While doing a little visual research for this week’s cover package on vampires, I stumbled on a clip (above) from Salem’s Lot, the 1979 mini-series based on Stephen King’s best seller (the story’s big bad guy, Mr. Barlow, ranks #8 on our list of the 20 Greatest Vampires). I certainly wasn’t expecting to be impressed — let alone scared — by a made-for-TV movie from the ’70s. And Barlow was pretty much what I expected: An actor dolled up in cheesy-looking fangs, fake eyes, and aqua face paint; he looked like a sad, inbred member of the Blue Man Group family. He was also really, really scary. Like, click-pause-to-remind-yourself-you’re-still-in-your-office scary. Honestly, I’m embedding this clip without even watching it again, because I’m afraid I might scream like a stepped-on chihuahua when he shows up. And nobody needs to hear that.
It all got me thinking: What other vintage vampires still creep you out? Does Nosferatu still make you turn on the light? Has Bela Lugosi lost his bite? Let us know in the comments!
More vampires:
27 hottest TV/movie vampires
Neil Gaiman: Why vampires should go back underground
13 Great Pop-Culture Vampires
the scene with the kid at the window in Salem’s Lot is damn creepy!
You beat me to it, Paige. I was going to write the same thing! I’ve always told my sister there is no way I would open the window for her in that situation. Ever.
I never saw the miniseries, but the book was my first Stephen King – it kept me up at night for weeks. Thanks for the warning on how scary this is – I sat far away from my screen, bracing myself.
I think my heart just stopped!
Gaaaahhhh! I think my heart just stopped. Thanks, I’m going to have nightmares tonight for sure. I can’t really say that vampires (in general) have ever scared me before but now they will!
Yep! Salem’s Lot was one of the scariest. The kid at the window — I know I didn’t sleep well for days. Even today I can’t watch that movie.
I’ve seen alot of scary movies and consider myself pretty blase’. But I remember being truly frightened and disturbed by “Salem’s Lot” when I first saw it decades ago now. It’s a great example of how you don’t need huge budgets to create true terror. Just a great story that will keep you tossing and turning for several nights afterwards…
When I was twelve, my friend Aaron and I used to eat up horror movies. Nothing really phased us all that much (except The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s kitchen scene). We watched Salem’s Lot at noon in the living room of his home and nearly wet ourselves. Mr. Barlow wasn’t nearly as scary as James Mason’s Mr. Straker as his ghoul servant. When he taunts the priest to lay down his cross… that’s brilliant stuff. And the scene at the window, with Lance Kerwin’s Mark turning back his dead friend with the plastic cross (from the diorama his dad had just recently chastised him for) may just be the first geekgasm moment in recorded history.