10 Vampire Rules & How To Kill Them In Salem's Lot

The following article contains images and descriptions of blood, gore and deaths in
Salem’s Lot

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The following contains spoilers for Salem’s Lot, now streaming on Max

Salem’s Lot establishes a lot of specific rules and weaknesses about their version of vampires. Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, Salem’s Lot is the story of a small town in the northeastern United States that finds itself dealing with a vampiric infestation. Starting with a brutal sacrifice, the vampires quickly spread through town. As more citizens are killed and transformed into bloodsuckers themselves, Salem’s Lot‘s main characters rally together and do their best to bring down the source of the corruption. This brings them up against the mysterious monster known as Mister Barlow.

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It’s a frightening take on the classic vampire lore that’s inspired multiple adaptations over the years. Salem’s Lot is notable for the ways it references, tweaks, and subverts expectations about vampires. In some cases, the weaknesses are consistent with classic vampire lore. In others regards, Salem’s Lot‘s ending makes takes some surprising diversions and tweaks that lore. This gives the humans fighting the vampires a better chance at survival, but with weapons that come with unexpected weaknesses. Here are the most important rules and weaknesses about vampires in Salem’s Lot.

10 Vampires Can Be Warded Off By White Roses & Garlic

These Plants Are Apparently Vampire Deterrents

The vampires of Salem’s Lot share many of the classic weaknesses that typically hurt the undead, including white roses and garlic. Garlic is an infamous means of repelling vampires. This belief stretches back to ancient folklore about the creatures, with garlic and white roses considered a strong natural counter to a vampiric infestation. While there isn’t much of an opportunity to see if garlic can indeed hurt the vampires of Salem’s Lot, it’s apparent that white roses could pose a threat to vampires.

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Richard Straker is the human servant of the vampire Mister Barlow, who carries out his wants and desires in the daylight. He carries out Barlow’s desires in the sunlight and takes measures to protect the vampire. One of his precautions to protect his master included buying up all the white roses from the local flower shops. This keeps the vampire hunters from being able to acquire some and use it against the vampires. Luckily, there are other ways to slay vampires and repel them.

9 Vampires Can Be Killed By A Wooden Stake

The Stakes Need To Puncture The Heart To Be Effective

While the vampires of Salem’s Lot seem to be immune to most mortal perils, they follow a classic tradition in keeping their natural weakness to wooden stakes. The vampires of Salem’s Lot that are killed are largely dispatched with wooden stakes to the heart. This blow slays the vampire almost immediately and causes its body to seemingly revert to a more human appearance. This is ultimately the fate of Matthew Burke, Danny Glick, Susan Norton, and Barlow.

Notable Salem’s Lot Characters Killed By A Stake To The Heart	Cast
Matthew Burke	Bill Camp
Mike Ryerson	Spencer Treat Clark
Danny Glick	Nicholas Crovetti
Susan Norton	See more : Derek Barnett Ethnicity, What is Derek Barnett’s Ethnicity? Makenzie Leigh
Kurt Barlow	Alexander Ward

The stake seems to be the most consistent means of killing a vampire in one blow, although the attack needs to go through the heart. At one point, the vampire hunters try to slay a vampire with a stake but miss the heart. While the blow briefly staggers the vampire, it does no permanent damage to the creature. This makes stakes one of the most important weapons that the hunters have in their fight against the vampires, and the proper use of it is crucial to their survival.

8 Vampires Must Be Invited In (And Can Have Their Invitation Revoked)

How Matthew Burke Is Able To Cast A Vampire Out Of His House With Just His Words

Vampires have very specific rules in Salem’s Lot about how they can attack people. Although they can stalk the night freely, they can only enter closed structures if they are invited. This is where their hypnotism comes into play, as Mark discovers early in the film after a vampiric Danny uses his powers to force Mark to open the window so he can enter. Mark later uses this detail to his advantage, lasting the night in his treehouse even while surrounded by vampires.

Mark can do this because he closes the windows and doors before any of them can enter. The other way vampires can get into a building is with an invitation, which could allow them cross the threshold as they see fit. This is a classic trope of vampire stories, but one that Salem’s Lot plays with in a clever way. Although Mr. Burke initially invites a sickly Mike Ryerson into his home, he’s eventually able to revoke that invitation after he transforms into a full vampire. This causes Mike to be forcibly ejected from the building, saving Burke’s life.

7 Vampires Can’t Enter Consecrated Ground

Vampires Need To Make A Sacrifice To Be Able To Hunt

Even beyond the need for invitations, vampires in Salem’s Lot have a unique connection to consecrated ground. Holy places like churches are seemingly safe from vampires, as Ben and Dr. Cody discover when they use one as a sanctuary from a vampire attack. The vampires may surround the building and are even able to throw the corpse of the local police sheriff through the windows of the church, but they cannot themselves enter. This, coupled with their aversion to crosses, suggests that other religious things like holy water do indeed work on these vampires.

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However, the vampires have their own unique take on consecrating their hunting grounds. Ralph Glick is the first causality of the film, captured by Straker and serving as an offering to Barlow. Straker speaks about Ralph as a “sacrifice,” allowing Barlow to hunt in the town and suggesting that this is a limit that keeps vampires in Salem’s Lot from simply expanding beyond their territory. The fact that seemingly nothing is left of Ralph afterwards (explaining why audiences never actually see a vampiric Ralph) suggests this was a far more brutal killing than Barlow’s other murders.

6 Killing The Head Vampire Does Not Necessarily Kill All The Rest

The Salem’s Lot Sequel Short Stories Confirm The Vampire Infestation Remains In The Town

One of the big theories Mark has about vampires after encountering them surrounds a head vampire. In some versions of vampire stories, killing the vampire that sired others can free them from their curse. The head vampire is typically far older and more powerful, often with the ability to see and communicate through their corrupted victims. Notably, the vampires of Salem’s Lot do seem to have a connection to one another, making Mister Barlow a clear candidate for the head vampire. They do seem to share a form of psychic bond, as one vampire mocks Ben over Burke’s death.

However, this psychic bond doesn’t necessarily mean that all the vampires are slain if the head one is killed. While Mark and Ben escape Salem’s Lot after slaying Mister Barlow and don’t encounter any other vampires, other short story sequels to Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot like “One for the Road” revealed that the vampiric infestation lived on in the town long after Barlow’s demise. This suggests that even though the heroes of Salem’s Lot were victorious and escaped with their lives, the infected town citizens who survived the climax remained free to hunt prey.

A quasi-sequel to
Salem’s Lot
, the short story “One for the Road,” can be found in Stephen King’s collection of short stories titled
Night Shift
.

5 Vampire Marks Disappear After Their Deaths

Dead Vampires Revert To Human Appearance

The vampiric infection is seemingly transferred from person to person through a bite to the neck. Once a person is bitten, they become increasingly sickly as the curse sets in. Attempts to combat the infection largely fail, with the marks on their neck seemingly fading as they pass away. However, this seems to just be a precursor to their eventual transformation into a vampire. This isn’t the only aspect of a vampire that fades after their death.

As seen when minor vampires in the film are staked through the heart, their deaths seem to remove the curse from them. This applies to their physical forms, with their eyes reverting back to normal and their fangs shifting back into more normal looking teeth. This differs from other famous vampire stories, where killing the undead creature can reduce the body to ash. By contrast, vampires who are killed with crosses seem to fully collapse into mist.

4 Vampire Bites Aren’t Necessarily Fatal

Dr. Cody Is Able To Combat A Vampire Bite With Human Medicine

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One of the most surprising turns in Salem’s Lot‘s approach to vampires is how the film reveals vampire bites aren’t a death sentence. In other vampire stories, being bitten by one of the creatures causes an infection that can’t be undone. Dr. Cody initially seems to be doomed to this kind of fate after she’s bitten by Danny’s mother. However, Ben and Susan are able to destroy the vampire before she can kill Dr. Cody. Cody then uses alcohol on the wound and gives herself a rabies shot as a means of combating the infection.

After a moment of uncertainty, this seems to actually fight back the infection and saves Dr. Cody. The curse seems to have no effect on her afterward, suggesting she was able to beat the curse before it really set in. This is a clever touch in Salem’s Lot, highlighting how human advancements like medicine and technology can help combat the undead.

3 Vampires Can Hypnotize People

The Hypnotization Can Be Broken Fairly Easily

One of the most useful and deadly powers that vampires possess in Salem’s Lot is the ability to hypnotize people. Across the course of the film, this power is seen in different forms. The vampire Danny is able to briefly use this power against Mark, which causes the latter’s eyes to glass over briefly. A similar fate almost befalls Burke when he’s attacked by Mike. However, both Mark and Burke are able to break free long enough to use a cross against the predator, saving themselves.

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Barlow’s power and experience doesn’t seem to make his version of hypnotism in the film any more useful. Although he exhibits this power on the delivery man Royal when he’s first brought to the Marsten House, Royal is quickly snapped back to reality and escapes the cellar. This power seems to be best used when it can overwhelm a target, but it is established as a fairly weak amount of control.

2 Vampires Can Be Repelled By Crosses (But It Doesn’t Automatically Work)

The Crosses Need Faith To Work

One of the most potent weapons the vampire hunters use in Salem’s Lot are crosses. Burke discovers crosses are a particularly useful tool in repelling vampires when one attacks him in his home. Notably, doing this causes the cross to glow when in the presence of a vampire. This has several functions, as it can brighten up dark spaces, warn people of a vampire’s presence, and can burn the undead with their touch. Extended contact can even seemingly destroy the vampire, as seen with Danny’s mother.

The crosses can even be improvised to an extent, with Ben and Susan quickly fashioning an effective one out of tongue depressors and tape. However, crosses aren’t necessarily an instant weapon against the undead. As Father Callahan discovers when he confronts Mister Barlow in a bid to give Mark time to escape, a lack of faith can undermine the power of the religious object and make it useless as a weapon. In the film, his crisis of faith leaves Father Callahan defenseless against the vampire, who quickly kills him.

1 Vampires Can Be Killed By Sunlight

The Most Common Vampire Weakness Is In Salem’s Lot

As in most versions of vampire lore, the undead monsters of Salem’s Lot can be killed with sunlight. Although the vampires aren’t necessarily helpless during the day (as seen by the monstrous version of Burke and Danny who attempt to attack targets from the shadows of darkened buildings), they do need to avoid sunlight. Even a few brief moments in the sun can set the exposed skin on fire. Prolonged exposure will cause the entire vampire to burst into flames.

This ends up being the key to killing the several vampires who awaken in the film’s third act. As the sun sets and night sets in, Mark is able to bring down the local drive-in screen to expose the entire lot to sunlight, killing dozens in one blow. Sunlight is the classic weakness of most vampires in fiction, and makes an ideal weapon in Salem’s Lot.

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6/10 7.5/10 Salem’s Lot (2024)

Salem’s Lot is a 2024 remake of the movie of the same name released in 1979. The latest adaptation of Stephen King’s 1975 novel stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, and Bill Camp, with Gary Dauberman writing and directing the Max original film. The plot revolves around a writer who discovers a vampire in his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot upon returning home for inspiration.

Director Gary Dauberman Release Date October 3, 2024 Writers Gary Dauberman Cast Lewis Pullman , Alfre Woodard , Makenzie Leigh , Bill Camp , Spencer Treat Clark , Pilou Asbæk , John Benjamin Hickey , William Sadler , Jordan Preston Carter , Nicholas Crovetti , Cade Woodward , Kellan Rhude , Debra Christofferson , Rebecca Gibel , Mike Bash , Fedna Jacquet , Avery Bederman Expand

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Category: Entertainment