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Salem's Lot

Series, 1979, The '70s and '80s, Set in Jerusalem's Lot, Maine

Salem's Lot is #2 of 42 in release order and #2 of 42 in chronological order in the Stephen King Universe.

The story

Ben Mears has returned to his hometown to write a book about the supposedly haunted Marsten House. When people around the Marsten House start dying mysteriously, Mears discovers that the owner of the mansion is actually a vampire who is turning them into an army of undead slaves.

Salem's Lot recap

Salem's Lot (1979) is a two-part CBS miniseries in which writer Ben Mears returns to Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, as a vampire moves into the old Marsten House. Tobe Hooper directs David Soul as Ben, who plans to write about the house that scared him as a child. Antique dealer Richard Straker (James Mason) has bought the house and opens a shop in town with an unseen partner, Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder), a bald, blue-skinned vampire who does not speak. Children start to vanish, and the dead begin rising and floating at windows to be let in. Ben falls for Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia) and gathers allies: horror-obsessed teenager Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin), teacher Jason Burke (Lew Ayres) and Dr. Bill Norton (Ed Flanders). One by one the townspeople turn, and Susan is taken.

Salem's Lot ending explained

Salem's Lot ends with Ben staking Susan in Guatemala. In the second part, Ben and Mark break into the Marsten House cellar, Straker dies, and Ben drives a stake into Barlow's heart in his coffin before the house burns. The pair flee the infested town. In the framing scenes, set later, Susan finds Ben in Central America as a vampire, and he kills her, knowing the Lot's vampires will keep coming after them.

Ratings

IMDb 6.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes 87%

Where it fits

What to watch before Salem's Lot

Carrie (1976), which Salem's Lot (1979) continues.

Cast