A Return To Salem's Lot (1987) **1/2

A Return To Salem’s Lot (1987) is a mess of a movie. It’s sloppily directed, it has strange (and frequent) tonal shifts, jarring edits, piss-poor makeup, and laughable acting. In short: a Larry Cohen film through and through (to quote my friend Alex).

Like a handful of Cohen’s films, it’s not terribly good, but it’s enjoyable for its improv style and zaniness. Michael Moriarty coldcocks three different people but actually shows more restraint than most of the other actors for a change, Samuel Fuller chomps cigars and shouts (there’s plenty of shouting in this film, natch), and the lead child actor (in his only screen credit) swears a lot. 

I can’t wrap my head around why anyone (including the man himself) thought Cohen was a good choice for this material. ARTSL lacks tension, horror, cohesion, and vision. But if you ignore it as a sequel to Salem's Lot (1979) (review), and treat it as another oddball Cohen vehicle, it’s a pretty fun, occasionally hilarious ride.

Larry Cohen Feature Films Ranked