By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright CBS
Yes, it’s my birthday so I’m going to share with you guys a couple of my favourite moments from the small and big screen.
Now I’m th ripe young age of 39….sort of, plus a couple of years, young at heart though ok over fifty, I’m sort of glad I was around to watch the TV series Salem’s Lot, the first time round in the early eighties. Based on the Stephen King book which to this day is my favourite book because it scared the life out of me, it detailed how a single vampire, Barlow and his servant, Straker consume the town of Salem’s Lot leaving only two survivors to stop it from happening elsewhere.
What I’ve discovered is that audiences have been desensitised over the years with the likes of Freddy and Jason. Good old jump scare movies just stopped cutting it as effects, gore and technology got better and audiences demanded more than creepy scares. The Conjuring and the Nun have brought that back somewhat today but seeing Salem’s Lot as a kid left a deep, deep impression and love for the genre that will be with me til the day I die.
There are some real terrifying moments in the series and everyone including me remembers newly turned vampire Ralphie Glick who is just a kid, floating out of the fog and scraping at his brother, Danny’s hospital window whispering to be let in. Hypnotised, Danny does so and Ralphie floats in and bites him in the neck. To this day, if I hear something at a window, I’m immediately transported back to that moment. Salem’s Lot is so dripping with nervous trepidation and tension; you just don’t know what is coming next. Good storytelling whether it be horror or sci fi shows evil getting to us through normal everyday things. Doctor Who did it brilliantly and still does for the most part whether it be a plastic chair devouring a man or a stone angel sneaking up on us when we are not looking. Sapphire and Steel did it when time tried to use children and nursery rhymes to break into our world and this is perfectly demonstrated in my clip.
Everyone’s instinct is to welcome people to their home. This is especially prevalent in small towns across the world where everyone knows everyone. What King does so well in Salem’s Lot is use that to wipe the population out for vampire Barlow’s cause. Hence local grave digger and handyman Mike Ryerson and school teacher Jason Burke.
Jason (Lew Ayres) has taught in the local school all his life and genuinely cares about his pupils even after they grow into adulthood. Mike Ryerson (Geoffrey Lewis) is liked by everyone and when he takes unwell, Jason brings him home to his house to recover. However, Jason hears voices one night and Mike is found dead the following morning with a single drop of blood on his collar. Mike is just one of a long line of sudden deaths in the town, all with the seeming same cause.
The following night Jason is alone at home when he hears the crape of a chair on the floor boards above him. He lives alone so cautiously goes upstairs and opens the door to find vampire Mike sitting silently rocking back and forth in a rocking chair. His skin is is blue, his head bowed. He is rocking back and forth, back and forth. Suddenly he stops and snaps his head up to look at Jason. His eyes are white points of light and I immediately recoiled in fear. Jason’s kind act has been used against him to allow this monster to invade his home intent on feeding on him. Never has a rocking chair been so terrifying……
The Time Warriors and Beyond 