I'd say it is about 8.5/10 on the scare factor. If you ask my friend, he'd say 10. We watched this movie as kids on VHS at my friend's house late one night. We had all the lights off so the room was pitch dark except for the glow of the TV screen. My friend's grandmother poked her head into the room to see how we were doing and my friend jumped out of his seat screaming. HahA! All these many years later, we still remind him about that every chance we get. Good times!

I saw this for the first time last night. I was 13 or 14 when this was on TV in 1979. I guess I remember being aware of it, but I scared really easily back then and would never have watched it. Now as an adult who loves horror movies, but hasn't been really scared by one in a long time, I thought this was fantastic. I feel that I can "recognize" what's scary in horror movies without actually being scared. And let me tell you, I recognized this as scary as Hell.

By far and away the most horrifying scene was the first Glick boy floating at the window of his brother's room. That is the kind of thing that nightmares are made of for kids, and I almost wish I had seen it when I was 13 so I could have been haunted by that image forever.

Another fantastic scene was Lew Ayers walking down the hallway before going into the bedroom to find Mike the gravedigger as a vampire. The scene where Ayers is walking is so quiet you can hear his footsteps and the squeaking of the floor boards.

And of course Barlow himself is possibility the most hideous vampire ever. Well, at least by 1979 he was. This movie just did everything right. Even the few jump scares were well-placed and worked right, not overdone or pointless.

I agree it was a masterpiece. I love how the vampires are waking up when he's staking him adding real urgancy

Saw this for the first time last night, and though I really don't get scared easily when watching horror films, I still found this one very creepy, highly entertaining, and just overall well-done. Yes, the couple of scenes mentioned above were excellent: the Glick boy floating and tapping at his brother's window was spine tingling, and the whole sequence of Lew Ayres finding Mike in the bedroom as a hissing vampire was great. That scene actually had me shouting at the screen, hoping against hope that Lew Ayres would snap out of it and ward him off with the cross. And had me greatly disappointed when he finally did, only to have a heart attack that put him out of commission for the rest of the movie.

@barrymost said:

the Glick boy floating and tapping at his brother's window was spine tingling

Dude that was the part that made me literally close my eyes and leave the room until the scene was over, which is something I had never done and never done since. I was just a wee lad when this show aired. This show was BY FAR the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen, or heard of, on network tv. Years later in college I rented this flick and brought it to a Halloween party, telling everyone it was the scariest thing ever. They couldn't stop laughing at how cheesy it was. I was humiliated, left the party in shame. Glad to hear some people are getting chills from it today, that validates my childhood memories!

Hey don't be too hard on yourself, rooprect. It was probably the wrong place to be watching Salem's Lot. Sure it was Halloween, but it was a party, surrounded by people out to have a good time. People were in the wrong frame of mind to be watching it. Get some of those people alone in a dark room watching this, and they'd probably wouldn't sleep a wink the rest of the night.

@Dark_Sithlord said:

Get some of those people alone in a dark room watching this, and they'd probably wouldn't sleep a wink the rest of the night.

Hahaha that's true... Hey that would be a great plot for a bad "Saw" ripoff. Years later, people from the Halloween party start getting abducted and forced to watch Salem's Lot alone in a dark room, chained to some contraption that does nasty things to them if they stop screaming. That'll teach em!

@barrymost said: the Glick boy floating and tapping at his brother's window was spine tingling,

Yes, I was 17 when I watched this when it was first released, and I'm still haunted by the floating figure of the boy outside the window. It is still probably the most memorable part of the series for me.

great version of an average book. looks dated now but back in the day it was a masterpiece