Diksha Sundriyal
An adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name, Max’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ takes us to a small town in Maine where everything changes after the arrival of a mysterious casket. As mysterious disappearances and deaths abound in the town, Ben Mears, who’d left the place when he was young after the sudden death of his parents, tries to find a story for his next novel. Things really start to shake up when a young kid named Ralph goes missing while on his way home with his elder brother, Mike. Soon, one after another, members of Ralph’s family start to die, along with other people in town. It seems that the Marsten House at the top of the hill is the root of all troubles. SPOILERS AHEAD
What Happens to Matt Burke and Father Callahan?
One of the first people to understand what’s happening in the town is high school teacher Matt Burke. He’d been familiar with the stories of vampires, but it is after he meets Mike, the man who dug the grave for young Danny Glick, that he becomes convinced of something untoward happening in the Lot. Mike had been attacked by Danny on the day the latter was buried, but he dies in Matt’s house after receiving an offer of help. While Mike’s body is taken away to the morgue, he turns into a vampire at night and comes back to Matt’s house, where he had been invited previously. He attacks Matt, but the latter succeeds in saving himself using the power of the cross and rescinding his invitation, practically throwing Mike out of the house.
The next day, Matt shares his story with Ben, Suzy, and Dr. Cody. The three of them go to the morgue to confirm the theory by observing the body of Mrs. Glick, who died the previous night under the same circumstances as her son, Danny. Meanwhile, Matt goes to the Marsten House, which is where his paths cross with young Mark, who is there to kill Barlow and free his friend, Danny. Both of them are caught off guard by Straker, who locks them in the basement with no ladder to lead out of it. While Matt helps Mark get out of the basement, he himself is caught by Barlow, which seals his fate.
Later, when Mark returns to the place of Ben, Suzy, Dr. Cody, and Father Callahan, Matt has already been turned into a vampire. He attacks Ben, but the others manage to open the basement door, ushering in the sunlight. Ben drives a stake into Matt’s heart to free him of the torment of having turned into a monster. However, this is just the beginning of the danger, whose door the five of them seem to have knocked upon. Mark, having escaped Barlow’s grasp a couple of times now, worries that the vampire will target his parents. He leaves for his home with Father Callahan, hoping to convince his parents to come with them to the Church, where they can spend the night in relative safety. However, his parents don’t understand the urgency, and by the time they do, it’s already too late.
As expected, Barlow shows up at Mark’s house. He kills both his parents but is distracted by Father Callahan, who brandishes a cross in the hopes of driving him away. While the cross glows like it does with other vampires, it doesn’t seem to have the same effect on Barlow. While he seems to maintain his distance from it, he also seems composed enough to make the priest question his faith. As soon as that happens, the cross loses its meaning, and Barlow is free to kill Father Callahan. Meanwhile, Mark locks himself up in a tree house while all the children, now turned into vampires call out to him.
What Happens to Suzy and Dr. Cody?
After the events at the Marsten House basement, Suzy and Ben go to her house to get her mother. Suzy tries to convince her mother to come with them, but the woman is angry to see Ben in her house. At the same time, she also tells Suzy about someone she’s met. By the time Ben figures out that Suzy’s mother has become Barlow’s servant, a vampire comes in from the shadow and bites Suzy. Ben barely gets her out of the house and takes her to the church. Previously, Dr. Cody had been bitten by Mrs. Glick, but she saved herself by getting a rabies shot. Miraculously, it worked, and Dr. Cody didn’t turn into a vampire. Ben wishes the same for Suzy, but by the time he gets her to the church, it is already too late. The moment she steps into the church, the cross starts to glow, which confirms that she is beyond saving now.
Dr. Cody tries to convince Ben to kill Suzy while he can, but he refuses to do it. Worse, when she runs out of the church, he runs out after her, exposing himself to the other vampires. He barely saves himself, and he and Dr. Cody spend the night in the church. The next morning, they discover that the entire town is empty, which means that everyone has been turned into a vampire. The only way they can save themselves now is by leaving town, but first, they visit Mark. Seeing his parents and the priest dead, it seems that the boy has died, too. It is only after Ben finds his note, saying that he is going to kill Barlow, that they realize that the boy is still alive. Unable to leave town without him, they track down Mark at the Barlow & Straker shop, where Mark finally kills Danny, fulfilling his promise and freeing his friend from the grips of the monster.
The reunited trio notices that there are no cars in the entire town. This coincides with the fact that all of the vampires had to find a place big enough to hide them all. Ben realizes that the place is the drive-in where he went with Suzy. She’d mentioned that almost the entire town was there by sundown. If it was true when they were still human, it made sense for it to be true when they’d turned into vampires. Sure enough, when the trio reaches the drive-in, they find all the cars parked there. It turns out that the vampires are all hiding in the boots of the car. When Ben opens the trunk of Suzy’s car, he finds her sleeping in there. He is heartbroken to see her like that, but Dr. Cody explains that it is better to kill her rather than wait for sundown and have her wake up only to attack them.
When Ben can’t do it, Dr Cody decides to kill Suzy herself, but then she is shot in the head by Suzy’s mother. It seems that as Barlow’s servant, one of her tasks is to make sure that no one can get to the vampires while the sun is still out. To save her daughter, she shoots Dr. Cody’s brains off, bringing her story to an end. She shoots at Ben and Mark, hoping to kill them too. While the duo tries to escape, the sun starts to go down, and one by one, the trunks start to open. The vampires step out and attack the duo. While Mark runs to safety and out of the vampires’ reach by landing himself in the sunlight. Ben is caught by a horde of them.
He is saved only after Mark breaks down the screen that had been blocking the sun. This leads the vampires to be exposed to sunlight, and they are all killed. Soon after, Mark runs over Suzy’s mother as well. By the time they get to Barlow, sundown happens, and the duo tries to hide from him, which is when Suzy catches up with them. While Mark escapes, Ben is targeted by the vampire, but this time, he doesn’t show the hesitation he did a little while ago. In the fight that ensues, Suzy almost gets him several times. Eventually, however, Mark fashions a stake from the broken leg of a chair and stakes Suzy in the heart, killing her for good.
Do Ben and Mark Kill Barlow?
While Ben is busy saving himself from his ex-girlfriend, Mark fends off attacks from Barlow, who finally seems to have the boy within his grasp. With his quick thinking, Mark finds ways to evade the vampire, but even he knows that this can’t go on for too long. Sundown provides Barlow with a great leg up on Mark, who, despite his bravery and cunning, is still a kid. Barlow’s anger towards him also seems to be fuelled by the fact that despite being a mere boy, he has somehow evaded all the vampire attacks, including Barlow himself. Not just this, Mark has also proven to be a relentless enemy who had vowed not to rest until Barlow and all the other vampires are dead, despite being a seemingly helpless kid. Moreover, he even succeeded in his task by killing everyone from Straker and vampire Danny to all the other townsfolk, who were killed in one fell swoop.
Perhaps it is because Mark has been such a challenging enemy that Barlow seems to relish the chase. For a mighty strong vampire who has killed people in all kinds of situations, he takes his sweet time to scare Mark and enjoys feeding on his fear. Even with all the other vampires dead, there is nothing that Mark can do to save himself. Or so Barlow thinks. While he is distracted by chasing after Mark, Ben frees himself from the struggle with Suzy, and he kills her despite not wanting to do so. When he has saved himself, he immediately starts looking for Mark and realizes that Barlow is dangerously close to sinking his teeth into the kid. He knows that this is the only time that he can take advantage of Barlow being completely distracted with Mark. Ben finds a stake, and before Barlow can realize what’s happening, he drives it through the vampire’s head. To make sure that the deed is done, he puts the stake through Barlow’s heart as well, finally bringing the terrible ordeal to an end.
Barlow’s death could have saved others who were turned into a vampire by him, but by the time the master vampire dies, all the other vampires are dead, too. Within a matter of a few days, the entire town of Jerusalem’s Lot has been destroyed, turned into a ghost town with all but two of its residents dead. As a dark road ahead of them stares back, Mark asks Ben if he is sure everyone in the town is dead. Ben assures him that there is no way anyone could be alive. If they hadn’t already been turned into a vampire, they mostly likely fled the town, like Officer Parkins tried to do when Dr. Cody approached him for help. This leaves only one option for Ben and Mark: they have to leave town, too. As they drive off into the sunrise, it seems unlikely that they’d ever return to the Lot again.
Read More: Where Was Max’s Salem’s Lot Filmed?
