Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot (also known as Salem's Lot: The Movie, Salem's Lot: The Miniseries and Blood Thirst) is a 1979 American two-part vampire miniseries based on the 1975 horror novel Salem's Lot by Stephen King. Directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul and James Mason, the plot concerns a writer who returns to his hometown and discovers that its citizens are turning into vampires. Salem's Lot combines elements of the vampire film and haunted house subgenres of horror. After Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Salem's Lot, several filmmakers developed screenplays but none proved satisfactory. Producer Richard Kobritz decided that, due to the novel's length, Salem's Lot would work better as a television miniseries than as a feature film. He and screenwriter Paul Monash followed the general outline of King's novel but changed some elements, including turning the head vampire Kurt Barlow from a cultured human-looking villain into a speechless demonic-looking monster. With a budget of $4 million, principal photography began on July 10, 1979, in Ferndale, California. Salem's Lot first aired on CBS in November 1979 and received positive reviews. In the years following its broadcast, it has accumulated a cult following and has had a significant impact on the vampire genre. It was followed by a 1987 theatrical sequel, A Return to Salem's Lot, directed by Larry Cohen. Plot At a church in Guatemala, a man and a boy, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, are filling small bottles with holy water. When one of the bottles begins to emit an eerie supernatural glow, Mears tells Mark that "they've found us again." Knowing an evil presence is nearby, they decide to stay to fight it.