Jerusalem’s Lot, or Salem’s Lot, as many natives affectionately refer to it, appears on the outside to be the picture-perfect small town, something right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. But there is something evil festering under the surface of this Maine hamlet, and it seems to be emanating from the ominous Marsten House, perched atop a hill overlooking the town. When Ben Mears (Lowe) was a child, he had a horrifying experience in the house, one that has left him emotionally scarred. He hopes, however, to wrestle with the demons of his past by writing a book about the town and its inhabitants.

Ben is not the only newcomer to town. An antique dealer named Richard Straker (Sutherland) has also arrived to open up a new shop with his silent partner, Kurt Barlow (Hauer). It doesn’t take long before strange things begin happening. A series of mysterious deaths and disappearances eventually lead Ben, waitress Susan Norton (Mathis), high school teacher Matt Burke (Braugher) and Father Donald Callahan (Cromwell) on a quest to uncover the terrifying truth. What they find challenges their notions about the nature of evil, as horrors both human and inhuman threaten to destroy the town’s way of life.

Written in 1973 by Stephen King, Salem’s Lot was published by Doubleday in 1975.