Arrow’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ 4K limited edition delivers classic scares and massive extras
by Joseph Szadkowski · The Washington TimesAn influential television series from the 1970s adapted from the macabre work of horror maestro Stephen King and executed by director Tobe Hooper (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) comes back to home theater life in a 4K resurrection with an abundance of informative extras for hard-core fans in Salem’s Lot: Limited Edition (Arrow Video, rated PG, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, 184 minutes, $59.95)
Specifically, one of Mr. King’s most terrifying novels was adapted into a two-part miniseries for the CBS network back in 1979.
The slowly simmering proceedings find successful author Ben Mears (David Soul) returning to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot (aka Salem’s Lot), Maine to research his next novel about the supposedly haunted Marsten House, a creepy mansion on a hilltop that Norman Bates would be comfortable living in.
He moves into a local boarding house and starts up a romance with local gal Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia) while keeping a watchful eye on the mansion.
In town, he meets the current owner of Marsten, the distinguished Richard Straker (the icon James Mason), who owns a local antiques shop with a companion, the mysterious Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder), who is soon arriving in Salem.
Mr. Mears, with help from Ms. Norton and highly inquisitive teenage horror aficionado Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin), discovers that Mr. Barlow is on a bloodsucking mission to spread his plague and take control of the town.
Most notable in the performances, the venerable Mason consumed the role of Mr. Barlow’s very serious familiar, offering a devilish twinkle in his eyes and authentic acting chops to the proceedings.
Viewers get two 96-minute episodes to sink their teeth into that methodically bring a fairly standard monster movie to light. Both are still not enough to compete with Mr. King’s roughly 400-page novel that offers a chilling and nail-biting look at a small town dealing with a vampire plague.
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Although the sluggish plot and character introductions might frustrate some, Mr. Barlow’s shocking reveal (coming with only an hour left in the series) delivers vintage horror moments at its televised finest.
Also worth noting, Mr. Hooper was heavily restrained by television standards, yet he still manages to inject enough jump scares and some truly chilling and influential scenes.
They include a pale-faced vampire child floating outside a window in the fog, tapping on the glass, a living corpse with glowing yellow eyes hissing in a rocking chair and watching a body rise from underneath a white sheet on a mortician’s table.
Besides enjoying the two episodes of the series separately, or as one seamless experience, viewers also get the 4K version of the theatrical cut, chopped down to 1 hour and 50 minutes from that 3-hour original.
Of course, it’s woefully inadequate to its TV equivalent but still worth a look for the Salem’s Lot purists in the family.
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4K in action: The restoration scanned in 4K 16 bit uses the original 35mm camera negative of the TV version and a 35mm interpositive of the theatrical cut.
I’ll focus on the televised version that, at its most authentic, sometimes frustrates with intermittent bouts of natural film stock grain that comes to overwhelming life in the opening outdoor scenes but waves in and out.
When the grain is not annoying, the visuals showcase an impressive stability, strong in clarity and rich color in most scenes.
One of the best scenes showcases Mr. Mears wearing a dark green corduroy jacket and meeting Ms. Norton in the forest, lying in tall grass, highlighting various shades of green.
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Or, appreciate a silver coffin, shot at a lower angle, glistening from the sun and reflecting on mourners and the priest, contrasted with a dark scene, as impressive, offering a pair of kids walking through a foggy forest at night, all details displayed.
Equally illuminated are the interiors of the dilapidated Marsten House, enhanced with putrid green walls, rusted bronze fixtures, tattered furniture, a broken chandelier, rotted bannisters and stuffed taxidermy animals.
Color richness continues with the slightly rosy skin tones of human faces contrasting perfectly with the ghastly purplish pale skin of the vampires, especially the shocking image of Nosferatu, Mr. Barlow’s deformed and emaciated noggin and rodent-like teeth.
The latest generation of viewers will find the grain distracting but never enough to stop loving the terror it reveals.
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Best extras: The voluminous set of digital goodies in the two-disc 4K set starts with a vintage and, unfortunately, sporadic optional commentary track from 2016 with Hooper covering the miniseries.
The director talks about death threats surrounding the project; maintaining a Hitchcock perspective to the series; not duplicating the Psycho house, shooting locations, adapting the book; getting to know the character families; the cast not being intimidated by Mr. Mason and Mr. King’s vision of horror; and the deep-dive details, such as making the vampire’s eyes shiny using a 100-watt light bulb near the camera.
The miniseries also gets a new, nonstop optional commentary track by podcaster Bill Ackerman and author Amanda Reyes that offers a vault’s worth of information on the film, covering extensive bios of the cast, Mr. King’s legacy, Hooper’s filmmaking style, comparisons to the book, the ratings and locations as well as squeezing in a critical analysis.
The theatrical cut gets a nonstop optional commentary with filmmaker, author and huge fan of “Salem’s Lot” Chris Alexander, who often focuses on the difference between the miniseries and the movie cut, referring to it as the CliffsNotes version.
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Among his verbal notes, he discusses the cast, story, 1970s horror cinema and critical observations and the 2024 HBO Max remake. He ultimately recommends that new viewers stick with the original TV series version. Obviously, Mr. Alexander would have been happier providing a commentary for the miniseries.
Next, a pair of film analyses first offer a 9-minute, inconsequential overview from film critic Heather Wixson and then a deeper, 20-minute critical retrospective from the co-hosts of the podcast “Horror Queers” (Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurman).
The pair covers everything from Hooper’s “power of suggestion” horror strategy to the paranoia theme of the Salem’s Lot citizens and the film’s handling of marginalized groups, i.e., including character “queerness.”
Continue on the disc to find a trio of new interviews including 21 minutes with King biographer Douglas Winter expressing his admiration for the author and the significance of the novel and TV series; a 26-minute historical appreciation of the author, novel, series and horror genre by author and pop culture critic Grady Hendrix; and 13 minutes more on Mr. King, “Salem’s Lot” and Hooper from horror filmmaker Mick Garris (“Hocus Pocus” and “The Shining”).
A rewarding featurette follows with a too-short 7 minutes on revisiting the filming locations of “Salem’s Lot” in Ferndale, California, hosted by documentary filmmaker Elijah Drenner, including stops at the Gingerbread Mansion and Ferndale Cemetery.
The box-set packaging with a hard cardboard slipcase offers a double-sided foldout poster (16 inches by 20 inches) featuring the Italian movie poster design and original, purple-themed artwork.
More impressive is a 100-page, full-color, bound booklet containing new essays from critics Sean Abley, Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, Richard Kadrey and Lee Gambin, plus interviews with Hooper, Kerwin and Julie Cobb (receptionist “Boom Boom” Bonnie Sawyer).
Owners also get a small sticker replica of the Salem’s Lot town sign (population 2,013).
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.