Salem Vampires (film)

The film begins with a screening of the church, where a man and a young man pour holy water into jars. Suddenly one of the flask begins to shine, and the man says: "They found us again, another one found us." The young man answers him: “We must go further,” but the man says: “Not now” ...

The famous writer Ben Meyers, who is a man from the beginning of the film, comes to the small town of Salem Lot. Ben wants to move to Marston’s house on the hill, but it turns out that visiting businessmen Richard Streiker and Kurt Barlow have already bought this house.

Ben meets a girl named Susan Norton, and mutual feelings arise between them. Ben also meets his school teacher Jason Berg, with whom they make an appointment at a restaurant. Ben tells the teacher that he came to Salem Lot for a reason, he wanted to write his new novel, and most importantly, to defeat the fear of Marston’s house on the hill. Ben believes that Marston’s house is obsessed with dark forces, as a child, Ben went there and saw a living dead man.

Two brothers, Den and Ralph, go home late at night, Ralph stray from the path due to wind and fog, and suddenly a black figure appears and drags him away. Kelly Phillips, a trucker, suspects his wife of treason with her co-worker Larry. Kelly deceives his wife, tells her that he is leaving, but arranges with a friend Mike Reinson to take the load for him, Kelly takes a gun and discovers his wife and lover in bed, scares Larry and beats his wife. Having run out onto Larry street the black figure drags away. Mike and his friend take the goods to Martson’s house, commissioned by Richard Stryker, and notices that the box is cold. When he arrives home, he notices that his dog is slaughtered. While Ben and Susan are talking by the lake, Ben notices a car and there is Larry Crockett's corpse.

Danny knocks on his window at night with his younger brother Ralph, but Ralph is not what he used to be: he turned pale, his eyes became glass and fangs grew, Ralph bites Denny in the neck. Finding him unconscious, Denny is taken to the hospital, but the next night Ralph comes to his brother again, but this one kills him. Ben begins to realize that terrible things began to happen in the city. Ben decides to go to Denny's funeral. After everyone has left, Mike Reinson buries the coffin, but because of a fit of strange curiosity, he decides to look there. When he opens it and sees the dead Danny, he suddenly opens his eyes and bites Mike in the neck.

At the restaurant, Ben and Mr. Berg are talking about Marston’s house, but Mike suddenly appears and says he’s sick. Mr. Berg asks Mike to spend the night at his house. Mark Petri (the young man at the beginning of the film) is Denny's best friend, Mark is a good student and likes to make monster masks. At night, Denny knocks on the window with glass eyes, pale skin and large fangs. Danny asks to open the window to enter, but Mark takes out a cross and Danny leaves. Ben calls Jason Berg, Ben arrives. Berg shows the bedroom where Mike is lying, Mike has blood on his shirt, there is no pulse and no teeth marks on his neck. Berg suggests that Mike is a vampire.

Ben is beaten by Ned, Susan's ex-boyfriend, and Ben goes to the hospital, and Ned goes to jail. At night, Ned's cell door opens by itself, and a black human figure appears.

Jason Berg enters Mike’s bedroom and sees that he has changed, he has turned pale and his fangs have grown. Mike tells Berg: “Look at me! Look at me!". But Berg replies: “No! Get out of here!". Mike says in response: “You will sleep among the dead.” Berg pulls out a cross and Mike jumps out of the window. Berg has a heart attack and dies. Ben realizes that there are fewer ordinary people and more vampires in the city. To the Petri family, Father Callahan comes to visit. When everyone sat at the table, that black figure burst from the window, and this is the main vampire - Kurt Barlow. Richard Streaker comes along with him. A vampire kills Mark's parents, Streaker tells Father Callahan to look into the vampire's eyes, otherwise he will kill the boy. The holy father agrees and dies, and Mark wants to take revenge on the vampire. Father Susan and Ben visited Danny's deceased mother while Mr. Norton went to call. Suddenly the woman came to life, now she is a vampire. Ben made a cross out of two sticks, leaned it against the forehead of a woman, and she evaporated. Ben decides to kill the main vampire, he is sure that the demon lives in the house of Marston.

Mark also wants to kill the vampire and goes to Marsten’s house, but Susan notices him and decides to follow him. Mark stuns Streaker, who then abducts Susan. Mr. Norton and Ben come to Marston's house, where they notice a stunned Mark. When Mark regains consciousness, Streiker kills Mr. Norton and tries to attack, but Ben shoots him with a pistol. After Ben and Mark find the vampire’s coffin (this is Kelly’s cargo that Mike brought), Ben sticks a stake in the vampire’s heart and he dies. Ben and Mark set fire to Marston's house and leave town. All residents of the city approach the burning house, now they are not people, but vampires.

The film returns to the beginning of the story, Ben and Mark return to their homes. Ben discovered Susan, and now she is a vampire. She offers to join her, but Ben kills her. Then he says to Mark: “There will be others,” and Mark answers him: “Let's go.” Ben and Mark (like father and son) leave because other vampires hunt them.

• David Soul - Ben Meyers
• James Mason - Richard Streaker
• Lance Cervin - Mark Petrie
• Bonnie Bedelia - Susan Norton
• Lew Ayres - Jason Burke
• Julie Cobb - Bonnie Sawyer
• Elisha Cook Jr. - Gordon Phillips
• George Dzunza - Callie Sawyer
• Ed Flanders - Bill Norton
• Fred Willard - Larry Crockett
• Bonnie Bartlett - Anne Norton
• Jeffrey Lewis - Mike Ryerson
• Barbara Babcock - June Petrie
• Reggie Nalder - Kurt Barlow

Toub Hooper, who is a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock , gave respect to his film Psycho (1960) in Salem . The prototype of the image of Kurt Barlow, shown in the film, was Earl Orlock from the German horror film Nosferatu. Symphony of Horror (1922). ^[one]

Salem inheritance made a significant contribution to the genre of horror films about vampires. It was an inspiration for the movie Night of Fear (1985), and the scene with a teenage vampire hovering outside the window was repeated in The Lost Guys (1987) and spoiled in the Dracula Bart Simpson episode of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror IV . Salem's Lot also served as one of the main inspirations for the Buffy television series Vampire Slayer . ^[2] The cover of Opus Eponymous's debut album by Swedish heavy metal band Ghost is a reference to the movie’s poster.

The creator of the television series Hannibal, Brian Fuller, said that the scene from Hannibal , in which a woman was planted on deer horns, was inspired by a scene from Salem’s inheritance , which frightened him at the age of seven. ^[3]

Following the success of the film, it was planned to shoot a television sequel for the NBC show , produced by Richard Corbits and written by Robert Bloch . It was planned to show the continuation of the hunt of Ben Meyers and Mark Petri for vampires. But, ultimately, the sequel was never shot. ^[four]

In an interview with Fangoria magazine , actor Reggie Nalder, who played Kurt Barlow, admitted that he was talking with the creators of the sequel film, but nothing came of this idea. ^[5] In 1987, the sequel The Return to Salem , directed by Larry Cohen, was released in his own script. For the poster of the sequel, the image of Nalder in the role of Kurt Barlow was used, however, not a single hero or actor from the original film is involved in it. Nalder said this did not bother him. ^[five]

In 2004, the American channel TNT in collaboration with Warner Bros. removed a new adaptation of "Salimov's inheritance." The mini-series shot by Michael Salomon was also divided into two parts, the duration of which was the same as in the 1979 film. Starring Rob Lowe (Ben Meyers), Donald Sutherland (Richard Streaker) and Rutger Hauer (Kurt Barlow), and James Cromwell played a more significant role as Father Callahan than in the 1979 film.

• " Salem Vampires " on the Internet Movie Database
• Salem vampires on allmovie
• Salem Vampires at Rotten Tomatoes

• Lot (novel)
• Salimov Udel (mini-series)