Quite a few directors either got their start in television or at least paid the bills with stints at the Big Three. Tobe Hooper was no exception. When George Romero walked away from adapting what would be the first Stephan King miniseries, Hooper was asked to fill his shoes. The end result was a high point for everyone involved.
The proper story, after a brief prologue in Guatemala, takes place two years before. Author Ben Mears (David Soul) returns to his old home town of Salem's Lot with intentions to write his next novel about and at the old Marsten House, a sinister old mansion overlooking the town. He's thwarted in the latter though, as two men have swooped in and bought the whole property. Richard Straker (James Mason) and his unseen partner Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder) have moved into town with the intentions of opening an antique shop. Barlow is away on the business though, but then he always seems away during the day...
Ben, renting rooms elsewhere, strikes up a romance with teacher Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia). From there we get plenty of melodrama, as Ben finds his old teacher Jason Berk (Lew Ayers) and Susan's ex-boyfriend Ned Tebbets (Barney McFadden), who isn't accepting the ex part.
Later that night a large crate is delivered to the Marsten House. The drivers are freaked out enough to dump the strangely cold box in the basement and flee. Things get worse. Junior High students Danny Glick (Brad Savage) and his brother Ralphie (Ronnie Scribner) are attacked by something. Danny survives but Ralphie is never seen again... alive at any rate. Adulterous Realtor Larry Crockett (Fred Willard) is leaving his girlfriend's place when something looms over him...
A rash of deaths breaks out over the next few days. Danny dies in his hospital bed, but rises from his coffin to bite the gravedigger (Geoffery Lewis), who dies some time later. The now undead Danny tries to enter the bedroom of his friend Mark (Lance Kerwin), who manages to drive the vampire away with a model cross. From there Barlow ramps up his conversion of the town, which is running out of living inhabitants at an alarming rate. With people either running away or dying (and coming back), Ben gathers the few who aren't vampires to try and save the town.
Pretty good, although there are a ton of characters. The theatrical version cuts a good size chunk of them out. The television origins are a slight weakness, as there are obvious cuts for commercial breaks. The vampires, however, are breathtaking. Barlow is a straight up monster. Rat-like, and borrowing more than a bit from Max Schreck's Count Orlock, he is purely inhuman. No long winded speeches or seduction needed. He moves in and within weeks the town is either his or dead. King's particular tropes weren't quite as overused by this point either, but the cast makes them work.
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