Cult/ Salem’s Lot (15)

Ben Mears, a successful author, returns to his small New England hometown of Salem’s Lot with a plan to write a book about an old hilltop house that looms over the local community.

Mears discovers, though, that Marsten House has a new tenant: a suave antiques dealer named Richard Straker who is in the process of opening a shop with his mysterious “business partner.”

As a series of sinister events befalls the townspeople, it’s up to the unlikely duo of Mears and Mark Petrie – a local teenager with a horror movie obsession – to save Salem’s Lot.

Stephen King’s weighty 1975 novel initially proved resistant to Hollywood adaptations. But this 1979 production, originally made as a 2-part television miniseries, skilfully condensed the source material for the screen whilst retaining its haunting essence.

Throw in direction from Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist), stylistic nods to the likes of Nosferatu, and a deliciously devilish performance from James Mason, and you have one of the finest productions in a very long list of King adaptations.