Movies - 'Salem's Lot

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'Salem's Lot is a horror novel by Stephen King, written in 1975. It was King's second published novel, and of all his early works, this novel has had the largest influence on his later works. The book was adapted into a 1979 TV movie of the same name. A sequel to that movie, A Return to Salem's Lot
, was made in 1987. A TV movie based more closely on the novel than the original film was made in 2004.

The original title thought by King was Second Coming, but was later renamed Jerusalem’s Lot, and was further shortened to Salem’s Lot by the publishers Doubleday as they felt it sounded too religious.

Previously, King had written a short story called "Jerusalem's Lot", which takes place in the 19th century but provides some back-story for the setting of the novel.

King wrote a follow-up short story about vampires in 'Salem's Lot called "One for the Road". Both "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road" are published in the collection Night Shift.

In a 1999 preface to the book, King discussed the importance of Dracula
and formulated a theory that Lord of the Rings was "just a slightly sunnier version of Stoker's Dracula, with Frodo playing Jonathan Harker, Gandalf playing Abraham Van Helsing and Sauron playing the Count himself."
Plot
Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in the fictional town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine (or "The Lot", as the locals call it), 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 bad experience with it as a child. 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 yet been seen. Their arrival co-incides with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the suspicious death of his brother Danny. Over the course of the book, the town is slowly taken over by vampires, while Ben, Matt, Susan, and a few other residents of the Lot try to prevent this from happening. In the end Ben and young Mark Petrie succeed in killing Straker and destroying the master vampire Barlow, but, lucky to escape with their lives, are forced to leave the town to the crop of newly-created vampires. An epilogue has the two returning to the town a year later, suggesting that they intend to renew the battle, but allusions in King's later writings leave this an open question.

'Salem's Lot is a combination of psychological thriller and the classic horror genre, making references to Bram Stoker's Dracula
at several points and sometimes replicating its storyline.
Limited/Illustrated Edition
In 2005, Centipede Press released a deluxe limited edition of Salem's Lot with black and white photographs, the two short stories Jerusalem's Lot and One for the Road, and over fifty pages of deleted scenes. It weighed over 13 pounds, was 9 x 13 inches and over 4 1/4" thick. A trade edition was later released.

The deleted scenes included:

A different name for the town and the vampire; 'Salem's Lot is now Momson and Barlow is now Sarlinov.
A conversation between Ben and Susan about the true nature of evil.
An extended scene of Straker delivering his 'sacrifice' to his dark father.
Barlow's letter to the protagonists is now a cassette recording. A vampirified Susan is with him.
A more gruesome fate for Jimmy Cody. In the original manuscript, he is impaled by knives in a trap set by the vampires. Here, he is devoured alive by rats.
Father Callahan goes out differently. Rather than forced to drink Barlow's blood and leaving town damned, he marks the vampire with a knife before comitting suicide. Furious, the vampire desecrates the priest's body, decapitating it and hanging it upside down.

Legacy

'Salem's Lot was the first of King's books to have a huge cast of characters, a trait that would appear again in later books such as The Stand. The town of Jerusalem's Lot would also serve as a prototype for later fictional towns of King's writing, namely Castle Rock, Maine and Derry, Maine.

King reused the character Father Callahan, the local priest whose faith falters in the presence of Barlow, in his The Dark Tower series. He appears in Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower.

Media adaptations

Salem's Lot
(1979)
Salem's Lot - BBC radio production (19??)
'Salem's Lot (2004)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for 'Salem's Lot ]

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