Salem's Lot

Harry Sukman's music for the 1979 miniseries Salem's Lot is rooted in the decades-long conventions of traditional, gothic horror transposing its sense of dread to Maine via stabbing percussion, church organ, creepy bell glissandos and shivering strings. Right from the "Main Title,"� which stabs forth with full, orchestral fury before sequing into the raucous, rhythmically evil flourish of a danse macabre, listeners can tell they are in for a thrilling, fresh journey into terror. Main baddie Kurt Barlow is not seductively handsome like Count Dracula, and so Sukman plays these trappings of classic horror music without the dark, romantic flourishes.

Sukman composed and conducted some two hours of music for Salem's Lot, including roughly 90 individual cues. Many of them were short, others were intended to be edited together during postproduction. He also wrote three source cues (only one of which was used) and arranged a Vivaldi work for source material as well.

Intrada had access to the complete 1/2" three-channel stereo scoring session masters, vaulted by Warner Bros. in pristine condition. Since these elements included the January 1980 scoring sessions for the later edited-down version of the miniseries, Intrada is also able to present the additional three cues recorded specially for the edited versions of the movie, including the exciting "End Credits" cue Sukman composed.