Movie review: ‘Salem’s Lot’

FloridaGator80

I’ve written several reviews of movies that were “made for TV” – a genre that has become truly great through the efforts of HBO, etc. No longer is being “made for TV” a synonym for “cheap.” Now, I’ll look at yet another: The TV miniseries that you can either watch in its entirety or has been blended into a movie format. “Salem’s Lot” from 1979 and was originally a miniseries for CBS and is a tale of a vampire. It has solid acting, excellent direction from one of the legends of screen horror and only its dated TV cinematography shows it age. This one’s good! It’s worth your while to find it.

‘Salem’s Lot’
(1979; 112 minutes; rated PG; directed by Tobe Hooper and starring James Mason, David Soul and Lance Kerwin)

REAL FRIGHT CAN BE FOUND ON TV, TOO

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some additional trivia and comments as well as updating links on Jan. 16, 2016. I again expanded the review on Oct. 23, 2022.)

The 1970s saw a re-emergence of the horror film as a real attraction, what with the blockbuster TV movie “The Night Stalker” in 1972 (click here for my review) to Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in 1974 and the gold standard from 1978: John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” the seminal horror film that brought you Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis and the iconic masked killer “Michael Myers” (click here for my review).

(CLICK here … for all my reviews of horror movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of movies)
(CLICK here … for a chronological list of my reviews)

Well, here’s another good one from the 1970s: the 1979 vampire story “Salem’s Lot.” It is based on a Stephen King novel of the same name and that is one of his best works, along with “Christine,” which was also turned into a film of the same name – click here for my review of that one). “Salem’s Lot” was originally a TV miniseries since filmmakers decided a film couldn’t fit it all in a movie, but it does with this cut (which is edited down from the original four-hour production).

Only a bit shabby production value (more about the TV effort than the date) detracts for “Salem’s Lot,” but only for a moment. The cast is good and it has the outrageously talented horror director Tobe Hooper at the helm – he of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” which had a controversial level of gore and cruel violence in 1974 that would easily be eclipsed by the end of the decade.

The story is streamlined from King’s novel “’Salem’s Lot” (note the apostrophe before the “s” – it’s an abbreviation of the movie town’s real name of “Jerusalem’s Lot”), which was published in 1975. A writer returns to his hometown because he is writing about a house overlooking the town. He believes it is a repository of evil and draws evil people and things. Of course, a vampire is coming to town and is ably assisted by his familiar (a human who does a vampire’s bidding) who’s opening an antique store and laying the groundwork – home base, etc. – for his “master.”

Things get rolling in the fictional Maine town of Salem’s Lot with the familiar, who is played by the very sophisticated James Mason, kidnapping a boy as a present to the just-arrived vampire and the other killings begin immediately. The writer, ably played by TV’s “Starsky & Hutch’s” David Soul, has his allies who can’t believe what’s happening (even the town constable flees as the evil mounts) and he ultimately defeats the vampire with the help of one of the town’s teenagers, but they both go on the run because they burn down the vampire’s lair and that act will bring out other vampires to avenge him.

“Salem’s Lot” is packed with suspense and Hooper handles it well and does a good job popping up the vampire’s truly frightening mug (it’s a beast in the “Nosferatu” vein rather than the more traditional well-dressed man described in the novel) and the young vampires floating in the air and scratching at windows is truly frightening.

Here’s a look at the main cast:

  • Soul, who plays novelist “Ben Mears,” does a good job of conveying his character’s inner turmoil translated to a moodily calm exterior and an ultimately tough-as-nails soul (no pun intended). He carries the production nicely and has especially good scenes with a youthful Bonnie Bedelia, who plays love interest “Susan Norton.” Soul has also been in Clint Eastwood’s “Magnum Force” (click here for my review) as well as dozens of TV roles that are mostly movies. His most recognizable effort was as “Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson” along with Paul Michael Glazer as “Det. Dave Starsky” in the iconic TV series “Starsky and Hutch.”
  • A three-time Oscar nominee, Mason as “Richard K. Straker” does an excellent turn as the cold, distant helper of the vampire. He is an actor of the classical mode and his sophistication is the trademark of his character here. He comes out of his shell once the vampire is on the loose and his menace is palpable, although his death scene doesn’t appear up to his usual standard. Mason is a three-time Oscar nominee and has been in “North by Northwest” as well as “The Boys from Brazil” with Laurence Olivier (click here for my review). He was less effective in the not-too-good “ffolkes” with Roger Moore (click here for my review). He was nominated for “A Star is Born” from 1954, “Georgy Girl” from 1966 and “The Verdict” from 1982. Mason died at 74 in 1984 of a heart attack.
  • Lance Kerwin plays “Mark Petrie,” a high school boy who is into magic and horror. He has monster models in his room and was a goth before his time (but without the black clothes or ink). Kerwin does an OK job here, but he’s a bit overeager. His breakout role was on TV’s “James at 16” and he’s also been in “Enemy Mine” and dozens of TV appearances.
  • Bedelia is solid in her role here as Soul’s love interest and she has a final surprise at the end of the movie. However, the role isn’t developed enough for her to show the talent she exhibited in the wonderful drag racing biography “Heart Like a Wheel” or as Bruce Willis’ wife in “Die Hard” and its sequel (click here for my review of the original). Bedelia has also been in another King adaptation called “Needful Things” and the remake of “Gloria” with Sharon Stone.

The two best supporting actors after Bedelia are Geoffrey Lewis and George Dzundza.

  • Lewis plays cemetery worker “Mike Ryerson” and he does good with a New England accent and becomes one of the first turned vampires. He does a good job with this too, especially the scene where he comes back to a friend’s house after fully becoming a vampire. Lewis has also been in several Clint Eastwood efforts, including “Every Which Way but Loose” (click here for my review) and its sequel as well as being in “The Lawnmower Man.” Lewis was also in the sci-fi/horror effort called “Night of the Comet” (click here for my review). He died at 79 in 2015 of a heart attack after notching 227 acting credits, including two after his death, over a career spanning six decades with the first in 1963.
  • Dzundza is a veteran supporting actor and he’s very good here as the cuckold “Cully Sawyer,” who gets revenge on his wife and her boyfriend before being the vampire’s first victim. Dzundza has been in excellent films from “The Deer Hunter” to “Basic Instinct” and was especially effective as the tough, cruel Russian tank commander in “The Beast” (also called “The Beast of War”) set during the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. I thought he did a solid job with a tiny, uncredited role in the crime drama “No Man’s Land” from 1987 with Charlie Sheen (click here for my review).

The vampire “Kurt Barlow” is played by Reggie Nalder in an uncredited role. He doesn’t do much in the acting mode since all of his work is on the physical side, but he has also been in “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and in roles on TV shows such as “Fantasy Island” and “Battlestar Galactica.” Nalder, whose career’s first role was in 1946, was 72 when he made “Salem’s Lot” and he had three more roles before his death from cancer in 1991 at the age of 84.

“Salem’s Lot” was originally a TV miniseries, so it cannot be graded against the movies released in theaters in 1979. However, it was a critical success and has maintained that status over the years. A TNT miniseries remake was done in 2004, released on TNT and starred Rob Lowe (it wasn’t as good as the original). In theaters in 1979, the No. 1 film was “Kramer vs. Kramer” with $106.2 million in ticket sales and the No. 2 film was the horror flick “The Amityville Horror” and it brought in $86.4 million. Here are the other films from 1979 that I’ve reviewed:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

© Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples, 2016, 2022.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without
express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner
is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that
full and clear credit is given to Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples
with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Published by FloridaGator80

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.