark sneaks into the Marsten House the next day with Susan Norton, intending to kill Barlow. However, they are both captured by Straker; Susan is bitten by Barlow and becomes a vampire, but Mark manages to escape, mortally wounding Straker in the process. Straker is later found hanging upside down, having been drained of his blood by Barlow. Petrie informs Susan's boyfriend, writer Ben Mears, of Susan's fate, and becomes part of the effort to kill the town's vampires, together with Ben, the Catholic priest Father Callahan, doctor Jimmy Cody and the Lot's high school English teacher, Matt Burke. Susan visits Mark at night, entreating him to let her in as "there are lots more of us now" and promising to "kiss him all over." Mark drives her away, as he had Danny Glick, using the same plastic cross.
When Father Callahan and Mark head over to Mark's parents to explain the danger the family is in, the power is suddenly cut and Barlow appears. He kills Mark's parents by smashing their heads together, but does not infect them. Barlow then takes Mark hostage briefly. Callahan pulls out his cross in an attempt to drive him off, and for a time it works, until Barlow challenges him to throw away the cross. Callahan, not having faith enough to do so, is soon overwhelmed by Barlow, who takes the now-useless cross and snaps it in two, and Callahan is forced by Barlow to drink the vampire's blood.
By now Mark has escaped, part of Barlow's deal with Callahan, and has fled to warn the others. In the end of the book, Barlow is killed by Ben Mears and Mark Petrie in the basement of Eva Miller's boarding house.
Dark Tower[edit]
In the Dark Tower series, it is revealed that Barlow is a type one vampire, capable of hibernating for centuries and is highly intelligent and cunning. However, seems to appear more human than the other type one vampires.
Novel adaptations[edit]
1979 Miniseries[edit]



Reggie Nalder as Barlow, in Salem's Lot (1979).
In Salem's Lot (1979), Barlow was significantly different from his novel counterpart; while Kurt Barlow in the novel resembles an ordinary human being, in the 1979 mini-series, he is depicted with a Nosferatu-like appearance. Interestingly enough, in The Dark Tower, it is mentioned in the beginning that "Type One" vampires (such as Barlow) are horribly disfigured, mutant-like creatures whose teeth grow out so wildly that they cannot close their mouths.
This version of Barlow has a variety of supernatural powers, such as telekinesis; he opens a locked cell door with a wave of his hand, moves his own coffin along with the crate (which is unnaturally freezing cold to the touch) that it is inside, and causes the Petries' entire house to shake before entering.
1995 radio drama[edit]
In the 1995 BBC radio dramatization of 'Salem's Lot, Barlow was voiced by Doug Bradley.
2004 Miniseries[edit]
In the 2004 miniseries adapted from the novel, Barlow is portrayed by Rutger Hauer. He is a sophisticated, well-dressed older gentleman and, at first glance, his only difference from the rest of the community is his mildly anachronistic appearance (his dress and behavior seem to come from an earlier time). As opposed to the Nosferatu-type creature that Barlow was portrayed as in the 1979 mini-series, this portrayal is more in keeping with King's original source novel.
Straker[edit]
Richard Throckett Straker was Barlow's 'familiar' or human thrall. All of Barlow's business concerns are enacted by him. He bought the Marsten house and prepared the way for his master. After Mark Petrie wounded Straker during his escape from the Marsten house, Straker was drained of his blood by Barlow who was unable to resist feeding on his servant's freshly spilled blood. Barlow was furious at this turn of events, as he considered Straker the best servant he had ever possessed.



James Mason as Straker, in Salem's Lot (1979).
In Salem's Lot (1979), Straker was the main antagonist and a more prominent villain than Barlow, unlike the novel, and was alive until the climax of the mini-series. Though seemingly human, this version of Straker turns out to be something more with incredible strength, and it is implied he possesses some kind of supernatural power; he manages to summon a fast wind as he abducts Ralphie Glick in the woods and easily manages to lift Dr. Bill Norton off the ground by himself with little effort, as he impales him on a wall filled with animal horns. He was, however, still mortal and was shot and killed by Ben Mears on the stairs of the Marsten house, though he took several bullets to the abdomen and continued to move until finally succumbing to his wounds. Straker was English in this version (as played by James Mason) and came from London. His name, according to Constable Gillespie, was actually Richard K. Straker, though it remains unknown what the middle initial stood for.



Donald Sutherland as Straker, in 'Salem's Lot (2004).
In 'Salem's Lot (2004), Straker's name is once again changed, this time into Richard Thomas Straker. He was portrayed by Donald Sutherland. Although he again has more screen time than Barlow in this version, his role is somewhat reduced from that of the original mini-series. He is also never actually seen in any of the same scenes with Barlow. In this version, he is killed as in the novel and left hanging upside down from the rafters of the Marsten house, drained of his blood. However, it is unclear if he was killed by Barlow, since it is established in the 2004 mini-series that the house itself has some kind of evil entity dwelling inside it that had previously killed Hubie Marsten in a similar way.


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Characters
Kurt Barlow ·
 Father Callahan ·
 Vampires
 

Adaptations
Salem's Lot (1979 TV miniseries) ·
 Salem's Lot (1995 radio drama) – ·
 Salem's Lot (2004 TV miniseries)
 

Series
"Jerusalem's Lot" (prequel) ·
 One for the Road (sequel)
 

Related
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) – in-name only sequel to 1979 miniseries ·
 Jerusalem's Lot ·
 The Dark Tower series  (related works)
 
 

 


Categories: Characters in American novels of the 20th century
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'Salem's Lot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Salem's Lot)
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For other uses, see 'Salem's Lot (disambiguation).

'Salem's Lot
Salemslothardcover.jpg
First edition cover

Author
Stephen King
Country
U.S.
Language
English
Genre
Gothic fiction
Published
October 17, 1975 (Doubleday)
Media type
Print (Hardcover)
Pages
439
ISBN
978-0-385-00751-1
'Salem's Lot is a 1975 horror fiction novel written by the American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town where he lived as a boy between the ages of 9 through 13 (Jerusalem's Lot, or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine to discover that the residents are all becoming vampires. The town would be a location that would be revisited in the short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road", both from King's 1978 short story collection Night Shift. The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1976.[1] In 1987, it was nominated for the Locus Award as the All-Time Best Fantasy Novel.[2]
The title King originally chose for his book was Second Coming, but he later decided on Jerusalem's Lot. King stated the reason being that his wife, novelist Tabitha King, thought the original title sounded too much like a "bad sex story". King's publishers then shortened it to the current title, thinking the author's choice sounded too religious. 'Salem's Lot has been adapted into a television mini-series twice, first in 1979 and then in 2004. It was also adapted by the BBC as a seven part radio play in 1995.
In two separate interviews, King said that of all his books, 'Salem's Lot was his favorite. In his June 1983 Playboy interview, the interviewer mentioned that because it was his favorite, King was planning a sequel,[3] but he has more recently said on his website that since The Dark Tower series already picked up the story in the novels Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah, he felt there was no longer a need for one.[4] In 1987 he told Phil Konstantin in The Highway Patrolman magazine: "In a way it is my favorite story, mostly because of what it says about small towns. They are kind of a dying organism right now. The story seems sort of down home to me. I have a special cold spot in my heart for it!"[5]
The book is dedicated to King's daughter Naomi: "For Naomi Rachel King . . . promises to keep."


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Background
3 Illustrated edition
4 Critical reception
5 Media adaptations
6 References
7 External links

Plot[edit]
Ben Mears, a writer who grew up in Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, has returned home after twenty-five years. He quickly becomes friends with high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a passionate romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate.
Ben starts writing a book about the Marsten House, an abandoned house where he had a bad experience as a child. Mears learns that the Marsten House—the former home of Depression-era hitman Hubert "Hubie" Marsten—has been purchased by Kurt Barlow, an Austrian immigrant who has arrived in the Lot ostensibly to open a store. Barlow is on an extended buying trip; only his business partner, Richard Straker, is seen in public.
The duo's arrival coincides with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the death of his brother Danny, who becomes the town's first vampire, infecting such locals as Mike Ryerson, Randy McDougall, Jack Griffen, and Danny's own mother, Marjorie Glick. Danny fails, however, to infect Mark Petrie, who resists him successfully by holding a plastic cross in Danny's face. Within several weeks many of the townspeople are turned into vampires.
Ben Mears and Susan are joined by Matt Burke and his doctor, Jimmy Cody, along with young Mark Petrie and the local priest, Father Callahan, in an effort to fight the spread of new vampires. Susan is captured by Barlow before Mark has a chance to rescue her. Susan becomes a vampire, and is eventually staked through the heart by Mears, the man who loved her.
Mark's parents are killed next, but Barlow does not infect them, so they are later given a clean burial. Barlow holds Mark and Father Callahan hostage, but Father Callahan has the upper hand, securing Mark's release, agreeing to Barlow's demand that he toss aside his cross and face him on equal terms. However he delays throwing the cross aside and the once powerful religious symbol loses its strength until Barlow can not only approach Callahan but break the cross, now nothing more than two small pieces of plaster, into bits. Barlow says "Sad to see a man's faith fail him", Callahan then has to drink blood from Barlow's neck. Callahan resists but is forced to drink, leaving him in a netherworld, as Barlow has left his mark. When Callahan tries to re-enter his church he receives an electric shock, preventing him from going inside. Callahan never goes near another church again.
Jimmy Cody is killed when he falls from a rigged staircase and is impaled by knives set up by the one-time denizens of Eva Miller's boarding house, Mears' one-time residence, who have now all become vampires. Ben Mears and Mark Petrie succeed in destroying the master vampire Barlow, but are lucky to escape with their lives and are forced to leave the town to the now leaderless vampires.
The novel's prologue, which is set shortly after the end of the story proper, describes the Ben and Mark's flight across the country to a seaside town in Mexico, where they attempt to recover from their ordeal. Mark is received into the Catholic Church by a friendly local priest and confesses for the first time what they have experienced.
The epilogue has the two returning to the town a year later, intending to renew the battle. Ben, knowing that there are too many hiding places for the vampires, deliberately starts a brush fire in the woods near the town with the intent of destroying it and the Marsten House once and for all.
Background[edit]
While teaching a high school Fantasy and Science Fiction course at Hampden Academy, King was inspired by Dracula, one of the books covered in the class. "One night over supper I wondered aloud what would happen if Dracula came back in the twentieth century, to America. 'He'd probably be run over by a Yellow Cab on Park Avenue and killed,' my wife said. (In the Introduction to the 2004 audiobook recording that Stephen King read himself, he says it was he who said "Probably he'd land in New York and be killed by a Taxi Cab, like Margaret Mitchell in Atlanta", and it was his wife who suggested a rural setting for the book.[6]) That closed the discussion, but in the following days, my mind kept returning to the idea. It occurred to me that my wife was probably right — if the legendary Count came to New York, that is. But if he were to show up in a sleepy little country town, what then? I decided I wanted to find out, so I wrote 'Salem's Lot, which was originally titled Second Coming".[7]
King expands on this thought in his essay for Adeline Magazine, "On Becoming a Brand Name" (February 1980): "I began to turn the idea over in my mind, and it began to coalesce into a possible novel. I thought it would make a good one, if I could create a fictional town with enough prosaic reality about it to offset the comic-book menace of a bunch of vampires."
Politics during the time influenced King's writing of the story. The corruption in the government was a significant factor in the inspiration of the story. "I wrote 'Salem's Lot during the period when the Ervin committee was sitting. That was also the period when we first learned of the Ellsberg break-in, the White House tapes, the connection between Gordon Liddy and the CIA, the news of enemies' lists, and other fearful intelligence. During the spring, summer and fall of 1973, it seemed that the Federal Government had been involved in so much subterfuge and so many covert operations that, like the bodies of the faceless wetbacks that Juan Corona was convicted of slaughtering in California, the horror would never end ... Every novel is to some extent an inadvertent psychological portrait of the novelist, and I think that the unspeakable obscenity in 'Salem's Lot has to do with my own disillusionment and consequent fear for the future. "In a way, it is more closely related to Invasion of the Body Snatchers than it is to Dracula. The fear behind 'Salem's Lot seems to be that the Government has invaded everybody." [8]
King first wrote of Jerusalem's Lot in a his short story "Jerusalem's Lot" of the same title, penned in college (but published years later for the first time in the anthology collection Night Shift).
In his non-fiction book, Danse Macabre, King recalls a dream he had when he was eight years old. In the dream, he saw the body of a hanged man dangling from the arm of a scaffold on a hill. "The corpse bore a sign: ROBERT BURNS. But when the wind caused the corpse to turn in the air, I saw that it was my face - rotted and picked by birds, but obviously mine. And then the corpse opened its eyes and looked at me. I woke up screaming, sure that a dead face would be leaning over me in the dark. Sixteen years later, I was able to use the dream as one of the central images in my novel 'Salem's Lot. I just changed the name of the corpse to Hubie Marsten." King's paperback publisher bought the book for $550,000.
In a 1969 installment of "The Garbage Truck", a column King wrote for the University of Maine at Orono's campus newspaper, King foreshadowed the coming of 'Salem's Lot by writing: "In the early 1800s a whole sect of Shakers, a rather strange, religious persuasion at best, disappeared from their village (Jeremiah's Lot) in Vermont. The town remains uninhabited to this day."[9]
In addition to Dracula, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (the opening passage of which King employed as an epigraph for Part One of his novel) and Grace Metalious' Peyton Place are often cited as inspirations for 'Salem's Lot.
Illustrated edition[edit]



 'Salem's Lot: Illustrated Edition
In 2005, Centipede Press released a deluxe limited edition of 'Salem's Lot with black and white photographs by Jerry Uelsmann and the two short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road", as well as over fifty pages of deleted material. The book was limited to 315 copies, each signed by Stephen King and Jerry Uelsmann. The book was printed on 100# Mohawk Superfine paper, it measured 9 by 13 inches (23 cm × 33 cm), was over 4 1⁄4 in (108 mm) thick, and weighed more than 13 pounds (5.9 kg). The book included a ribbon marker, head and tail bands, three-piece cloth construction, and a slipcase. An unsigned hardcover edition limited to 600 copies, was later released. Both the signed and unsigned editions are sold out.[10] A trade edition was later released.
Critical reception[edit]
In his short story collection A Century of Great Suspense Stories, editor Jeffery Deaver noted that King “singlehandedly made popular fiction grow up. While there were many good best-selling writers before him, King, more than anybody since John D. MacDonald, brought reality to genre novels. He’s often remarked that 'Salem's Lot was 'Peyton Place meets Dracula,' and so it was. The rich characterization, the careful and caring social eye, the interplay of story line and character development announced that writers could take worn themes such as vampirism and make them fresh again." [11]
Media adaptations[edit]
Salem's Lot (1979) – television miniseries
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) – film and in-name only sequel to 1979 miniseries
Salem's Lot (1995) – radio drama
Salem's Lot (2004) – television miniseries
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "1976 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Archived from the original on 2009-07-25. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
2.Jump up ^ "Bibliography: 'Salem's Lot". isfdb Science Fiction. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
3.Jump up ^ "Playboy Interview: Stephen King". Playboy Philippines. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". StephenKing.com. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
5.Jump up ^ Phil Konstantin. "An Interview with Stephen King". Articles Written by Phil Konstantin. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
6.Jump up ^ Introduction to "'Salem's Lot", Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2004.
7.Jump up ^ StephenKing.com: 'Salems Lot
8.Jump up ^ "The Fright Report", Oui Magazine, January 1980, p. 108
9.Jump up ^ "The Stephen King Companion" Beahm, George Andrews McMeel press 1989, p. 267
10.Jump up ^ Official Centipede Press webpage
11.Jump up ^ A Century of Great Suspense Stories, edited by Jeffrey Deaver [Pg. 290]/Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (2001) ISBN 0425181928
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: 'Salem's Lot
Bookpoi[dead link] - Identification characteristics for first edition copies of Salem's Lot by Stephen King.
Salem's Lot at Worlds Without End


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Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot


Characters
Kurt Barlow ·
 Father Callahan ·
 Vampires
 

Adaptations
Salem's Lot (1979 TV miniseries) ·
 Salem's Lot (1995 radio drama) – ·
 Salem's Lot (2004 TV miniseries)
 

Series
"Jerusalem's Lot" (prequel) ·
 One for the Road (sequel)
 

Related
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) – in-name only sequel to 1979 miniseries ·
 Jerusalem's Lot ·
 The Dark Tower series  (related works)
 
 

 


Categories: 1975 novels
Novels by Stephen King
American vampire novels
Novels set in Maine
Doubleday (publisher) books






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