A Return To Salem's Lot (1987)

A RETURN TO SALEM’S LOT (1987)

Dir: Larry Cohen

“You have run across the oldest race in humanity. Nestled here quietly amid the folks, protected by the skepticism that says they don’t exist.”

There’s been so much hate against this film through the years. And I don’t get it. Maybe those purists, who say it has nothing to do with Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot (1979), are the main group against the existence of this film. But, I’ve always believed it continued the themes of King’s book and sequel story “One For The Road.” The town of Jerusalem’s Lot has been overrun with evil, with vampires. “Don’t ever go to Salem’s Lot!” Cohen took this concept and played on our expectations. When we think of a town overrun with bloodsuckers we think something akin to 30 Days Of Night (2007), but what if after a few generations those people settled into a prosaic Normal Rockwell-esque setting. They would sustain themselves on blood from cattle with the occasional delicacy of a straggler. This is what sets Return in a class of its own. It asks questions most vampire fare strays from.

Larry Cohen’s go-to gangly scene chewer, Michael Moriority has inherited a place in Salem’s Lot. As his estranged son is one step away from a detention center, he decides to pack them up and head out to rural America. Moriority’s character, Joe, is a documentary filmmaker who spends most of his time embedded in undocumented tribes across the world. When it is discovered their new home is a habitat for the oldest race of beings, vampires, they request he chronicle their way of life. In return, Joe and his son Jeremy will not be harmed. Judge Axel played by veteran actor Andrew Duggan is the head vampire of the town, his pitch to Joe makes sense: “You’ve seen more than most people, you’ve traveled through a world of starvation, war and killing for profit. You think that that world is any better than ours?” He explains the feeding off cows: “We feast off the blood of cows, because people are diseased with AIDS, drugs, and hepatitis, these cows regenerate their blood within a week.” It’s an intellectual horror film that reflects our society through the eyes of a vampire. We’d call it elevated horror today, but in 1987, no one cared enough to call it anything. The film also features director Samuel Fuller as a Nazi hunter turned vampire hunter; this alone makes Return a classic. Cohen's film was ahead of its time. While other eighties vampire films revolved around nomadic creatures, he intended to provide a humanizing view of them.

One of my favorite moments is when Judge Axel and his wife are bedding for the day. They’re about to close their coffins when Alex’s wife Martha asks: “You just want to find out if any human can love us?” To which Axel replies, “If he [Joe] loves us, he’ll be my successor, if not I’ll send his soul straight to hell. Good day, dear.” And they close their coffins for bed. The film is brilliant, case closed.