that's all folks!

I watched the 2004 TBS version of ‘Salem’s Lot a few weeks ago. It was trash. It wasn’t scary, the acting was awful, and it emphasized the wrong parts of the story. It tried to be a horror movie from the start, skipping right over all the small town suspense building I enjoyed during the novel. It even changed several key elements from the novel (like having Mark kill Callahan at the end instead of having Ben set fire to the Lot). I don’t remember much about the 1979 version. Screen shots mostly, and, of course, the horrifying version of Barlow. ‘Salem’s Lot is a first and foremost a novel, and it should be kept that way. King goes above and beyond just making another vampire horror story, he creates a commentary of sorts on small town American life. And, to be honest, that’s the part of the novel I enjoyed the most.

I will admit, however, in regards to the 2004 adaptation of 'Salem's Lot I thought the choice of James Cromwell for the role of Father Callahan to be excellent.

the motley crew & the ghost town

“I heard a voice, crying from the deep:
Come join me, baby, in my endless sleep.”

I think it’s interesting King chose to have Mark and Ben become the ultimate heroes of the novel. Ben I can understand. I mean, he is the main protagonist of the story. However Mark is just a little kid who likes to play with toy Frakensteins and Draculas. Through his love of monsters and lore he possesses a good deal of knowledge on how to dispatch them. Which I guess grants him a high level of survivability. Ben is able to deliver the final blow to the master vampire, Barlow, however I believe in the end Barlow is the real victor. The evil creature was able to create such a large army of undead that Ben and Mark were forced out of the ghost town by the insurmountable odds against them. Even after they return to ‘Salem’s Lot at the tail end of the novel to attempt to finish the job Ben explains to Mark that some of them will still live.

king's vampire

As King’s definition of a vampire becomes more and more clear, I realized that his definition and Stoker’s definition are extremely close. King likes the age old clichés laid out in the world first vampire novel Dracula. These vampires can’t go out into day light, they sleep in coffins, they are repelled by religious artifacts like crosses and holy water, and they try to turn other humans into vampires. These vampires are malevolent. Creatures of pure evil. They seem to truly enjoy creating chaos and trouble for the lives of good, god-fearing humans. We’ve read a fair amount of vampire literature throughout the course and different authors have different definitions of what vampires are. One particularly frightening aspect of King’s vampires is their obsession with multiplying their numbers. This seems to be their main objective once they become vampires. It reminds me of a zombie invasion. However, King doesn’t stray much from Stoker’s definition of a vampire. This makes me think ‘Salem’s Lot is King’s homage to the late Bram Stoker. In the introduction at the beginning of the novel King talks about he read Dracula at a young age and enjoyed it thoroughly. Considering how this is Stephen King we’re talking about I think Dracula had some influence on the young, impressionable King.

Here is a link to the most extensive database of vampire books, movies, and articles on the internet.

the boiler room

“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered. And the fears locked in small brains are much too large to pass through the orifice of the mouth.”

As soon as I read that line I shuttered. All the memories of feeling terrified as a little kid came rushing back to me. The repeat nightmares I used to have, the way shadows would look like monsters that go bump in the night, and the boiler room. I grew up in an old English Tudor. Built in 1927, the house had all sorts of creeks and cracks. I loved growing up in that house and I miss it very much to this day. Except for the boiler room. The boiler room was in the basement and always seemed out of place. It was never lit very well and didn’t have a door. For some reason, which I still can’t figure out, that boiler room terrified me. And unfortunately for me, since the Super Nintendo was in the basement, I had to pass by the ominous room, a lot. Daylight made the situation more manageable, but when it was dark I had no choice but to sprint right by it. I can’t explain why I feared that room so much. There was no reason to. I just did. This is the kind of fear King is talking about. The irrational and inexplicable fears that children have. A quote from the article linked below says, “Kids ages 4 through 6 have anxiety about things that aren't based in reality, such as fears of monsters and ghosts.” I think kids have these fears because they’re young and inexperienced. When something feels confusing or out of place, the small mind of the little kid can’t rationalize it, and that feeling turns into fear. Matt Burke is scared as he’s walking up the stairs. So scared that he reverts into a little kid. In this case, however, his fear is justifiable. This section of chapter 9 is a real testament to exactly why Stephen King is the master of the horror genre. Ugghhhh…. That boiler room still gives me the creeps…

Here is a link to the aforementioned article.

a horror story?

Here is my question: Why did King decide to wait 184 pages, one third of the entire novel, to revel the vampire?

It’s pretty clear early on that something is not quite right the small town of ‘Salem’s Lot. However, that “something” is not clear until page 184. We have a creepy guy buying a (apparently) haunted house. He has a mysterious partner no one ever sees. Ben saw a ghost as a kid in the aforementioned haunted house. A couple of boys go missing. And something very strange happens to Mike Ryerson while he is burying Danny Glick’s casket. The meat of the novel up until now has basically just been describing the daily lives of the people who live in ‘Salem’s Lot. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the novel very much up to this point, however it hasn’t read at all like a horror story. Maybe a mystery, but not a horror story.

o father where art thou?

Father Callahan is an interesting character. He certainly doesn’t strike me as an average priest. King doesn’t waste any time before revealing his alcoholism. He seems to be described as appearing older than he actually is which leads to guess he’s been hitting the bottle and living a bitter existence for a long time. The way King has him confess his sins to himself is brilliant. I see him as a once strong man who has lost the fight in him due to years of repetition and loneliness. He actually strikes me as the only character I really feel sorry for, save maybe Sandy McDougall.

smokin'

There is a lot of smoking in this novel. Ben smokes, Susan smokes, Sheriff Gillespie smokes. Hell, even Straker smokes! Maybe it’s just the era of the early 1970s, but I think having a lot of the characters smoke speaks to their nervousness and high level of stress. It gives the novel a gritty feel. A real feel. It reminds of the novel The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. A suspenseful murder mystery surrounding a sociopath that involves a lot of smoking. That novel has a very stressful feel about it, and so does ‘Salem’s Lot. The sheriff, Gillespie, seems to always be smoking a pall-mall. Having the sheriff constantly smoking is an interesting device King uses. He appears to be the most stressed out member of the town. And if the sheriff is the most stressed out character in the town, something mustn’t be right. Something bad must be about to happen…. Or maybe all the mention of smoking is just a simple marketing ploy. As a former smoker myself, whenever I see, smell, or read about smoking I want a cigarette. King’s novel caused me to think about this as a possibility because of his use of real brand-name cigarettes, i.e. Parliament and pall-mall.

ben = king

I can’t help but think that King based Ben Mears off of himself. Once I learned about King’s early life and background I discovered an enormous number of parallels between the two. Both grew up in small towns in Maine. Both grew up without a father figure. Both studied English at the college level. Both opposed the Vietnam War. Both taught some English at the high school level. Both are burgeoning writers with some success. The most important parallel, however, is that both of them experienced a frightening, surreal experience as young children. King watched his friend get run over by a speeding train and Ben saw the ghost of Hubie Marsten. It seems pretty obvious to me that Ben Mears is actually Stephen King.

Here is a link to King's biography.

richard throckett straker

The Stephen King I’ve been accustomed to jumped out the novel to me when I read the introduction of the character Straker. King has a special way of describing characters that are “unnatural.” The other, “normal” characters always seem uneasy around them. They possess unusual physical features and have quirky or abnormal mannerisms. All these aspects make them creepy. Straker has exceptionally long fingers, a bald head, speaks in a very odd manner, and doesn’t waste time with idle chit-chat. He gets right to the point. He is even able to shake up Larry Crockett, the wealthiest man in town.

mr. norton

I really like Susan’s father. Reading through the novel thus far I can’t help but root for Susan and Ben’s relationship. Despite King’s young literary writing experience at this point, I feel like he has a knack for making these characters in the novel very interesting through his short descriptions of them. Mr. Norton is a great example of this. He seems to be a genuine, hard working blue collar American. He even harbors some ill feelings towards the “art farts”, as he bluntly puts it. He doesn’t let his prejudgment keep him from liking Ben, though. He likes Ben.

the daily grind

‘Salem’s Lot is a nice little microcosm. The way King describes how all the different people go about their days and they way they think and interact with each other is pretty much exactly how I think of small town America. The farmers get up early to milk the cows, by 6:45 most of the blue collar workers are on their way to work, Susan has no problem getting an appointment at the local beauty salon last minute, and everyone knows each other. I couldn’t help but think of the small towns that litter Michigan’s Thumb. When I was younger my family would drive the 2 ½ hours from metro Detroit up to our cabin in Caseville nearly every weekend. As a little kid I always found the drive excruciatingly boring. The Thumb is nothing but flat farmland and small towns. One of these small towns was Owendale, Michigan. I remember Owendale because aside from the houses there were two buildings. A high school and a church. According to Wikipedia, the 200 census states Owendale to have a population of 296, with an area of 0.7 sq miles, and the demographic of the town is 97% white. I assume that most kids are homeschooled until they reach the 9th grade; however, I know that many kids who grow up in the small towns of Michigan’s Thumb never finish high school and instead opt to go into the family business: farming (usually corn). It just boggles my mind when I think about what it must be like living your entire life (hopefully not, though) in one of these small towns. I can completely understand how this type of environment can make an entire town (albeit a small one) very close knit where everybody knows everybody and outsiders are met with inquisitive stares.

Here a link to the Wikipedia page for Owendale, Michigan.

susan & her mother

After reading the first two chapters of the book it doesn’t seem to be about vampires at all. Ben and Susan are introduced as integral characters. A romance between them is more than likely and the central conflict of the novel appears to be potential pitfalls surrounding Ben and Susan’s relationship. I thought the dialogue between Susan and her mother was interesting. There are a lot of small town clichés that follow Susan’s announcement to her mother about her new friend, Ben. Mrs. Norton quickly decides she doesn’t approve of Ben. I think this is because he’s an outsider and small town people like to keep their lives small by not incorporating and new people into their lives. She criticizes his book and chides Susan about her relationship with Floyd. I have to admit that when Susan’s mother called Mable Werts I went from feeling annoyed with her character to outright disliking her. Personally, I can’t stand people who gossip. At the end of the part with Mrs. Norton I realized she is over protective of Susan when she thinks, “Oh Susan. I only want what’s best for you. Can’t you see that?” Perhaps this is another example of small town American mentality, but Susan is a college graduate, her mother needs to stop treating her like a child!

before the text

I think I must have been 10 or 11 when I watched the 1979 movie Salem's Lot. I was going through a phase where I was really into horror movies, most likely a result of my successful acquisition of the video game Resident Evil 2, which was, as all M-rated video games were, forbidden by my mother. It was a Saturday night and I was bored. None of my favorite shows were on so I began the tedious task of surfing through the channels. With the basic cable package we had back then, I would usually go through all 68 channels at least twice before finally settling on what looked like the most entertaining show. Tonight was different. I browsed through the network channels, FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC.... Same old boring stuff, I thought. However, after I got through the public access channels I stumbled on a frightening scene. A young, ghastly looking boy was floating outside a window, scratching. I instantly got chills up my spine, and I was confused. The black cable box read channel 34 in bright red letters. I knew The X-Files was on channel 2 and Unsolved Mysteries was on channel 56. As I continued to watch, the realization that I was watching an old horror movie set in, and I was ecstatic! The movie was scary. It was also dark. Most of the movie took place at night, and there were all these morbid, ghostly looking characters preying on citizens of the small town. It didn't take me long to realize the movie was about vampires. Then came the shot of the Marsten house. At the time, it reminded me of one of the old farmhouses my parents and I would drive by on the way up north. However, my perception of these kinds of houses was bright and cheerful. This house was different. It was dark and sinister. As the shot continued to zoom in, the vampire was revealed. Now I had real chills. The vampire was terrifying. A bald, pale skinned creature with bright yellow eyes and twisting fangs. Even though I prided myself in not having a nightmare in a few years, I didn't want to take the chance. I had to turn off the TV.... Now it's time for me to read 'Salem's Lot, the novel that inspired the movie I saw as a kid where the imagery scared me so much. They always say the book is scarier than the movie....

Here is a link to the trailer for the original 1979 movie.