Salem's Lot (DVD)

Salem's Lot is a horror film and also extended to become a miniseries. It's adapted from the short story by Stephen King and is directed by Tobe Hooper, who horror fans may know also directed "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and "Poltergeist".

Ben Mears (David Soul) is an author who is returning to his old home, Salem's Lot, to write a book about the town's supposed hanunted house, Marsten House. He is quickly seen ...
...also another new face in Salem's Lot, an antiques dealer by the name of Straker (James Mason) whose Boss, Mr. Barlow, no-one has ever seen. Soon after Ben's arrival people start to go missing and dying from mysterious causes, and everyone is baffled as to what is going on. Meanwhile, Ben meets a school teacher, Susan (Bonnie Bedelia), and they fall for each other. Her father is also a doctor at the local hospital so he can keep up with the sinister ... more

Salem's Lot is a horror film and also extended to become a miniseries. It's adapted from the short story by Stephen King and is directed by Tobe Hooper, who horror fans may know also directed "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and "Poltergeist".

Ben Mears (David Soul) is an author who is returning to his old home, Salem's Lot, to write a book about the town's supposed hanunted house, Marsten House. He is quickly seen as suspicious and is kept an eye on by the police chief. But there is also another new face in Salem's Lot, an antiques dealer by the name of Straker (James Mason) whose Boss, Mr. Barlow, no-one has ever seen. Soon after Ben's arrival people start to go missing and dying from mysterious causes, and everyone is baffled as to what is going on. Meanwhile, Ben meets a school teacher, Susan (Bonnie Bedelia), and they fall for each other. Her father is also a doctor at the local hospital so he can keep up with the sinister goings on. Soon everything comes to a head, people start seeing vampires and we find out Barlow is the original, and he and Straker are in cahoots. So Ben, the doctor, and a young horror fan must go to the old Marsten House and kill Barlow once and for all!

The film starts off quite slow, as we are introduced to all the characters and get a little bit of history about the town, it does speed up a little and gets quite exciting. Little things start happening and they snowball until everyone just leaves town as they don't want them or their family to be the next victims. Marsten House is a very intimidating place, even inside one of the houses or on one of the streets you can almost feel the presence of the house there, overshadowing the whole town.

Mr. Barlow, the vampire, is very traditional looking. He reminds me of Nosferatu, the vampire from the silent film of the same name. The make up is good, everyone looks horrific and scary but unlike Mr. Barlow his victims still look human so the transformation is made all the more tragic.

The acting is great, Mason (who seems to have taken more than a few acting tips from Vincent Price) is very sinister as Straker, who from the beginning seems to have an ulterior motive. David Soul is a good fit for the writer who gets caught up in this nightmare, inquiring about the disappearances until finally at the end deciding what he must do, and the rest of the cast perform admirably.

Overall a good, tense horror film, albeit a little slow at times. Well worth watching though, and well worth four stars. 

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