• John Swithen is a minor character in Carrie. King later published his story “The Fifth Quarter” under this name.
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’SALEM’S LOT
(1975)
Though longer than Carrie (1974), in comparison to many of King’s later epic novels, ’Salem’s Lot is quite succinct. As he had in his previous novel, the author paints a canvas that is gloriously and unabashedly American, for better or worse, or in this case, both. He weaves a tapestry of small-town life that is startlingly true and familiar and, perhaps most importantly, safe. And from the sanctuary of this familiar setting, with all its colorful characters and nostalgia—nostalgia reinforced time and again by the memories of the central character—King breeds his horror.
This isn’t an epic novel. But it isn’t meant to be.
Instead, it’s a story about a town so far off the map that it can wither and die and, quite simply, nobody cares. Here, Stephen King takes the Bavarian village from the classic horror films of his own youth and turns it into a tiny hamlet in Maine, right next door to all the small towns of our collective youthful memories.
This element of the narrative is what made ’Salem’s Lot so special, and such a milestone. In several tangible ways, it changed horror fiction and, in so doing, altered the state of American publishing for years to come. Traditionally, horror previous to ’Salem’s Lot was found in arcane tomes and ancient locales. With this small-town vampire tale, King set off an entire generation’s worth of horror stories set in the proverbial backyard of the American reading public.
Strange, perhaps, that it would be King’s second book that would have that impact, but the reason is quite clear. Carrie isn’t really a horror novel, but actually more of a precursor to the kind of female-driven thrillers King would write much later in his career. ’Salem’s Lot, by comparison, could not possibly be called anything else. It is unashamedly a vampire novel, perhaps the most important such work of this century. What King has done here, in a way others would try to mimic for decades after the publication of ’Salem’s Lot, is take the traditional horrors of the scary books, monster comic books, and B-movies he had enjoyed as a boy, and transport them to small-town, mainstream America. (sort of Peyton Place meets Dracula).
’Salem’s Lot is also important because it represents the beginning of King’s real effort to create a fictional counterpart of his home state of Maine. The town is slipped right into the existing geography of this part of New England, and described in such exhaustive and loving detail that one is almost disappointed to realize it has no real place on the map. With repeated references to surrounding Maine communities, and to landmarks like the Androscoggin and Royal rivers (the Royal would also be used later in other tales), he offers a sense of place that would become a touchstone of modern horror fiction.
In the Stephen King Universe, Jerusalem’s Lot is the archetypical ghost town, the Flying Dutchman, and the Bermuda Triangle rolled into one. The novel introduces the concept that evil begets more of the same, that it attracts itself with magnetic force, and that it can linger long after its perpetrator has gone to his damnation.
Even more to the point, King brings to the forefront the concept that supernatural horror is not necessarily something that can only occur in a Gothic castle in Transylvania, but that the undead can exist in the house down the street. Or in our own attics or basements or neighbors’ backyards.
As King will show repeatedly in his novels and short stories, home can well be where the horror is.
’SALEM’S LOT: PRIMARY SUBJECTS
JERUSALEM’S LOT: If you drive north on Interstate 95 in Maine, not far north of Portland you’ll cross the Royal River and come to an exit sign that reads, ROUTE 12, JERUSALEM’S LOT, CUMBERLAND, CUMBERLAND CTR. As you crest the hill of the ramp and look down along Route 12 toward town, you may just be able to spot the burned ruins of the enormous manse that once stood sentinel over the town, the old Marsten House.
Methodist church next to King’s house DAVID LOWELL
Before the vampire, Kurt Barlow, came to town, the Lot was a thriving little New England community. Now it’s a ghost town. Or perhaps something worse, given the horrors that occurred there.
Jerusalem’s Lot was incorporated in 1765, taking its name from the proprietary behavior of a particularly large pig (named Jerusalem, of course) owned by one Charles Belknap Tanner.
THE MARSTEN HOUSE: The home of Hubert Marsten up until the time he murdered his wife and took his own life. By the time Ben Mears comes to live in the Lot as a boy, the Marsten House has become the ultimate haunted manse. Even the bravest of local children are afraid to enter the moldy interior, which sits atop Marsten Hill, almost as though it is watching over the town—albeit more as evil tyrant than vigilant sentinel.
As a boy, Ben enters the house on a dare, and later reveals that he believes he has seen the ghost of Hubie Marsten there. Though the Lot’s residents never discover this connection, it seems that the late Marsten had been in frequent correspondence with the vampire Kurt Barlow, who would later bring his evil to the Lot, inspired by Marsten.
The Marsten House is eventually burned to the ground. However, Ben Mears believes that the house itself has somehow retained Marsten’s evil, and that this evil has acted as a kind of beacon for other horrors. If so, it is possible that the burned-out remains of the house, and its very foundation, still retain some of that evil essence.
BEN MEARS: Though born on Long Island in New York, Ben Mears is raised by his aunt, Cynthia Stowens, in ’Salem’s Lot. Haunted by a terrifying experience he had in the Lot as a child, and by the tragic death of his wife, Miranda, in a motorcycle accident, Mears returns to ’Salem’s Lot many years later to write a new novel. His previous books include Conway’s Daughter, Air Dance, and Billy Said Keep Going.
Ben’s memories of the Lot are both fond and melancholy. Though very little has changed, the town has certainly forgotten him. He, however, has never forgotten ’Salem’s Lot. He dreams quite regularly of that horrific childhood experience—upon a dare he had entered the spooky mansion called the Marsten House and come upon a frightening specter of the late owner of the home, a suicidal Mafia hit man named Hubie Marsten. But the dreams were nightmares.
Little does Ben know that Hubie Marsten’s evil has lingered, and drawn another sinister force to the town.
Despite his nostalgia, Ben makes no attempt to contact those few men with whom he played as a boy in the Lot. Instead, he makes new friends in Susan Norton, a younger woman with whom he falls in love; her father, Bill Norton; and an aging teacher named Matthew Burke.
It isn’t long after his return on September 5, 1975, that Ben realizes something is horribly wrong in the Lot. Though the vampire, Barlow, and his manservant, the preternaturally strong Straker, have actually been murdering the townspeople or transforming them into vampires, as an outsider Ben is an early suspect. Later, of course, he becomes one of the few who realizes the truth of what is happening in the Lot, and takes action.
Along with a local boy named Mark Petrie and a doctor named Jimmy Cody, Ben and those closest to him attempt to permanently rid the town of Barlow and his vampires. They manage to burn down the Marsten House, and later kill Barlow (like Father Callahan, Ben briefly shines with a preternatural white light while opposing the vampires), but there are too many vampires. Ben suffers another loss when his lover, Susan Norton, is transformed into one of the undead.
In the end, the only survivors, Ben and Mark, leave ’Salem’s Lot and travel as far away as they are able. Attempting to start a new life, they eventually settle in the small Mexican village of Los Zapatas. Only when they come across a press clipping that indicates the vampires are active again in the Lot do they acknowledge they must return to finish the job.
Together, they go back to the Lot for the last time, and set fire to the entire town.
According to the story Father Callahan tells in Wolves of the Calla, he “went todash” to Los Zapatas and witnessed Ben
’s funeral.
SUSAN NORTON: A young woman who has lived all her life in the Lot and dreams of one day moving to the city, Susan is dating Floyd Tibbits before Ben comes into her life. They meet in the park on a sunny September afternoon, and Susan is instantly charmed by him, partially because she is reading one of his books at the very moment at which she first spots him.
Susan lives at home with her parents, Bill and Ann Norton. She is a painter who is just beginning to have some success. Sadly, when she investigates Ben’s wild claims about the Marsten House—and Barlow and Straker—she is captured by Straker and later turned into a vampire by Barlow. Eventually Ben is forced to drive a stake through her heart, ending her undead existence. Her soul is now free to make its final journey.
MATTHEW BURKE: As an English teacher at the Lot’s Consolidated High School, Matt Burke has earned a great deal of respect from former students, but not many accolades from those who operate the facility. It is Matt who first realizes what is truly happening in ’Salem’s Lot. He encounters a former student, Mike Ryerson, at a bar and, concerned by Ryerson’s apparent illness, invites him to stay at his home. During the night, Ryerson is attacked and killed by a vampire. When Ryerson later returns, now a vampire, Matt suffers a massive heart attack.
Though the seizure keeps him from the physical struggle, Burke becomes the thinker for those attempting to thwart the vampire Barlow’s plans. Sadly, Matt dies of a second heart attack in the hospital, never to learn the fate of his town and his friends.
MARK PETRIE: Though he grew up in Kittery, Maine, Mark Petrie has the bad luck to have moved to ’Salem’s Lot with his parents just before the vampires come to town. He was twelve years old at the time. Tall for his age, but slightly built and bespectacled, Mark is forced to fight the school bully soon after his arrival in the Lot, and makes a fool of him. He is an intelligent boy who can take care of himself.
Mark also has a great fondness for monster movies and Aurora monster model kits. It is on the way to Mark’s house to see these models that Danny and Ralphie Glick are attacked. Danny later appears to Mark as a vampire and attempts to get Mark to invite him inside. Mark, however, uses a plastic cross from his Dracula model to frighten away the vampire.
After being captured himself by Straker, Mark escapes, and it is he who takes Straker’s life. Barlow later murders Mark’s parents in retribution. Eventually, Mark and Ben Mears terminate Barlow and leave ’Salem’s Lot. They wander the country, eventually living in a Mexican village called Los Zapatas. However, they begin to suspect the vampires are back in Maine. They return to set fire to the entire town.
Mark Petrie’s current whereabouts are unknown.
KURT BARLOW: A horrid, ancient vampire, Barlow thrived in Nazi Germany until he found it necessary to remove himself from that part of the world. He began a correspondence with Hubert Marsten, a Mafia soldier who resided in ’Salem’s Lot and gave Barlow a good deal of information about the town. At one point Straker, Barlow’s servant, refers to Marsten as Barlow’s “benefactor” in America.
Years pass and Marsten hangs himself after murdering his wife. Eventually Barlow determines to come to the United States, and ’Salem’s Lot is his chosen target, a town where he can “feed” indiscriminately and not be discovered. In a shady real estate deal, he purchases the Marsten House as well as a storefront in the town. There his servant, Straker, opens an expensive antique shop to throw off the townspeople’s usual suspicions of strangers.
When Barlow realizes that there are some in the town who know the truth, he moves from the Marsten place into the basement of Eva Miller’s boardinghouse. It is here that he is eventually killed by Ben Mears and Mark Petrie.
There are those who say Barlow’s vampiric offspring continue to roam the area around ’Salem’s Lot.
RICHARD THROCKETT STRAKER: Straker is Barlow’s servant, his human agent. For his master, Straker performs many tasks, from propitiation of demons to abduction and murder of children. His incredible strength and enduring youth make it obvious that Straker is not entirely human, thanks to Barlow’s influence. However, he is certainly not a vampire.
Straker arranges a deal with local realtor Larry Crockett to buy the Marsten House and the storefront in town, and perpetuates the charade of the shop itself.
When Susan Norton and Mark Petrie break into the Marsten House, it is Straker who discovers them. When Mark attempts to escape, Straker tries to kill the boy, but in the struggle is himself killed by Petrie. Imagine, a monster killed by a twelve-year-old boy!
FATHER DONALD CALLAHAN: As the pastor at St. Andrew’s Church in the Lot, Father Callahan is responsible for the spiritual well-being of the town’s Catholics. As an alcoholic, however, he has a great deal of trouble even caring for his own soul. Even before the horrible events occur in the Lot, Callahan doubts his faith. When the truth is revealed to him, for a time his faith is restored. Surely, he reasons, the presence of such evil indicates the existence of God as an opposing force.
After Barlow murders Mark Petrie’s parents, Callahan saves Mark from the vampire. Standing up to Barlow, Callahan is briefly imbued with an otherwordly power, manifesting itself as white light. The light ebbs, however, when Barlow challenges Callahan’s shaky faith. In the end, his faith is not strong enough, and Barlow takes some of Callahan’s blood, enslaving him. In the only act of defiance left to him, Callahan flees ’Salem’s Lot forever, leaving his parishioners and the town to suffer in Barlow’s evil grasp.
Father Donald Callahan eventually spends years battling the vampires elsewhere in the world … and beyond.
HUBERT MARSTEN: An eccentric and evil man, Hubie Marsten was a hit man for the Mafia whose house looked down on ’Salem’s Lot. In his later days, he taped all of his money to the insides of magazines. He corresponded with Barlow the vampire when Barlow still resided in Europe. Later, Marsten murders his wife and then hangs himself in the attic of the old mansion. It seems possible, even likely, that his spirit somehow remains tied to the house, for when young Ben Mears visits the house on a dare, he sees a ghastly vision of what might be Hubie Marsten’s ghost.
THE GLICK FAMILY: Nine-year-old Ralphie Glick is taken by Straker as a sacrifice for Barlow while he and his older brother, Danny, are on their way to Mark Petrie’s house. In time, the entire Glick family falls victim to the vampires.
THE NORTON FAMILY: Bill and Ann Norton and their daughter Susan all become victims of the vampires.
THE PETRIE FAMILY: Though the son, Mark, survives the evil that destroyed ’Salem’s Lot, his parents do not.
MIKE RYERSON: A local blue-collar worker and former student of Matt Burke’s, Mike is filling in Danny Glick’s grave in Harmony Hill Cemetery when Danny comes back to life as a vampire. Danny attacks him, and soon Mike is also one of the undead. After his own resurrection, Mike attempts to kill Matt Burke but is unsuccessful.
’SALEM’S LOT: ADAPTATIONS
In November 1979, CBS broadcast a two-part miniseries based on ’Salem’s Lot. The groundbreaking event featured David Soul (Starsky & Hutch) as Ben Mears, respected British actor James Mason (Heaven Can Wait) as Straker, and Bonnie Bedelia (who would later be best known for playing Bruce Willis’s wife in the Die Hard thrillers) as Susan Norton. At the time, the four-million-dollar budget (a million an hour!) was considered an enormous expenditure. Under the able direction of Tobe Hooper, who had previously helmed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and would later direct Poltergeist (1982) and Lifeforce (1985), the miniseries turned out to be a highly effective mood piece, though the horror was heavily diluted by network censors.
While the miniseries diverged significantly in some aspects of plot (specifically, the relocation of Barlow to Eva Miller’s boardinghouse late in the story), for the most part it was a very faithful adaptation by Paul Monash, who previously had produced the film version of Carrie. King himself was reportedly very satisfied with the production, given the restrictions of the medium, though he disagreed with Barlow looking m
ore like the ghastly creature from the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu than the way he had actually been portrayed in his novel.
A theatrical version specifically for European distribution was reedited from the miniseries and called ’Salem’s Lot: The Movie. While it was more graphic in terms of visual elements of violence and shock, its running time (112 minutes versus the original 210 minutes) also unfortunately ensured that much of the careful character development that had been integral to the original miniseries would be lost. (Curiously enough, in 1987 writerdirector Larry Cohen would be the main creative force behind a direct-to-video sequel authorized by Warner Bros. called A Return to ’Salem’s Lot. Starring Michael Moriarty and Andrew Duggan, it bore only a passing resemblance to the characters and situations from the original novel. Even so, King was given a screen credit as “creative consultant.”)
Like The Shining and Carrie before it, Salem’s Lot was filmed a second time for television, twenty-five years after Tobe Hooper shot the first version. Premiering on TNT in June 2004, it featured Rob Lowe as Ben Mears, James Cromwell as Father Donald Callahan, and Andre Braugher as Matt Burke (!). Although superior in some ways to the original film version, this incarnation was summarily dismissed by many critics as not living up to its source material. One bright spot was the inspired casting of Rutger Hauer and Donald Sutherland as Barlow and Straker; the duo had previously appeared together in the roles of the vampire Lothos and watcher Merrick in the 1992 film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The Complete Stephen King Universe Page 23