A Return to Salem's Lot

A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) is a horror-comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Director Larry Cohen — the cult filmmaker behind It's Alive and God Told Me To — made this loose companion to the Stephen King TV adaptation, swapping straight scares for something sharper and stranger.

Anthropologist Joe Weber drives to the sleepy New England town of Salem's Lot with his troubled teenage son, expecting nothing more eventful than a quiet break. The town's secret surfaces fast: almost everyone there is a vampire. Organized vampires, as it turns out — they own property, run farms, follow a nightly schedule. The community elders offer Joe a deal: write their holy scripture and nobody gets bitten. Joe is a scientist, trained to observe strange customs without flinching. The logic seems sound. Then it isn't.

Cohen uses the horror framework as a delivery system for satire about small-town America and its hidden rules. Legendary filmmaker Samuel Fuller appears in a supporting role, adding a layer of cinephile texture to the whole enterprise. Stream A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) online on iFILM.