MovieChat Forums > Salem's Lot (1979) Discussion > Why couldn't Salem talk?

Why couldn't Salem talk?


He looks like Nosereature, whi could talk.

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You mean Barlow. Maybe he'd never been human. He didn't look like he had, unlike the other vamps.

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I read part of the novel and Barlow definitely talks. Strange choice for a vampire movie.

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Christopher Lee did it too in Dracula: Prince of Darkness. Never uttered a word. It was actually the first Lee Dracula movie I saw, so I just assumed he was like that in all the Hammer Draculas. I was really surprised when he spoke in the next one.

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Apparently Lee thought the dialogue was so awful he refused to say it xD but the director of the film (naturally) denies this.

I've not seen that particular film, are there "gaps" which seem like Draccie should be speaking?

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Haha! Yes, I've read about the disputed version of events! But actually DPOD works perfectly well without Dracula speaking. It never seems odd. Strange.

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Same with The Night Stalker movie

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I'd forgotten that the vampire doesn't speak in that.

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I think that, what with a decade of vampires that were variations on the cliche (tail end of Hammer's Dracula, Count Yorga, Blackula) including the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, they were afraid that a normalish person, speaking lines while wearing a set of fangs - that every kid could wear on Halloween - just wouldn't seem anything but silly.

So they went with nosferatu and gave some lines to James Mason... I mean, I like the series, but I always remember the spook-face vampire looking spooky while James Mason says something like "The Master is happy to see you..." Good to have a translation of Hisss to English.

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It's more effective when he doesn't speak and growls instead

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Yes, like in The Incredible Hulk TV series from the 70s

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Yes Millsey. Exactly!! ✌

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Who the hell is Salem?

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