Random Creepy Scene # 416: Salem’s Lot

Adapted from Stephen King’s best selling 1975 novel of the same name, Tobe Hooper’s supremely creepy TV mini-series follows writer Ben Mears (David Soul) as he travels back to his hometown of Salem’s Lot in order to write a new novel and research the old Marsten house. The house’s latest tenants are causing quite a stir in the town. One of them, sinister Richard Straker (James Mason), runs a small antique shop in the town; the other resident, the mysterious silent partner Kurt Barlow, has yet to be glimpsed by anyone. It becomes clear as the series unfolds, that Barlow is an ancient master vampire and is gradually turning the residents of Salem’s Lot into vampires.

One of his first victims is a young boy, Ralphie Glick. Glick disappears soon after Straker and Barlow move into town. His grisly fate becomes clear later in the series in a scene that makes the blood run cold and hairs prick up…

Ralphie appears floating outside his brother Danny’s bedroom window, feebly scratching at the glass and staring intently at his sibling. Danny gingerly gets out of bed and, seemingly transfixed by his now vampiric brother, moves slowly towards the window. Outside his brother continues to float ominously in a swirl of fog until he is let in and, smiling sadistically at his brother, proceeds to float across the bedroom towards him.

The shots of the boy floating outside the window were filmed backwards by Hooper to lend them an eerie and strange feel and the scene is accompanied by a haunting and foreboding score of whining strings and thumping piano. Fertiliser for blossoming nightmares…

 

The Nosferatu-like Kurt Barlow...