David Soule at the Salem site Photo: Alamy
Actor and singer David Soul, who has died aged 80, will be best remembered for his iconic role as detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson in the ever-popular TV series Starsky and Hutch. Soul was generally associated with the roles he played in his decidedly straight-laced persona honed in the series, and as time went on he tended to play along for comic effect. Unsurprisingly, the most high-profile roles he played in subsequent years were self-parodying bits in everything from the Irvine Welsh adaptation of Mud to films such as Little Britain and Holby City on British television.
Soule's polished and good looks made him a natural for roles in comedies and light dramas, but these laid-back roles did his acting abilities a disservice. Not only did he manage to change his preppy appearance back in 1973 when he played a treacherous cop in the Dirty Harry film Magnum Force, but his finest hour as an actor came when he starred in the film Dirty Harry. . Stephen King's 1979 adaptation of Salem's Lot, which aired on CBS as a two-part drama just after Starsky and Hutch came to an end. If an impressionable teenager watched the miniseries because he was a Soul fan, he would undoubtedly be scared out of his wits.
Although by November 1979 King was already a bestselling author with a significant fan base, and his several landmark novels, including The Shining, Carrie and, naturally, 1975's Salem's Lot, had frightened millions of readers around the world, he had not yet has been featured prominently in television and film adaptations.
Although Stanley Kubrick worked hard on The Shining, which ultimately publicly disappointed King upon its release in May 1980, the only film of his work that was released before 1979 was Brian's Carrie de Palma. The film was a significant box office success in 1976 and also received critical acclaim for its starring performances by Sissy Spacek as a telekinetic teenager and Piper Laurie as her religious fanatic mother.
Stephen King in 1970 Photo: Getty
Any adaptation of Salem's Lot had to follow this precedent, and Warner Bros Television, who produced the film on a $4 million budget, was careful not to derail King's success before it began. After all, if done right, this could be the start of a long and profitable partnership.
However, King was initially unenthusiastic and later said that “television is the death of horror. When Salem's Lot came on television, a lot of people groaned, and I was one of those who groaned.” At first, attempts to adapt it were frustrating; King complained that “every Hollywood director who ever worked in horror wanted to do it, but no one could come up with a script.”
To succeed, he will have to take risks, and for them to pay off magnificently and horribly. Its story is about successful writer Ben Mears (somewhat like King's portrayal in all of his novels), who returns to his hometown of Salem's Lot only to realize that vampirism is rampant in the town, fueled by the charismatic and villainous Richard Straker. rich in potential, but will need to find the right directors and stars. Otherwise, the results may be disappointing or even laughable.
James Mason, Tobe Hooper and David Soul on the set of Salem's Lot Photo: Alamy
Hot horror director Tobe Hooper was hired on the heels of the huge commercial success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and veteran screen villain James Mason turned out to be the seductive and terrifying Straker. He even managed to utter the words: “Good evening,” which sound frighteningly ominous. But in the lead role of Mears, Hooper and screenwriter Paul Monash—a King veteran who had already produced Carrie—needed to find someone with a familiar face, but not too closely associated with the horror genre, who could hold his own. keeping up with Mason while also providing a stable figure for the audience to sympathize with amidst the fear. Producer Richard Kobritz met Soule in an office the actor later described as “black and gloomy” and offered him the role.
Soule was excited to act alongside Mason, which he called “a real thrill,” and the film was set in the Northern California town of Ferndale. The crucial location was the novel's Marsten House, a hilltop estate with a reputation for being haunted, about which Mears plans to write a book. Outside Ferndale, an elaborate set was built in the style of a New England house, although, as Soule said, “they built the exterior [but] it wasn't the whole house… it was the front, and the interior was Warner.” The brothers returned to California.
“One day, as we were getting ready to shoot at the house, we heard this terrible crash, and there was a car that had crashed into a telephone pole. When we approached the car, the driver had a look on his face like he had seen something impossible, and indeed, this man had lived in Ferndale for 30 years and had never seen anything like this before.” Soule won't be the only person stunned by what the production will create there.
Several of Starsky's Soul co-stars, including veteran character actor Juliette Lewis, Jeffrey's father, and George Dzunda – who later met a grisly end in Basic Instinct – reunited with him in Salem's Lot, and Soul enjoyed working with them. But he reserved his highest praise for Mason, whom he called “an absolute marvel… a legend, a true legend, a man who came out of the old school, and boy, you could tell the difference.” He really knew his stuff.” Contrary to his intimidating image on set, Soule praised Mason as “a joy to be around and a joy to be around.”
The two may have been mortal rivals on set, but when they weren't filming, they would head to Mason's trailer and play cards together, which Mason was an avid fan of. And the veteran actor was no stranger to punning humor either; he named Soule and his young co-star Lance Kerwin, who plays Mark Petrie, the boy whose knowledge of horror films helps solve the mystery of Salem's Lot, Lanceski and Hutch.
One of the film's most terrifying characters was Kurt Barlow, a Nosferatu-style vampire whom Straker arrived on Salem's Lot to resurrect. Played by Austrian character actor Reggie Nalder, Barlow's character was transformed from the novel's conventional villain into a demonic apparition on the basis that, as Kobritz said: “I didn't want anything suave or sexy, because I just didn't.” I don't think this will work; We've seen too much of this.” (The fact that his main villain was the velvet-voiced Mason meant that politeness was also guaranteed.)
Terrifying: a scene from the movie “Salem's Lot” Posted by Alami
Soule noted that “Nadler was born to play this role. He didn't like it very much because he had to wear contact lenses and his makeup kept falling off, so we had to stop and rebuild his face, eyes, teeth and eight-inch nails.” He joked that Nalder may have been unhappy with the demands of the role – the actor commented: “The make-up and contact lenses were painful, but I got used to them. I liked the money best,” while, in Soule’s knowing words, “I did it for the art.”
The series was full of immediately iconic fears. The moment when child vampire Ralphie Glick tries to sneak into his brother Danny's room from the outside by horribly scratching at the window remains the most memorable, and has been referenced in everything from The Simpsons to Eminem's song “Lose Yourself.” Guardians of the Galaxy director and DC helmer James Gunn wrote after Hooper's death in 2017 that the director “created the moment that scared me most as a child – that flying dead kid knocking on the window.”
Taking into account the demands of television rather than film, he largely avoided overt bloodshed in favor of what Hooper called “the subtext of the grave.” He said: “There is no blood or violence in TV films. It has an atmosphere that creates something you can't escape – a reminder that our time is limited, and all the accessories that come with it, such as visual effects.”
Soule enjoyed working with a “wonderful director”, whom he praised for being “very well prepared”. There were also lighter moments. The actor celebrated his birthday on the set; He later joked: “I was told I had a good time, but I don't remember a hell of a lot… I was told I enjoyed it too.”
Reggie Nalder as the villain from “Jel of Salem” Photo: Alamy
Salem's Lot was enthusiastically received upon its initial showing, followed by a sequel, Return to Salem's Lot, and another miniseries adaptation in 2004, this time starring Rob Lowe. The story would go on to prove one of the most influential of all modern vampire stories, inspiring everything from eighties classics like The Lost Boys and Fright Night to the 2021 Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass Buffy the Slayer vampires” and King's regular translator Mike Flanagan. < /p>
Another remake of the film is planned, this time directed by It screenwriter Gary Dauberman. However, it will be hard to top the original, which remains one of King's most successful adaptations, with an emphasis on suggestion and subtlety of gore that makes it all the more terrifying.
As Soule puts it: Salem's Lot is responsible for an entirely new genre, especially in terms of television. I think the film we made is a legendary film, a real film, and everything else is an attempt to copy elements of what we achieved.” Obituaries will hail this versatile actor for forever being Hutch, but Salem's Lot is certainly his truest and most lasting legacy.
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