Blog-o-ween 2024: Day 17

Lots of ‘Salem’s Lot

Part Two

Chapter 10: The Lot (III)

Sections 8-13

Sunrise: 7:00 AM

Sunset: 6:15 PM

Corey Bryant gets caught in Bonnie Sawyer’s bed by her husband, Reggie. Corey is shown the door — and Reggie’s shotgun. As Corey walks back to his truck, he meets up with Barlow, who is beginning to look younger. Must be something in the Lot’s water, no?

Susan calls Ben with terrifying news. Floyd Tibbits has died, and Mike Ryerson’s body has gone missing from the morgue. Later, attendants will discover the bodies of Floyd Tibbits and Randy McDougall are also missing.

Later, Mark Petrie hears something…or someone…tap-tap-tapping on his bedroom window. His second-floor bedroom window. It is Danny Glick, who has finally shown up at Mark’s house to play. Better late than never.

Before we dive into today’s action, let’s take a moment to offer my favorite vampire novel a hearty and happy anniversary. It was on this date in 1975 that Doubleday published ‘Salem’s Lot. With its publication, in the words of writer Jeffery Deaver, Stephen King

“singlehandedly made popular fiction grow up. While there were many good best-selling writers before him, King, more than anybody since John D. MacDonald, brought reality to genre novels. He's often remarked that Salem's Lot was Peyton Place meets Dracula, and so it was. The rich characterization, the careful and caring social eye, the interplay of story line and character development announced that writers could take worn themes such as vampires and make them fresh again.”

‘Salem’s Lot may have changed the landscape of the popular novel in America, but it didn’t change him. Not one bit.

While the scene that is cemented in the minds of ‘Salem’s Lot fans is still to come, the scene of Reggie Sawyer finding someone else in his marital bed is one that always sticks in my mind. This is mainly due to it being featured in Tobe Hooper’s 1979 made-for-tv movie. Fred Willard (as Larry Crockett not Corey Bryant) in his red satin undies. Sweaty George Dzundza (as Cully Sawyer) holding a double-barreled shotgun to Fred’s face, cocking the hammers back, and then pulling the triggers…on empty barrels.

Whew! What a scene.

Here, the scene plays out in almost exactly the same way. Except Corey Bryant, with a load in his pants thanks to the scare he receives at the wrong end of Reggie’s empty gun, is told to leave the Lot and never come back. As he walks back to his truck, dejected, he is met by Barlow. As Barlow’s eyes go to work on Corey’s will, his words do much to explain why he chose to come to the “Land of the Free” in general and the small town of Jerusalem’s Lot in particular:

“They have never know hunger or want, the people of this country. It has been two generations since they knew anything close to it, and even then it was like a voice in a distant room. They think they have known sadness, but their sadness is that of a child who has spilled his ice cream on the grass at a birthday party… 

“The country is an amazing paradox. In other lands, when a man eats to his fullest day after day, that man becomes fat…sleepy…piggish. But in this land…it seems the more you have the more aggressive you become… 

“So I have come here, to a town which was first told of to me by a most brilliant man, a former townsman himself, now lamentably deceased. The folk here are still rich and full-blooded, folk who are stuffed with the aggression and darkness so necessary to…there is no English for it. Pokol; vurderlak; eyalik… 

“The people here have not cut off the vitality which flows from their mother, the earth, with a shell of concrete and cement. Their hands are plunged into the very waters of life. They have ripped the life from the earth, whole and beating!”

That last paragraph, with its focus on the connection between the blood of the people and the land, would not be out of place in some right-wing demagogue’s stump speech. It isn’t just the blood of the people that brought the wolf Barlow amongst the sheep of the Lot. All the ugliness we have been shown — the secrets the townsfolk keep buried in their hearts — this, too, is food for the vampire. The prejudices of Small Town, U.S.A., are easily manipulated and used — whether by a power-hungry politician or a bloodthirsty vampire.

I won’t dwell on it, but Susan is doing her Scully bit again on the phone with Ben. Dammit, Susan! Get with the program!

Don’t you roll your eyes at me!

Okay. Now let’s talk Mark Petrie and Danny Glick.

I’ve described this scene as the one that most people think of when they think of ‘Salem’s Lot. That’s not 100% accurate. (Sue me.) The scene that most people think of is one that doesn’t occur in the novel but is one helluva set-piece in the aforementioned Tobe Hooper made-for-tv movie. That scene is of Ralphie Glick’s visit to his brother Danny. We’ll talk more about that scene in one of our upcoming free days. This scene in Section 12 between Mark and Danny, however, covers much the same ground and gives off much the same uncanny vibe.

Danny’s appearance at Mark’s window is startling:

“…Danny Glick was staring in at him through the glass, his skin grave-pale, his eyes reddish and feral. Some dark substance was smeared about his lips and shin, and when he saw Mark looking at him, he smiled and showed teeth grown hideously long and sharp. 

“‘Let me in,’ the voice whispered, and Mark was not sure if the words had crossed dark air or were only in his mind… 

“There was nothing for that hideous entity outside the window to hold on to; his room was on the second floor and there was no ledge. Yet somehow it hung suspended in space…or perhaps it was clinging to the outside shingles like some dark insect.”

Luckily, as we’ve noted before, Mark Petrie is one of us; he is a Monster Kid. His love of all things horror — the movies, the magazines, the model kits — have prepared him for this moment. Still, it is almost not enough. Danny’s voice and eyes begin to break through Mark’s defenses. Luckily, Mark is a Stephen King hero, and not only is he armed with pop cultural references, but he also has a few tongue twisters and phonetic exercises at his disposal:

“Mark began to walk toward the window again. There was no help for it. There was no possible way to deny that voice. As he drew closer to the glass, the evil little boy’s face on the other side began to twitch and grimace with eagerness. Fingernails, black with earth, scratched at the windowpane. 

“Think of something. Quick! Quick! 

“‘The rain,’ he whispered hoarsely. “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. In vain he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.’ 

“Danny Glick hissed at him. 

“‘Mark! Open the window!’ 

“‘Betty Bitter bought some butter—’ 

“‘The window, Mark, he commands it!’ 

“‘—but, says Betty, this butter’s bitter.’”

This device is used by King in other books. Bill Denbrough is given the phrase “He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts” by his mother to help with his stutter, but he also uses it as protection from Pennywise. This is something that King borrows from one of his favorite novels, Donovan’s Brain by Curt Siodmak.

In this novel, the titular brain belongs to a megalomaniac who is trying to take over the mind of the doctor who saved its life. Donovan’s brain uses telepathy to control Dr. Cory. Cory’s only way of fighting against the brain’s power is to use the rhyme “Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.”

The best only steal from the best, baby!

Let’s call it a day there, Blog-o-weeners. Tomorrow, we will be talking Part 2, Chapter 11: Ben (IV), Sections 1-7. Our little troop of Fearless Vampire Killers is beginning to grow, and they are making plans to take the fight to Barlow and his growing legions.

If, as you drift off to sleep tonight, you happen to hear some tapping at your bedroom window, don’t be in such a rush to open it. But if you do, just…