Horror icons are cherished by fans with a devotion that is comparable to superhero fans and even sports fans. The original horror icons like Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster have been haunting fans since the 1800s, predating even Superman and Batman, just for the sake of context. Toy companies have been mining nearly every horror movie possible in order cash-in on our love of the monsters that scared the crap out of us as kids, and it’s insane to me that I can walk into my local Toys R Us store and leave with a Leatherface action figure. When you really think about it, it’s mind-boggling because these are toys based on characters that are basically serial killers and cannibals. But, heck, I’ll eat it up time and again, and I know I’m not alone. It seems every horror icon has seen plastic representation of some sort in the past few years. All but one, that is — Kurt Barlow from Salem’s Lot.
For decades, the horror film genre saw a steady recycling of the likes of Dracula on the big screen with different actors and different interpretations redefining the character, which is a cool idea and all, but Dracula and those original monsters were often difficult to relate to, and they pretty much existed in the world of “the movies.” Christopher Lee’s take on Dracula in the seminal Hammer films was a good update, but the lavish sets and locations made them feel as though the action was happening miles away in a place the average fan will never go to.
All that changed in the 1970s and ‘80s when horror came to the suburbs with the introduction of a new breed of horror icon. We were introduced to Jason, Freddy, Leatherface, and Michael Myers all within a decade, give or take, and suddenly the familiar was as horrifying as a big castle on the top of a mountain. It was a time of enormous imagination and innovation in the horror genre, and we learned to be scared of the people next door, that lake at summer camp, and of simply going to sleep. It was awesome.
It was also in the ‘70s that the Dracula paradigm was introduced to small town America by way of Stephen King’s third novel: Salem’s Lot. The novel was adapted for TV as a movie/miniseries in 1979 by none other than Tobe Hooper, the mind behind the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and for a lot of kids my age whose parents allowed them to watch, the sight of Kurt Barlow was basically mentally scarring. Now, Barlow was introduced just as this new generation of horror icons was gaining a foothold, but he has never gotten the attention the others have, despite being way, way scarrier. He was on screen for probably a total of five minutes of the entire three-hour run time, but he was absolutely terrifying. I mean really terrifying. It’s got to be the most effective use of a “monster” in the history of horror movies.
Barlow’s look wasn’t exactly new or original, but it worked so well. In the novel, he was a ruffle-shirt-wearing, suave gentleman who had actual dialog. But for the 1979 TV movie, Hooper looked to update Max Schreck’s Count Orlok from the original Nosferatu. The result was something feral and horrifying. There was little about him that looked “human,” and he didn’t speak; he just emitted piercing shrieks and growls. We learn in later King novels that Barlow was a “type one vampire,” meaning he was of the oldest and most powerful variety. He predated Christianity, so it would seem that being a vampire for centuries eventually erodes any semblance of humanity from a person afflicted with the condition. That’s simply my own conjecture, of course, but I like to believe there was a time when Barlow was a normal guy, and it took centuries to turn him into the blue-skinned, rat-like being we saw in the movie.
Everything about Barlow is awesome, so it baffles me that he isn’t embraced like Freddy and Jason. Maybe because there weren’t 50 Salem’s Lot sequels that featured Barlow tormenting partially dressed teenagers? I mean, maybe that’s really it. There just wasn’t enough of him, literally, to become part of the cultural wallpaper from that time. There was a sequel in 1987 called A Return to Salem’s Lot, but Barlow was not featured in it, despite appearing in the artwork for the poster and VHS box. There was also talk of a regular TV series featuring Ben and Mark, the heroes of the original miniseries, as vampire hunters, but it never panned out. It would seem that interest in Salem’s Lot is and always has been there, but it was a mistake to not capitalize on Barlow as the central figure and build a franchise around him. It could have worked.
Both Funko and NECA have done a great job of translating nearly every recognizable horror icon to plastic, and I think either one could do a fantastic job with Kurt Barlow. A Mego-style, a retro 4-inch, a POP!, or a deluxe 7-inch figure — I would happily snatch-up every version of Kurt Barlow I could get my hands on. Funko recently gave us a set of retro 4-inch figures based on Jaws, and I think Salem’s Lot is an ideal candidate for similar treatment. Barlow, Straker, Ben, Susan, and Mark would be amazing.
Evidently there was a 12-inch Barlow released a few years ago, but I somehow missed it completely. That’s not my scale of choice, so that probably had something to do with it. But you know what? I probably would have snagged one just to have some representation of Kurt Barlow on my shelf.
I know I’m not the only fan of Salem’s Lot out there, but it seems the movie is slowly being forgotten about. It’s never even had a Blu-ray release, so every year I’ve been watching the same DVD again and again that I bought when DVD was the new, hot format. Does this mean it’s even more of a “cult” movie than what usually passes for a cult movie these days? Probably not. But I still think it’s deserving of the action-figure treatment, so hopefully some brave toy company gives Barlow a shot. Maybe for next Halloween?