Hey gang. Sorry for
the last two days of delay on Vampire Grab Bag Week. I’ve been a bit under the weather so this
late addition will hopefully make up for the tardiness. This time around I thought we would head into
a small town where everyone knows everyone and a malevolent presence is slowly
worming its way into community of Jerusalem’s Lot and very few are the wiser so
get some holy water, sharpen a few crude stakes and ready the hammer to
strike. This is Salem’s Lot.
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| Can't believe Starsky wouldn't sell me the car. |
Ben Mears: Everything in Salem’s Lot is connected to that
house. You can see it from every part
of the town. It’s like a spoiler
throwing of an energy force.
Based on the novel Horror Guru Stephen King; our flick opens
in a battered church in Guatemala with a man and young teen filling small
bottles with holy water. A quick lens
flare on the bottle establishing a supernatural glow and the man informs the lad, ”They
found us again.”
Cut to Salem’s Lot Maine our same fellow is named Ben Mears
(David
Soul of Here Come the Brides, Starsky and Hutch, Magnum Force, In the Cold of
the Night and Tides of War) looking less shabby than he did in the
opening. Ben is a writer and wants to do a book on the Marsten House, an
ill-reputed house with the belief it is haunted. Mears attempts to rent the
house for a time but the realtor tells him that a Richard Straker (the
late James Mason of A Star Is Born, North by Northwest, Lolita, Child’s Play,
11 Harrowhouse and Voyage of the Damned) a unknown fellow that is
opening an antique shop in town is all the buzz because of his absent but often
mentioned partner Kurt Barlow are causing a stir in this dreary town. Not a whole lot to do in Salem’s I am
guessing.
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| Ah! The Tickle Monster is back and boy is he pissed!!! |
Yet as the days progress, people start disappearing or
turning up dead from an unidentifiable disease.
Ben and his girlfriend’s father Dr. Bill Norton (character actor Ed Flanders of
Bearcats!, McMillian & Wife, Mannix and The Trial of the Catonsville Nine)
dare to confirm they think the disease is actually vampirism. Both men feel the evil originates with
Straker and attempt to get the town sheriff in on this issue but he has packed
up and is leaving the town. Can Dr.
Norton and Mears handle this monstrosity on their own or will the whole town
fall to darkness?
What to comment on this film? Well let’s see…the dialog is
sharp and clever. People sound realistic and believable and our story has a
great pace setting thanks to TV series writer Paul Monash (Atom Squad, Operation Manhunt, Danger, Touch
of Evil and The Gun Runners) and our director is none other than Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Eaten Alive, Body Bags, Night Terrors and The Mangler) bringing
beautiful cinematography, excellent direction to his cast bringing their A game
to it.
The unfolding of this story is subtle, terrifying and
brilliant. Our vampire doesn’t make a
big bold entrance with fan fare but is sneaky and enigmatic thus to not raise
any suspicion. The makeup work on the
vampires has a certain elegance to it in the skin is pale; they have white
contacts to deem no soul is left in the body and frankly they look creepy.
Veteran character actors Marie Windsor
(Swamp
Diamonds, The Narrow Margin, The Killing,The Girl in Black Stockings and Island
Women), Elisha Cook Jr. (The
Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The Killing, The House on Haunted Hill, Rosemary’s
Baby, Blacula and Magnum, P.I.) and Fred Willard (Hustle, Silver Streak, Escape from Bogen
County, Roxanne, D.C. Follies, Access America and Lois & Clark)
really just knocked this creepy flick out of the ballpark and on to the small
screen. Saw this film as a boy and it
still scares the crap out of me.
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| A great place to raise your kids up...to be eaten. |
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