Another example of classic 1970s TV movie-of-the-week was ‘Salem’s Lot, which aired as a two-part film on November 17th and 24th 1979.
After Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the Stephen King book, the studio sought to turn the 400+page novel into a feature film, while still remaining faithful to the source material. However, producer Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter Robert Getchell, and writer/director Larry Cohen all contributed screenplays, but all found it difficult to keep a screenplay at reasonable length.
Eventually, the project was turned over to Warner Bros. Television and producer Richard Kobritz. He decided that the best way to keep the spirit of the book without losing too much was to turn it into miniseries. Writer Paul Monash was contracted to write the teleplay. Monash was familiar with writing about small towns (he worked on the 1960s soap Peyton Place), and he previously produced the 1976 adaptation of King's novel Carrie.
Meanwhile, Tobe Hooper leapt to fame with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). He combined elements from a story he wrote about isolation and darkness with the inspiration of graphic news coverage of violence, with his belief that people were the true monsters being a key element for the film. It was a screening of Massacre that led producer Richard Kobritz to hire him as a director – the biggest budget Hooper had yet had at $4 million. The film differed from the source material (particularly with the violence and graphic scenes) in order to meet broadcast standards of the era. Hooper described it as 'very spooky - it suggests things and always has the overtone of the grave. It affects you differently than my other horror films. It's more soft-shelled...it has atmosphere which creates something you cannot escape - the reminder that our time is limited and all the accoutrements that go with it, such as the visuals.'
The original broadcast reviews for ‘Salem's Lot were largely positive, with critics praising the miniseries’ atmosphere, cinematography, Hooper's direction, and excellent scares. The casting was spot on, especially with a charismatic performance from James Mason. But David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia, young Lance Kerwin, some familiar character actors like Lew Ayers Elisha Cook, Jr., George Dzundza, Julie Cobb, Ed Flanders, Kenneth McMillian, and Geoffrey Lewis fill out a great cast for a horror movie.
A loose sequel called Return to ‘Salem’s Lot was released in 1987. In 2004, TNT released a remake, also a three-hour, two-part miniseries, starring Rob Lowe as Ben Mears. Then in 2021 Epix launched the series Chapelwaite, starring Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire and is loosely based on the short story Jerusalem’s Lot (from the King short-story collection Night Shift) and serves as a sort of prequel to ‘Salem’s Lot set in the 19th century. Finally, a new theatrical version from New Line Cinema, was announced in April 2019, with Gary Dauberman set to write and direct, and James Wan attached to produce. Filming began in September 2021 and starred Lewis Pullman and Alfre Woodard. The film was originally scheduled to be released in cinemas in September 2022, but was pushed back to April 2023, before being pulled from Warner Bros. release schedule indefinitely. The original 3-hour version was edited down to less than two hours and premiered directly on Max in October 2024.
Maybe because King’s book was released in 1975, and this adaptation came only four years later, in the last months of what was a tumultuous decade, the movie unintentially tapped into (along with the rest of the Made For TV horror films that came out of the era) some sort of the uneasiness of that chaotic period. It was forcing people to always be looking over their shoulder, perhaps looking for something sinister. I think the later productions are all missing that something that made the 1979 production –even if it is a bit dated- such a masterclass in terror. It brought more fresh blood and lingering frights that is missing from those newer takes. I mean who cannot forget watching child vampire Danny Click scratching and floating outside his brothers’ window demanding to be let in.
The stuff of nightmares there.
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