A RETURN TO SALEM’S LOT

Anthropologist Joe Weber and his rebellious son Jeremy arrive in Salem’s Lot, where Joe had grown up and has recently inherited a house from his estranged aunt. To their surprise, the small New England town is populated by vampires. The 300-year-old vampire community, led by the grandfatherly Judge Axel, has grown rich from real estate values alone, and its members have become wealthy old Republicans, the literal embodiment of “old money” in America. Although they drink human blood from time to time, they have primarily turned to cattle blood for sustenance since, as Judge Axel explains, human blood has become unsafe, what with alcohol, drugs, hepatitis, and “that Aids virus”. A Return to Salem’s Lot stars Andrew Duggan, in one of his last roles, and director Samuel Fuller, as a crotchety, cigar-chomping vampire hunter. Thematically, Cohen continues his use of the fantasy genres to explore modern-day political and social ills.