I've never owned
Salem's Lot before. I always appreciated it. I even saw a few scenes as a little kid when it aired on TV and they were some of the few really scary horror moments for me. But the fact that it was made for TV did put me off a little in the prime days of DVD. Couple that with the fact that it never got a special edition, or even could quite decide whether it should be the shorter theatrical cut or widescreen or the TV version or what, and I just never felt compelled to pull the trigger. But now that Warner Bros has released a killer new HD restoration blu with an all-new audio commentary by
Tobe Hooper at a sell-through price, and who could pass that up? Especially since I've already got the sequel.
Update 12/3/16 - 1/27/17: I figured instead of just having a little, throw-away paragraph about the remake, I'd give that one proper DVD coverage, too, and make this a definitive
Salem's Lot post - enjoy!
Update 8/23/21: I originally ended my post by hoping Scream Factory would give us
A Return To Salem's Lot on blu, and now they have. Ergo, full credit goes to me. 😎 You're welcome, world!
Update 5/12/26: Well, Arrow has issued us now a fairly definitive super edition of the original in 4k. And in the interest of being thorough, I've added the King of Horror Collection blu-ray, too. Plus there's been a whole new
Salem's Lot movie since the last update, so I added a bit about that as well. I titled this entry "ALL the Salem's Lots," so now I've gotta live up to it, right? Also, since this is Update Megaweek, I've also gone ahead and added the Criterion DVD to the
Antichrist page.
Stephen King novels don't exactly have a spotless track record for being adapted to film, especially not on television (remember
The Langoliers?). But this one nails it pretty hard, being genuinely creepy and atmospheric with some great, inspired vampire scenes. If you want an idea of how influential this was, watch
Salem's Lot and
Fright Night back to back and count all the times they cribbed from it.
James Mason is one cool customer of a villain and
David Soul (Hutch of
Starsky and Hutch) is surprisingly good as the leading man. Except for airing in fullscreen with a little extra reliance on close-ups, Hooper does a great job of making this feel like a big-budget film, with a sweeping score and some great effects. In its full 3+ hour version,
Salem's Lot takes it's time building a whole little world of characters to then revel in ransacking.
Is it perfect? Well, no. As much as I enjoyed seeing
Fred Willard perform (well) in a rare, serious part, we do spend the first ninety minutes or so following a sub-plot of him having an affair with
Julie Cobb behind
George (
Law & Order)
Dzundza's back, only to have it make absolutely no difference to the overall story (spoilers, I guess? lol). King likes his over-the-top
Norman Rockwell meets broad satire style ensembles, and while Hooper thankfully plays that down and keeps most of the characters real, there are definitely hints poking through. Plus, the story's Mexican wrap-around does come from the novel, but it's fairly anticlimactic. And even with Hooper at the helm, a lot of camera set-ups still have a cheaper, flatter feel than we probably would've gotten from an actual movie. ...But for all of that, it's still pretty great.
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thanks to Arrow for finally giving us this shot.
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It can also feel a little less "TV safe" if you watch one of the
racier versions. Not that there's a version with nudity or anything
weird in it, but there are different cuts, which I'll break down for us
now. There's the original broadcast version, split into two parts (as it aired, one episode per week) a little over 90 minutes each. Then there's a theatrical version, made for the European market, which cuts the whole thing down to one feature-length film, under two hours long. Third, there's an "extended movie" version, which is basically the two episodes edited into one long, 3+ hour piece, which is what was included on the laserdisc, DVD and initial blu-ray.
But it gets a little more complicated than just that, as some extra violent
bits were shot exclusively for the foreign theatrical version. Willard puts the shotgun in his mouth, not just on his forehead, and
Ed Flanders gets gruesomely impaled. Confusingly, the DVD and initial blu released a kind of hybrid cut, with the censored Willard shots, but the uncensored Flanders shot. Arrow does the same thing, except they add an option to watch the broadcast episode with your choice of the censored or uncensored Flanders death. And they include all three cuts (broadcast, theatrical and extended), so fans should really be satisfied now.
Like I said, I've never owned it, but
Salem's Lot has been
available on DVD since 1999, and I've managed to get my hands on a copy
for this piece. It's in one of those crappy snapper cases and
everything. It was full-screen, but in this case that's acceptable.
But as you'll see, for a 2016 blu-ray, the master was too old to just
slap onto an HD disc like the major studios do with a lot of their
catalog titles. So we get a very welcome, updated transfer. In 2017,
Salem's Lot was included in the 2017 King of Horror Collection blu-ray set,
alongside
The Shining,
Cat's Eye and
It. All of these include the
extended hybrid cut. And now, in 2026, it's been restored in a fancy,
limited 2 UHD set from Arrow, which restores the film in 4k and gives us
multiple cuts: the theatrical, the extended hybrid, the original
broadcast, and a bit of a broadcast hybrid (it includes the gorier
antler kill), plus a bunch of new special features.
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1) 1999 WB DVD; 2) 2016 WB BD; 3) 2017 WB BD;
4) 2026 Arrow UHD (theatrical); 5) 2026 Arrow UHD (broadcast). |
[This shot does not appear in the theatrical cut.]
So, let me just start out by saying that the King of Horror BD is exactly the same disc as the 2016 BD (what I expected; but it was good to check and be sure), and all three cuts on the Arrow discs utilize the same master. So there are basically three transfers to compare: the DVD,. the BDs and the UHDs. Warner Bros didn't put out much information on
what they've done that I've seen, but it looks like they made taken a
fresh scan of the original negatives in 2016. I hadn't been expecting it
to look that good. There has clearly been some color-timing work
done, or undone, as you can see in the blue tint removed from the
nighttime shot above. The aspect shifted from 1.32:1 to 1.37:1 on the BDs and UHDs (I'm really surprised, and a little disappointed, Arrow didn't matte the theatrical cut to 1.85 or so). And, in fact, they're
actually a little zoomed in compared to the DVD. But before you bemoan
any lost slivers of picture, you can briefly catch glimpses of boom mics
on the DVD, so the slightly tighter framing is surely more correct. The biggest gain in resolution comes from the jump to BD, where the DVD just looks soft, smudgy and washed in
comparison. There's certainly another jump to UHD (which we do know was scanned from the OCN, with the interpositive used for some exclusive footage in the theatrical cut; and you really don't notice the seams), you can see grain is more consistent, but it's not as dramatic a step forward in that regard. The Dolby Vision HDR is a nice gain, too; but again, Warner really did a nice job with their blu, so there's nothing that needed correcting; they're just taking us up a generation.
The DVD has the original mono with optional English and French subtitles. The blu-rays upgrade the audio to DTS-HD audio and have also included optional
English subtitles, plus subs in 13(!) other languages and five audio
dubs. They really went all-out. Arrow dials it back down, but sticks to what's important. They have DTS-HD on the broadcast and extended cuts, and LPCM on the theatrical, with optional English subs on every cut.
But is this a special edition? Ehh... it's right on the edge. It's
main extra, and the first substantial extra this film's ever gotten, is a
brand new audio commentary by Tobe Hooper. And it's pretty good. On
one hand, it's actually great, with Hooper answering a lot of questions
that come up as a viewer, plus some interesting anecdotes you never
would've thought to wonder about. But on the other hand, presumably to
pace himself for a commentary that's over three hours long with no
moderator, he pauses. Like all the time. He basically says a
paragraph's worth of stuff, pauses, then another paragraph's worth, and
so on. So when he does talk, he's not stretching for things to say or
low on energy, but that leaves a lot of dead air interspersed
throughout. It's definitely worth the listen, but also takes
patience. But unlike some other slow commentaries, that patience is
rewarded. That and the theatrical trailer are all that's here, but
that's still a big step forward.
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the trailer at least gives us a glimpse of what the widescreen framing looks like
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And
Arrow takes another big step forward. Besides adding the multiple
versions, they've added a bunch of new extras. The Hooper commentary
and the trailer are still here, and honestly, they're still the best and
most important stuff. We also get two new audio commentaries, both by
experts. One is
Bill Ackerman and
Amanda Reyes, which is a little clumsy but very informed and worth checking out. And the other is by
Chris Alexander
and sucks. It's basically just him casually carrying on about whatever
pops into his head for the entire run of the film. Then there's a
bunch of video essays and on-camera interviews by/ with experts, and
most of these are skippable, too (though they're all better than the
self-indulgent Alexander commentary). Specifically, there are five: an
interview with King biographer
Douglas Winter, a video essay by critic
Grady Hendrix, an interview with
Mick Garris, a video essay by film critic
Heather Wixson and a video essay by podcast hosts
Joe Lipsett &
Trace Thurman.
The problem with all of these is that they all basically just repeat
info already delivered by Ackerman and Reyes' commentary. For example, the podcast guys give a
smart interpretation of the film's theme of gay panic, but Ackerman already went into all that in the commentary, so they don't wind up saying anything we didn't already just hear. So I'd recommend listening to that one commentary (and Hooper's, of course), but skipping the rest unless you
enjoy being bored to tears.
One neat treat Arrow came up with is a
video tour of the original shooting locations, though. That one definitely is worth your time.
They also throw in two stills gallery (including the entire original
shooting script), commercial bumpers, the edited antler scene as a
separate clip, and a trailer for the sequel. And if you're a fan of
swag, Arrow's limited edition comes equipped. There's a double-sided,
fold-out poster, a slipbox which itself comes in slipcover, reversible
artwork for the amary case, a cute sticker, an Arrow card (mine was for
Red Sonja), and a bound booklet with multiple essays and a couple vintage interviews.
And why yes, there was a 2004 remake starring
Rob Lowe, as well. To its credit, it's also a two-part TV
series, meaning it didn't have to compress the characters and details into 90 minutes.
It updates the story to 2004, forsaking the scary atmosphere for
internet references, lame quips and rapping, but it's got an interesting
supporting cast, including
Donald Sutherland,
Andre Braugher and
Rutger Hauer.
Some scenes are new, while others are direct re-stagings of the 1979
film. The scene where the two men wait in the morgue for the dead wife
to rise from under her sheet while the one tapes together a cross out of
tongue depressors is a beat-for-beat reproduction of the original
scene, right up until the end, where some awful CGI takes over, covering
up the actress's face and then she flies up into the ceiling and turns
into sparkly computer dust. But then, there's a whole new subplot about
a hunchback who works at a garbage dump and has a crush on a high
school girl, which to be fair does actually come right from the book.
So I guess the idea is that this is a more faithful "return to the
book," which I appreciate. It at least justifies this version's
existence and gives serious King devotees something to pour through.
But like
The Shining and its 1997 remake, it really just shows
that talented filmmakers tend to know better than literary purists what
works best on screen. And it doesn't help that a lot of the acting and
staging is awfully stilted,
sometimes to the point of being downright embarrassing. You've never
seen so many over-the-shoulder dialogue shots in your life, Lowe's
narration is downright painful, and the CGI looks like cartoonish
garbage, unlike the effects from the 1970s that still pack quite a
punch. So give it a pass unless
you're a serious fan who just wants to see what's been changed or kept
faithful between this, the original film, and the novel. The most
notable being that the vampire Barlowe is back to being a speaking part
instead of a snarling blue monster, some major scenes take place in a
different order,
the priest plays more of a role and there's no Mexico material. And as I
said, that Mexico stuff was in the book. Plus with the film's need to
modernize, I'm not really sure it can be called more faithful. It's
just... differently faithful.
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| 2004 WB DVD. |
But if
you are determined to see for yourself, Warner Bros did at least put it
out as a no frills, widescreen
DVD in late 2004. And I mean really no frills. No trailer, no
nuffin'. The film looks fine, though, presented in 1.78:1, which is
presumably just how it originally aired on the TNT network. It's
alright for a TV show on an older DVD, suffering a bit in the
compression department but otherwise fine. It's anamorphic, has a 5.1
mix and optional English, Spanish and French subtitles. Apparently
though, this was shot on 35mm, so in theory a fresh HD scan of the
negatives could yield a nice improvement. But that would require people
taking an interest in 2004's
Salem's Lot, which doesn't seem to be in its future. And I'm fine with that; I wouldn't buy a blu-ray special edition of this anyway.
Update 2026:
Actually, as of December 2024, there is a barebones Spanish greymarket blu-ray out now
from Llamentol; that probably is at least a slim upgrade, if anyone
cares enough.
In 2024, we got one more
Salem's Lot, this one made as a
streaming exclusive for HBO Max. It's feature-length, and therefore
very abridged; but it's also the least faithful adaptation because of
the wild liberties it takes. Like, it ends with a crazy shotgun
wielding lady chasing our heroes through a drive-in movie theater
surrounded by dozens of flaming vampires. Given that director
Gary Dauberman's only other movie has been an
Annabelle sequel,
though, this is less awful than I was expecting - it's actually kinda
fun! Every time it replicates a scene from the actual
Salem's Lot
story, it does it much worse, but whenever he starts doing his own
thing, it's an energetic, entertaining vampire flick that's surprisingly
well shot. There's no physical release of this film, which I find a
little surprising. Given the recognition value of King's name and the
title alone, I'm sure a cheap, barebones blu-ray would sell well better
than a lot of titles that are currently sitting on Walmart and Target
shelves across the country. Or you'd think some label in Germany would
license it. But no, as of this writing, it remains a streaming-only title in
every region.
A Return To Salem's Lot cannot be said to be a true sequel to
Salem's Lot. Not only do none of the characters return or get a mention, but the history of the Salem's Lot vampires as told in
Return directly
contradicts what we saw in the original. This cannot be the same town
after the vampires took over in the first one. But, having watched them
back to back for the first time after previously only having seen them
years apart, there are enough similarities that I'm sure Cohen was at
least making intentional nods back besides placing more vamps in the
same town. Both have a middle-aged man and a teenage boy for
protagonists. Both films' opening scenes are in Mexico, which is an odd
choice each time. There's a scene in
Return of a child vampire
hovering outside a window beckoning the teenage boy to let them in, a
clear reprisal of one of the original's most iconic scenes. Of course,
in both films, the vampires mostly look like typical humans with fangs,
but the biggest baddest one is a blue, monstrous one. And there are
plenty more I could list, including this fun fact: because they couldn't
afford to burn a whole house down, Hooper took B-roll footage that
wasn't used in
Elia Kazan's 1969 film,
The Arrangement. And when a completely different house burns down in
A Return To Salem's Lot, Cohen clearly used the same Kazan footage.
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| 1) 2016 WB BD of Salem's Lot; 2) 2006 WB DVD of A Return to Salem's Lot. |
Salem's Lot fans looking for more of the same are surely
disappointed by this film. Scary vampires really aren't what's for sale
this time around. But if you're a Larry Cohen fan, you should be
happy. There are his usual clever moments, there's
Michael Moriarity
giving another great and quirky lead performance, and just as you think
maybe you're getting a little bored with his character and he's
becoming too much of a generic, straight leading man... in comes
Samuel Fuller as one of the most entertaining characters in any vampire movie ever. Also look for
Tara Reid looking lovely in her first acting role,
Andrew Duggan in his final role and Cohen regular
James Dixon,
who this time also gets a co-writing credit. This isn't a terribly
ambitious picture; and Cohen's let it be known that he only made the
film as part of a contract so Warner Bros would fund
It's Alive 3. It's no passion project. But if you want a low-key enjoyable watch, hey, here ya go.
For ages,
A Return To Salem's Lot was unavailable on DVD, which
was awfully frustrating for a Cohen fan like myself. But in 2006,
Warner Bros released it in Germany under the title
Salem II: Die Ruckkehr,
as an anamorphic widescreen disc to boot! More recently, in 2010,
Warner Archives finally released it, and that's anamorphic widescreen,
too. It's an MOD DV-R, though, so I'd still stick with the import. But
none of that matters now, because this week, Scream Factory is
releasing the film on blu for the first time, with an all new 4k scan of
the OCN!
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| 1) 2006 WB DVD; 2) 2021 SF BD. |
Yeah, it's a little soft and obviously standard def, but I just fired
the DVD up on my 65" television and it still looks surprisingly good.
Solid darks, no interlacing. It's basically 16x9 exactly, but with a
little bit of blank space in what would've been the over-scan area,
giving us a 1.79:1 aspect ratio. For a plain old DVD, you couldn't
really ask for much more. But for a blu-ray, of course you can. And
Scream Factory delivers. Now framed in a proper 1.85:1, it's surprisingly tighter not just along the bottom, but on the left. So,
I'll call that just a slim improvement. But otherwise, the new scan is a
strong improvement, with the new scan bringing fine detail grain to
fresh, authentic life. The encode could be a little more natural, with
grain getting a little pixelated, especially for a barebones disc (more
on that in a sec), but this ain't a UHD. For a BD, this is quite
satisfying and we've clearly come a long way. Colors are more vibrant
and restored to authentic tones (the DVD was a bit on the purple side).
Honestly, I would've taken the old master slapped onto a BD disc, just
for the extra clarity. So this new 4k transfer is a treat.
Yes, the German DVD is English friendly. It has optional German
subtitles, but they're removable directly from the menu or the remote,
and it gives you the choice of the original English audio (mono in 2.0)
or a German dub. Unfortunately, it has no extras, not even the trailer
(neither does the
Warner Archives disc), except for a slightly amusing commercial that
plays on start-up. But it does come in a cool, red case.
Scream
Factory boosts the 2.0 track to DTS-HD (though it's still a bit hissy)
and adds optional English subtitles, making this the definitive
presentation of the film by every count. The sole disappointment is the
extras. There basically aren't any, apart from the trailer ...though
even just that does technically put it ahead of the previous discs. I
felt sure we'd at least get a commentary from the
King Cohen guy, but oh well.
So at this point, I really can't ask for anything more for
Salem's Lot
on home video. I guess somebody will probably release the 2024 version
on disc someday, and maybe another region will come out with another
edition of one or more of the others some day. At this point, I'm fine
either way.
Salem's Lot has been thoroughly handled, and we can rest peacefully in our coffins.
