I was all of 8 years old when I saw SALEM’S LOT on television in 1979. I’m sure it is the reason for my love of and fascination with horror. It took my little brain, and even with the restrictions of television ratings, and terrified it. But, I think, because of Lance Kerwin as young Mark Petrie, it heartened me to see even a kid show an ability to resist the darkness that was descending.
Tobe Hooper will be forever known for his monster indie flick that changed the face of horror films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but tonight I thought we should take a look at his adaptation of Stephen King’s superb novel, SALEM’S LOT, because it had such an impact on me.
When David Soul’s Ben Mears returns to his hometown as a successful writer, he finds the town undergoing a terrifying transformation. Richard Straker, played by James Mason, has bought the Marsten House and is opening a store in town. This is when the deaths begin and the strange curse of vampirism begins to plague the town.
What follows is a battle between good and evil for the soul of the town and the lives of it’s people.
Wilma Deering, in the thrall of the Vorvon, the Space Vampire, had a voice that was at once freaky and weird and yet mesmerizing and sultry as hell. A small sample of it can be found at the other end of this link:
Perhaps the craziest appearance of “Dracula” to ever occur was in the show McCLOUD. Now I was never a viewer of this show during any of it’s seven seasons, but what i know of it is that it’s about a “cowboy” detective on special assignment in New York City.
The episode in question, the series’ 46th and final episode, features McCloud coming across a series of murders in which the victims have been drained of blood via bite marks on their necks. This leads our detective to a retired horror-film actor by the name of Loren Belasco who seems to live as Dracula. The actor in question is played by John Carradine!
Also, it’s worth noting that Reggie Nalder, who went on to star in Zoltan, Hound of Dracula AND Salem’s Lot as THE MASTER, plays Belasco’s creepy butler, Morris.
A fine and more in-depth review of this episode can be found here and they even give away the ending:
In their seventh episode of their second season, which aired on October 30, 1976, Starsky and Hutch must deal with a series of murders resembling the work of a vampire.
John Saxon playes Rene Nedasy, a crippled ballet teacher by day--bad-ass bloodsucker by night! But screw my description when you can watch the whole dang episode in FUNKO-VISION right here:
And then there was “Bart Simpson’s Dracula” from THE SIMPSONS’ TREEHOUSE OF HORROR IV, in which Coppola’s version of the Dracula story was parodied.
It involved Mr. Burns being a suspected vampire by Lisa and Bart and the story that follows.
But The Simpsons have enough fun that vampires and even different versions of Dracula sometimes show up, even if only in the tiniest of cameos:
Man, this vampires on TV thing could go on forever if I let it... speaking of which:
But that’s a story for another day... if I decide to do another part in this series entitled:
Out of the goodie bag tonight, kiddies, comes a grab-bag of television vampires! That’s right, they’re double-bagged! You want to be extra-safe when it comes to those fangy bastards!
I’m sure this is one where I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg, but here are the top television vampires or episodes featuring said creatures of the night that stick out in this viewer’s memory.
Originally scheduled to show for the first time in October of 1973 and directed by Dan Curtis and even scripted by Richard Matheson, this adaptation of the Dracula tale was delayed when then President Nixon (himself a suspected vampire) gave a prime-time speech about the resignation of Spiro Agnew. It then aired in February of 1974.
Caught this film about 6 or so years back and I have to say Palance's portrayal of the Count was scary--hell, the man was usually scary by himself anyway! This adaptation includes a bit of reincarnation theme that may have influenced Coppola's film. BTW, Coppola's company purchased the rights to this version of DRACULA around the time of the production of his own adaptation.
One note--Jack Palance's Dracula always looks as though someone is stabbing him in the ass with a gigantic wooden stake!
My main man Carl Kolchak came face to face with vampiric evil in his very first television appearance, THE NIGHT STALKER! Again, Richard Matheson comes into play as he wrote the script for this and the second Kolchak TV movie, THE NIGHT STRANGLER.
He would later go after a more sexy vamp in an episode of his short-lived regular series.
Though not a classic vampire, in the episode "The Man Trap"a salt-sucking vampire creature mesmerized the whole gang until it could get close enough...
to suck the salt out of folks--so much so that they'd die!
She was a real looker...
Written by Vince Gilligan, lately of BREAKING BAD fame, the "Bad Blood" episode of THE X-FILES was a very entertaining and unusual one! Told from first the point of view of Agent Scully and then from Mulder's perspective, it's really a tale of perception. Fans of BREAKING BAD might take note that an RV park plays a big role in the story.
And, then there's the original SALEM'S LOT--'Nuff Said!
I saw this for the first time as a boy and I must say that the little kid in his PJs scratching at the window was the first thing that creeped the crap out of me. Peter Pan, this kid ain't!
Toward the end of the mini-series, the beautiful Bonnie Bedelia was nearly enough to seduce our hero...
This undead hag was cause for the boys to get inventive in their methods!
Watching LET ME IN earlier this month reminded me again, how creepy I always thought children can be. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing personal against kids, but the thought of evil existing in such a small and innocent looking package is unnerving. A seed that was planted it me when I was still a kid!
What probably first made me think this was a television miniseries I saw when I had just turned seven years old--SALEM'S LOT. Although THE EXORCIST predates SALEM'S LOT by over five years and I was vaguely aware of the plot, it had yet to make an impression on me as, at this time, it predates our first VCR.
Having older brothers will immerse one into things sooner than one would naturally be into them and I'm sure this is the case with the film adaptation of Stephen King's SALEM'S LOT. In late November of 1979, CBS aired the Tobe Hooper film for the first time. And so, I sat down to watch it.
Anyway, SALEM'S LOT is about a writer (David Soul) who returns to the town he lived in until he was about ten years old to write a book about a house that haunted him then and well into his adulthood. There he finds a new owner of the house (James Mason) moving in and something evil stalking the night in the small town--a vampire! So we move on to the plague of vampirism spreading throughout the town, even to the children.
Here's where the creepiness of kids comes into play for me. One character's little brother has died, killed by a vampire, and soon returns to life as one of the undead. He comes flying up to his brother's window and scratching at it. Glowing eyes, mouth full of fangs and in the pajamas he was buried in only hours before. And he comes tapping at the window, begging to be let in. And the older brother, having been mesmerized sheepishly opens the window for his little Peter Pan-like little brother. We all know what happens next. But that one scene did it for me.
That little kid was much more scary to me because I'd seen the obvious monsters in the form of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, swamp monsters of all kinds, weirdos, aliens, zombies, etc., but that this boy who was pretty much my age could be pure evil just plain freaked me out. And those pajamas did too. I mean, here we have a film in which there is a full grown Nosferatu-looking vampire killing parents and priests, women and children; and I'm worried about a little kid who has to scratch at the window to be let in to do any harm. And, I suppose that was the trick of it.
Here we have Tobe Hooper talking a bit about his film...
I suppose it was re-aired in late October somewhere as a three hour movie according to this advertisement. I'm pretty sure it was released theatrically in Britain, as well.
Some fine examples of bloggery on the subject of SALEM'S LOT: horrordigest
