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A Return to Salem's Lot, a 1987 film, is an unofficial sequel to 'Salem's Lot, a vampire novel by Stephen King which had previously been filmed by Tobe Hooper. A Return to Salem's Lot is written and directed by Larry Cohen, and jettisons King's story and characters to explore the premise of a small American town (it was filmed almost entirely in Newbury, Vermont and featured a number of native townspeople in small roles) inhabited almost entirely by vampires.
Michael Moriarty plays an amoral anthropologist who has been lumbered with his dysfunctional adolescent son and who returns to Salem's Lot, the town of his birth, to find that it has been taken over by the undead. A few living people are kept around to provide blood for the vampires and to operate the gas station and shops in the daytime. Knowing of the anthropologist's refusal to moralise about other people's lifestyles (in the opening scene he is seen refusing to interfere in a human sacrifice and concerned only for the quality of the film he is shooting), the vampires employ him to write their story.
Criticism
Stephen King did not comment on this movie. Many feel this movie is a sequel in name only, as its story line does not fit into the original novel. However, King did not remove his credit or initiate any legal action against Larry Cohen.
Cast
- Michael Moriarty - Joe Weber
- Ricky Addison Reed - Jeremy Weber
- Samuel Fuller - Van Meer
- Andrew Duggan - Judge Axel
- Evelyn Keyes - Mrs. Axel
- Jill Gatsby - Sherry
- June Havoc - Aunt Clara
- James Dixon - Rains
- David Holbrook - Assistant
- Katja Crosby - Cathy
- Tara Reid - Amanda
- Brad Rijn - Clarence
1987 films | Films based on Stephen King's works | Horror films | Vampires in film and television | Newbury, Vermont
"A Return to Salem's Lot"