History Literature / SalemsLot

A feature film adaptation directed by Gary Dauberman (''Film/AnnabelleComesHome'') is set for release in the spring of 2023.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Straker, Barlow, Larry Crockett, The [=McDougalls=], Reggie Sawyer, Charlie Rhodes]].

* GhostTown: Salem's Lot is reduced to being a this after the vampires take over. The novel's prologue has a newspaper article about a reporter trying to find out why it became one. Another ghost town, Momson, Vermont, is mentioned in the same article.

The eponymous town is also featured in King's short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road". (The former, written a number of years earlier, takes place in 1850 and is more of a Franchise/CthulhuMythos story; the latter is set three years after the events of the novel.) These stories are included in ''Literature/NightShift'', as well as the 2005 30th-anniversary edition of '''Salem's Lot'', which also contains some fifty pages of deleted and rewritten material from King's original manuscript.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Straker, Barlow, The [=McDougalls=], Reggie Sawyer, Charlie Rhodes]].

The novel has been adapted into two television MiniSeries. The first, directed by Creator/TobeHooper, aired on Creator/{{CBS}} in 1979 and was subsequently [[ReCut re-edited]] for a European theatrical release, while the second one was broadcast on TNT cable in 2004. The 1979 version is notable for being the first made-for-TV adaptation of any of King's works, coming three years after the hugely successful big-screen version of ''Film/{{Carrie|1976}}''. There was also an in-name-only 1987 theatrical sequel (''Return to Salem's Lot'', directed by Creator/LarryCohen), as well as a RadioDrama adaptation of the novel produced by Creator/TheBBC in 1995.

The story focuses on the Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot (known by the locals as "'salem's Lot" or just "the Lot"), which is slowly taken over by vampires, and a small band of people (led by protagonist Ben Mears, a writer who spent his childhood there and has returned to research a book) who decide to fight back.

A feature film adaptation, directed by Gary Dauberman (''Film/AnnabelleComesHome''), is set for release in the spring of 2023.

The novel has been adapted into two television MiniSeries. The first, directed by Creator/TobeHooper, aired on Creator/{{CBS}} in 1979 and was subsequently [[ReCut re-edited]] for a European theatrical release, while the second one was broadcast on TNT cable in 2004. The 1979 version is notable for being the first made-for-TV adaptation of any of King's works, coming just three years after the hugely successful film version of ''Film/{{Carrie|1976}}''. There were also an in-name-only 1987 theatrical sequel (''Return to Salem's Lot'', directed by Creator/LarryCohen) and a RadioDrama adaptation produced by Creator/TheBBC in 1995.

The novel has been adapted into two television MiniSeries. The first, directed by Creator/TobeHooper, aired on Creator/{{CBS}} in 1979 and was later released theatrically (in edited form) overseas, while the second aired on TNT cable in 2004. The 1979 version is notable for being the first made-for-TV adaptation of any of King's books, just three years after the success of ''Film/{{Carrie|1976}}''. There was also an in-name-only 1987 theatrical sequel (''Return to Salem's Lot'', directed by Creator/LarryCohen), and a RadioDrama adaptation produced by Creator/TheBBC in 1995.

* TheLostLenore: Ben’s wife Miranda, killed in a motorcycle accident a couple years prior to the events of the novel. Her death was part of the impetus for him to return to the Lot and exorcise the ghosts of his past by researching a book on the Marsten House.

* TheLostLenore: Ben’s wife Miranda, killed in a motorcycle accident a couple years prior to the events of the novel. Her death was part of the impetus for him to return to the Lot and exorcise the ghosts of his past while researching a book on the Marsten House.

* TheLostLenore: Ben’s wife Miranda, killed in a motorcycle accident a couple years prior to the events of the novel. Her death was part of the impetus for him to return to the Lot and exorcise the ghosts of his past.

The story focuses on the Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot (known by the locals as "'salem's Lot" or just "the Lot"), which is slowly taken over by vampires, and a small band of survivors, including protagonist Ben Mears, who decide to fight back.

The eponymous town is also featured in King's short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road". (The former, written a number of years earlier, takes place in 1850 and is more of a Franchise/CthulhuMythos story; the latter is set three years after the events of the novel.) These stories are included in ''Literature/NightShift'', as well as the 2005 illustrated edition of '''Salem's Lot'', which also contains some fifty pages of deleted and rewritten material from King's original manuscript.

The eponymous town is also featured in King's short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road". (The former, written several years earlier, takes place in 1850 and is more of a Franchise/CthulhuMythos story; the latter is set three years after the events of the novel.) These stories are included in ''Literature/NightShift'', as well as the 2005 illustrated edition of '''Salem's Lot'', which also contains some fifty pages of deleted and rewritten material from King's original manuscript.

** Christian symbols do work against vampires, but only as long as the person wielding them has faith in them.

A feature film adaptation, directed by Gary Dauberman (''Film/AnnabelleComesHome''), is set for release on September 9, 2022.

The story focuses on the Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot (known by the locals as "'Salem's Lot" or just "the Lot"), which is slowly taken over by vampires, and a small band of survivors, including protagonist Ben Mears, who decide to fight back.

%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters

* {{Blackmail}}: While taking the keys to the cellar of the Marsten House, Hank Peters sees something that looks like a child's clothing and sneakers piled in a corner. When he tells Larry Crockett about it afterward and suggests that Barlow and Straker might be involved in Ralphie Glick's disappearance, Crockett tells him he could report it to the police... but that, if he does, "a lot of nastiness" (such as the married Peters fooling around with a waitress, and his dishonorable discharge from the Army) might come to light. This, along with fifty bucks that Crockett "forgot" to pay him for an earlier job, convinces Peters to forget all about what he saw.

** Meanwhile, both Gillespie's deputy Nolly Gardener and the county sheriff Homer [=McCaslin=] [[spoiler:end up becoming vampires]]. In [=McCaslin=]'s case, he's actually shown to be much more on the ball than Gillespie, which is probably why Barlow targeted him.

** Meanwhile, both Gillespie's deputy Nolly Gardener and county sheriff Homer [=McCaslin=] [[spoiler:end up becoming vampires]]. In [=McCaslin=]'s case, he's actually shown to be much more on the ball than Gillespie, which is probably why Barlow targeted him.

* AdultFear: When Burke finds out about the vampires, he initially wants to tell everyone what happened. Ben reminds him that people don't believe in vampires: claiming to have seen them will cause the townsfolk to assume he's a weird old man and ostracize him.

A 1975 horror novel by Creator/StephenKing, his second one published, following ''Literature/{{Carrie}}''.

[[caption-width-right:305:''"Tell you now that the whole town is empty."'' --'''Music/BobDylan''']]

* HollywoodHeartAttack: Matt Burke is a 63 year old man, with all the health problems that come with old age. Just seeing a vampire is enough to give him a heart attack [[spoiler:and the continued stress of dealing with the vampire infestation kills him.]]
* HomeEarlySurprise: Reggie Sawyer catches Bonnie and Cory in this manner.
-->'''Reggie:''' So it's true. How about that? I owe that tosspot Mickey Sylvester a case of Budweiser. Goddamn.

* NoodleIncident : What happened between Hubie and his wife, the day they died.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They're actually quite similar to Bram Stoker's version of vampires, as [[WordOfGod Stephen King acknowledges]] in one version of the book. Some additional features are created by the modern setting, such as Jimmy immediately and effectively treating his bite with medical disinfectant.
** They also differ in a few ways, and ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' goes on to explain the vampires in greater detail. For one thing, sunlight doesn't kill them, but it's certainly uncomfortable. They have their own religion. And according to Barlow's dialogue, they're Hungarian, not Romanian (Stephen King mistakenly refers to Magyar and Hungarian as two different things).
* ParentalSubstitute: [[spoiler:Ben to Mark, after his parents are killed.]]
* PedophilePriest: The Reverend John Groggins, a Methodist minister, is a rare non-Catholic example. In the chapter where King tells us about the town's secrets, it's revealed that he often has "horrible dreams" in which [[spoiler:he is preaching to the Little Misses' Bible Class "naked and slick".]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Parkins Gillespie decides to get the hell out of town once he reasons out something is amiss. Other minor characters like Charles James, Pauline Dickens and Rhoda Curless also survive by leaving the Lot as soon as possible, although their departures are not actually shown. Eventually, [[spoiler:even the main characters leave town toward the end, acknowledging that they are impossibly outnumbered by the vampires. They do eventually come back to [[KillItWithFire finish the job]], though.]]