Salem’s Lot is about vampires, of course. But as I recently re-read King’s 1975 novel and watched the exceptional TV miniseries (directed by Tobe Hooper) from 1979, it occurred to me that the latter—the film, not the novel–might also be about the nuclear threat. In 1979, America was entrenched in Cold War paranoia, with the attendant heightened fears of nuclear war. Filmed in July and August 1979 and airing on CBS on November 17 and 24, 1979, Salem’s Lot was bookended by two events critical to deepening anxiety about the nuclear threat. In only four more years, ABC’s The Day After (1983) would galvanize 100 million people gathered around their TVs to watch the devastating consequences of a nuclear attack on US soil, setting a record for the highest rated television film ever. And just before Salem’s Lot began filming, Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in central Pennsylvania was the site, on March 28, 1979, of the worst nuclear accident in the US. Anxiety about the effects of nuclear energy and nuclear war was rampant.
Here’s the trailer for Salem’s Lot from the 2016 Blu-ray:
There’s nothing about the nuclear threat in King’s novel, which makes it all the more intriguing that it appears in the film. Just over halfway through the roughly three hour miniseries, Constable Parkins Gillespie (Kenneth McMillan) and Deputy Nolly Gardner (Robert Lussier) are talking about background checks Nolly’s just done on the three outsiders who have recently arrived in town. Reporting on what he found out about writer Ben Mears (David Soul), Nolly says, “He’s a left-winger. Against nuclear power, stuff like that.”
Parkins Gillespie and Nolly Gardner discuss Ben Mears’ anti nuclear power views
Shortly after, the scene cuts to Ben Mears and Jason Burke (Lew Ayres) at a restaurant.
Ben Mears and Jason Burke discussing the Marsten House
Ben and Jason almost immediately start talking about the looming Marsten House, as Jason asks Ben if the notorious mansion has made it into his novel. Ben replies:
“Everything in Salem’s Lot is connected with that house. You can see it from every part of the town. It’s like a beacon throwing off an energy force.”
The conversation is immediately interrupted by Mike Ryerson (Geoffrey Lewis), who stumbles up to their table.
A sick Mike Ryerson arrives
Helping him to sit, Jason asks him is he’s on something, on drugs, but Mike replies only, “Sick. I feel sick.” He’s been sickened by the force—the “energy force”—emanating from Marsden House. This “energy force” renders its victims utterly drained, fatigued, weak, pale—the symptoms, in other words, of radiation sickness.
“Sick. I feel sick.”
So, Salem’s Lot is definitely about vampirism. But vampirism has been used to signal a lot of other social anxieties—for instance, ethnic otherness, miscegenation, immigration, and capitalism. For a moment, in its middle, the 1979 Salem’s Lot miniseries rather overtly taps into anxieties about nuclear fallout, whether from war or accident. The film’s famous imagery—the pallor of its victims—subtly reinforces the idea of nuclear sickness.
But, yes, they’re also vampires.
Related posts on Stephen King adaptations: on “The Raft”; The Mist; Gerald’s Game; Cell; Pet Sematary; more on Pet Sematary–a focus on Zelda; and Creepshow.
Salem’s Lot is streaming on Amazon:
And there’s Stephen King’s fantastic novel (one of my top 3 King novels):
