SALEM’S LOT [1979 / 2016] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] One of the Last Truly Great Gothic Vampire Film! The Ultimate in Terror!
The frightening original, uncut full-length version of Stephen King's classic vampire novel “Salem’s Lot.”
Sinister events brings together a writer Ben Mears [David Soul] fascinated with an old hilltop house; a suave antiques dealer Richard Straker [James Mason] whose expertise goes beyond bric-a-brac; and the dealer’s mysterious, pale-skinned “partner” Kurt Barlow [Reggie Nalder] in ‘SALEM’S LOT’ – a blood curdling shocker based on a Stephen King’s novel and directed by Tobe Hooper [‘POLTERGEIST’].
FILM FACT: After Warner Bros. acquired the rights to “Salem's Lot,” the studio sought to turn the 400-page novel by Stephen King into a feature film, while still remaining faithful to the source material. Producer Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter Robert Getchell, and writer/director Larry Cohen all contributed screenplays but none proved satisfactory. "It was a mess," Stephen King said. "Every director in Hollywood who's ever been involved with horror wanted to do it, but nobody could come up with a script." The project was eventually turned over to Warner Bros. Television and producer Richard Kobritz decided Salem's Lot would work better as a television miniseries than as a feature film format due to the novel's length. Television writer Paul Monash was contracted to write the teleplay, having previously produced the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel “Carrie” and worked on the television series “Peyton Place” and as such was familiar with writing about small towns. A screening of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ [1974] resulted in Richard Kobritz selecting Tobe Hooper as director. Unable to find a house in Ferndale that resembled the Marsten House from the book, an estimated $100,000 was spent on constructing a three-story facade over an already-existing house on a hillside, overlooking Ferndale and the Eel River Valley. Designed by Mort Rabinowitz, it took 20 days to build. Another $70,000 was spent on constructing the interior set of the house which proved even more difficult for designer Mort Rabinowitz, who also designed the building of Richard Straker's antique shop and the small village in Guatemala where the beginning and end of the miniseries is set. With a budget of $4 million, principal photography began on July 10, 1979, in the Northern California town of Ferndale, with some scenes filmed at the Burbank studios. Filming officially wrapped on the 29th August, 1979.
Cast: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, Julie Cobb, Elisha Cook Jr., George Dzundza, Ed Flanders, Clarissa Kaye-Mason, Geoffrey Lewis, Barney McFadden, Kenneth McMillan, Fred Willard, Marie Windsor, Barbara Babcock, Bonnie Bartlett, Joshua Bryant, James Gallery, Robert Lussier, Brad Savage, Ronnie Scribner, Ned Wilson, Reggie Nalder (uncredited) and Ernest Phillips (uncredited)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Producers: Anna Cottle, Richard Kobritz and Stirling Silliphant
Screenplay: Paul Monash (screenplay) and Stephen King (novel)
Composer: Harry Sukman
Cinematography: Jules Brenner (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
French: 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
German: 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
Spanish [Castilian]: 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
Spanish [Latin]: 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
Portuguêse: 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Spanish [Castilian], Spanish [Latin], Portuguêse, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish and Thai
Running Time: 183 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Warner Home Video
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘SALEM’S LOT’ [1979] was a cult horror TV series that is a real creepy spooky terror that still haunts me today, ever since I viewed it for the first time when it was broadcast on television in the United Kingdom in 1979. Directed by Tobe Hooper, a Novel written by Stephen King, with a collaborated Screenplay by Paul Monash and starring David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Reggie Nalder, and Fred Willard. In 1979 it was released as a television miniseries and broadcast in November 1979. This made-for-television film scared the hell out of me when I was much younger, and it has done it again, even though I am much older. Some films stick with you for whatever reason, and this one has done so ever since I watched each episode each week. I have a definite soft spot for small town horror, especially from the masterful pen of Stephen King, and David Saul adds to the scenario as he goes about finding out what is behind all the mysterious happenings in Salem Lot, so now as an adult I still feel this horror film genre TV series is still a fantastic piece of genuine sheer terror of delight. Loved it then and loved it even more now, but most importantly, it can now be seen in one full glorious 183 minutes, without waiting for each episode to be broadcast each week.
But what of the actual scenario plot of ‘SALEM’S LOT.’ Here we find a Young novelist Ben Mears [David Soul] returning home to Salem’s Lot after many years away and is very disturbed by the strange behaviour of its people and the mysterious goings on. The Young novelist begins to believe that the source of the trouble may be the eerie old Marsten House that overlooks the town. Can he uncover the mystery with the help of a young horror fan?
Clearly, a novel can sometimes be better than the film itself, that’s usually a definite guarantee, but for a television series film like ‘SALEM’S LOT’ was a massive undertaking and was well worth the effort. The film begins with Ben Mears [David Soul] a semi-successful writer returning to the town Salem’s Lot and as he drives his Jeep up the winding road to the Marsten House and seems instantly hypnotized. Again my love for hometown horror films is so great that this scene gave me the spooky goose bumps even then, especially with ominous Marsten House overlooks the small town, casting a shadow of fear and distrust over the entire city.
Ben Mears returns to his hometown to work on a book, a book that questions the house and if evil is something that can live in the very floorboards and shingles of a structure. If there was ever a home that met those requirements, it’s the Marsten House. This TV film gets an “A” plus from me, especially for casting the actors, location and direction, providing the viewer with a truly sinister reason to be very wary of such towns and landmarks. Of course, like so many of Stephen King’s horror films, a stranger arrives at the town and by his very newness, the town has reason to suspect him. It’s usually for a good reason since Richard Straker [James Mason] plays the evil’s lackey on an expert level, with sinister over tones.
If this is all new to you, then of course I don’t want to spoil the story, so I’ll stop with any more details. Suffice to say the TV film is as good as it gets for small town horror genre; and if you have to throw in the scenario of ‘Burnt Offerings’ if you need a reminder of how evil horror can be. Filled with every type of archetype of small, rumour-churning town can host, they all come out of the woodwork at some point in the TV film. The drunk, the adulterer, the old money, and the doctor etc. Director Tobe Hooper provides an expert expansion of the town itself, using its looming shadows and rugged profile to fill you with fear. Coffins, mysterious packages from Europe, this has it all. If you want to enjoy the film on a new level, I suggest reading Stephen King’s book first. Some characters and sequences are omitted and others added to help the flow – it’s nothing unforgivable, but the novel goes much deeper into all the characters you see in this uncut full-length TV film.
If I can say anything about ‘SALEM’S LOT,’ it is how effective the impending vampirism of the Glick kids becomes. The scene of the vampire Glick floating up to his brother’s closed bedrooms windows is the very definition of real scary horror. Be ready for just over a three-hour experience if you decide to pull the plug on this one. It’s long, but so utterly worth it. This gets my definite high marks for being such a huge part of my early horror development, but it’s a great piece by itself and so purchase this Blu-ray and turn out the lights for this one, as it sure will scare the living daylights out of you. But I would sincerely argue, the floating Glick brothers, witnessed through windows, summoning their unsuspecting victims in a soupy backlit fog, is as powerful and haunting an image as any yet achieved in any horror movie, far more terrorizing than most of the elaborate devices of today might conjure.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Warner Home Video has finally released this brilliant horror genre for the first time with a Blu-ray 1080p encoded image release and now the wait is over. I have read other reviews where they say, “it is on par with films from the era,” but I totally and utterly disagree, as it definitely adds to its creepy scenario genre look. Sure, TV films from 1979 era will not have the highest production quality and I am sure the source was not in the best of shape, but there is no way that ‘SALEM’S LOT’ looks as good as other HD masters from that era. There is some slight grain throughout the TV film, but it is not consistent and affects only certain scenes, but adds to the very scary creepy scenario and the TV film is fairly dark in some places, that always annoys me, as I like to see what is going on, but this only happens occasionally. Despite it being broadcast in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio does not bother me, as it stays true to the original TV broadcast source, as Widescreen Televisions were not even thought of to ever be around in the future, so you should be aware that this TV film will of course have black bars on the left and right of the image. Overall it is not a bad effort on the part of Warner Home Video and it looks as good as or even better than most TV special productions from the era.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Warner Home Video gives us sadly only a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, which is a shame they could not have upgraded it for a modern audience. ‘SALEM’S LOT’ sounds a lot better than it looks. The dialogue was pretty clear, and although it lacks a strong bass track and immersive surround sound track, the audio experience was slightly above average. The stereo audio sounded excellent, and I was impressed with the amount of bass being pushed even without the subwoofer. I love having a solid bass track for horror film, as it just adds to a more scarier experience, but thankfully if you have a decent pair of speakers they will substitute well enough for the subwoofer action. The music score is above average for a television production, but sounds a bit dynamically compressed compared to modern productions.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary by Director Tobe Hooper: Here Tobe Hooper introduces himself and welcomes you to this audio commentary and informs us that he directed the TV film ‘SALEM’S LOT.’ This is the best feature of this Blu-ray disc and Tobe Hooper is actually very cool. Director Tobe Hooper rides solo on this brand-new and surprisingly informative commentary where the filmmaker shares various memories and anecdotes from the set. One of those anecdotes he informs us where the scene is inside the church, which Tobe informs us that is somewhere in Los Angeles, but cannot remember the exact location. Tobe Hooper talks about the Marsten House and how he wanted to emulate the same spooky filmic look like the house that appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock film ‘Psycho,’ to really makes you feel the house is evil and a very unfriendly effect. Tobe Hooper initially wanted to make ‘SALEM’S LOT’ as an actual film with a running time of about 180 minutes, the studio executives turned him down as Tobe Hooper felt it needed that time to really tell the story, so a compromise came about where they offered Tobe Hooper to film a four hours TV mini-series and so history was made and Tobe Hooper excepted the challenge. But when Tobe Hooper read the Stephen Kings book, he again realised that it could never be a two hour film, because the scenario was too massive to cram in 120 minutes. Tobe Hooper talks about some of the actors that were involved in the project and gives great praise to James Mason, who he thought was a brilliant actor and also a really thoughtful wonderful man, who was very easy to work with and was also very inventive, and was also good at putting new ideas towards Tobe Hooper. Tobe Hooper also talks about David Soul and at the time he was a very big popular star in several Television series and felt he would be ideal in this TV mini-series and was made for the part, but Tobe Hooper also informs that when they walked from the dressing room to the set, they had a massive crowd demanding and clamouring for David Soul’s autograph and nearly held everything up as they blocked their way to the set, but even after the TV mini-series was finished Tobe stayed a good friend to David Soul and would hang out with him between shooting scenes. We find out the filming of the inside of the Antique shop was on the Warner Bros. film set and all the object props you see dotted around the shop were originally used in old Warner Bros. old silent films/ When you see them load the crate into the truck and they complain about it being very cold to touch, Tobe Hooper comments that is when the evil has finally arrived and why he had those shots filmed in blue and green ambience colours and was the moment of introducing the evil Vampire has arrived on the scene in Salem’s Lot town and a way to make you feel uncomfortable and uneasy. When you see the young woman who has invited her boss to have a bit of hanky panky and the husband burst into the bedroom with the shot gun to threaten his wife and her boss menacingly, when the TV mini-series was shown in America it was edited down to two hours, but a foreign company came to the rescue to restore this TV mini-series full and uncut with this Blu-ray disc, and of course Tobe Hopper was so pleased you are getting to see it as it should be viewed, but also mentions that in the Stephen King novel, when the husband makes the man put the barrel of the gun in his mouth, he has his head blown off, but Tobe Hooper felt this was far too graphic and what we see he feels is a much better solution to the scene scenario. When you see the Vampire boy appear at the window floating, Tobe Hooper informs us that he was attached to wires and we are seeing this scene with the film in reverse and wanted to make the scene really scary and realistic as possible and I think it works beautifully, as Tobe Hooper feels previous Vampire films have not look very realistic or even real. When we see the funeral service of the young boy, Tobe Hooper informs us that it was filmed in a place called Ferndale Cemetery, which is situated in the City of Humboldt County, California, United States and says it was quite an extraordinary place. When you see the coffin being covered in dirt in the dugout grave, this was filmed on the Warner Bros. film set and as to when you see the boy who sits bolt upright and bites the neck of the man, and Tobe Hooper informs us that you are seeing this in reverse, as it would have been much more difficult for the child actor to sit bolt upright. Tobe Hooper talks about ‘SALEM’S LOT’ in saying it was at the time the most expensive TV mini-series ever broadcast and that the Marsten House was built specially, but was built over the original house that is still there today and Tobe Hooper also tells us that all the cast and crew were very supportive of having ‘SALEM’S LOT’ last for the full 183 minutes, as it could never be crammed into 120 minutes and one of the greatest supporter of the TV mini-series was the actor David Soul, as he thought it was a great project, and especially for David Soul to get away from his character in the TV series ‘Starsky & Hutch [April 1975 to May 1979]. Tobe Hooper also informs us that when David Soul sets the house on fire, you only get to view “flame bars,” as there was no way they could of set the actual house on fire, but when you see an actual house going up in flames, Tobe informs us that this was stock “B” footage roll from a Elia Kazan’s film ‘The Arrangement’ [1969], which starred Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway, Deborah Kerr, Richard Boone and Hume Cronyn. Although you got lots of spots of silence, which are sprinkled throughout, the track is an easy listen for fans of this TV mini-series with interesting info on the technical details and the TV's legacy. Tobe Hooper is a very screen specific with this audio track from the gravel voiced director that informs a lot of interesting and informative behind-the-scenes anecdotes over the course of just over the three hour running time, but at times I found his voice slightly uncomfortable, as I felt he was ill at the time of the recording. There are long gaps of silence throughout, but when he is speaking, Tobe Hooper manages to avoid repeating himself or lapsing into narration. Even when he is offering predictable praise for his cast and crew, he manages to interweave it with interesting anecdotes from before, during, and after the production of the series. For those not familiar with Tobe Hooper, his filmography is extensive, especially in the horror genre. Tobe Hooper was at the helm of the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,’ ‘Poltergeist,’ ‘The Funhouse,’ and ‘Invaders from Mars.’ Yeah, Tobe Hooper has done a lot, and the audio commentary is very interesting considering his vast experience and especially the love for the genre of this spooky horror experience. As we near the end of the TV mini-series and the informative audio commentary, Tobe Hooper says, “Thank you very much for listening, I hope you enjoyed the film, as well as I enjoyed making it.”
Theatrical Trailer [1979] [1080i] [1.78:1] [3:23] This is the Original International Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘SALEM’S LOT.’ This presents the promo for the European theatrical release of the film and is a brilliant very scary trailer, that really sets you up for the very scary TV event of 1979, but very surprising it is in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, so obviously it was filmed that way, so why was this Blu-ray not presented in this aspect ratio, very strange.
Finally, Tobe Hooper's ‘SALEM’S LOT’ still haunts my imagination with several scenes which remain effectively creepy and nightmarish and is a total MUST for all horror fans of this particular style of classic horror genre, who I guess will definitely want to pick up this brilliant Blu-ray disc, as the price itself is hard to beat for a new 1080p HD Master release and only previously released on an inferior DVD. The make-up and costumes are impressive, and the visuals are not quite up to film quality, but we are dealing with a TV min-series sourced from 1979, so it is to be expected, but gives it that much more creepy scenario. Audio quality is above average, and the inclusion of Tobe Hooper’s audio commentary is well worth the price of admission. I definitely recommend ‘SALEM’S LOT’ to all horror fans everywhere, but make sure you have just over a smidgen of 3 hours set aside to get through this brilliant special classic TV mini-series, as it is totally well worth it and the overall package is worth the price and should sit proudly in any cult collector's Blu-ray library. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado Le Cinema
Paradiso
United Kingdom
