NOTE: This article is only about the Marsten House from the 2004 adaptation, given that it established it is indeed sentient. The original novel incarnation and the 1979 version are not included in this page, since it is not confirmed that they are sentient. Thus, only the 2004 incarnation is featured in this page.
The Marsten House is the overarching antagonist of 2004`s miniseries Salem`s Lot, the second adaptation of the novel of the same name. Unlike, the original incarnation and the previous 1979 adaptation, it is a sentient, evil spirit of unknown origin that had itself bound to haunt a house by a man named Hubie Marsten. It attracts evil men and spirits to the town of Salem`s Lot. That is, before it was driven out when the house got burned down by Ben Mears.
Biography[]
Origins[]
The origins of the spirit is unknown, though it is possible it was a demon or the unholy spirit. It eventually came into the physical universe on Earth. At some point in time, Hubie Marsten, a Satanism follower, came owned a house, and for some reason the evil spirit tied itself to haunt the Marsten House, possibly because Hubie invited it. Eventually, the Spirit of the house decided to kill Hubie Marsten, and Hubie begged for his life, but the Spirit cackled, and, through telekinesis, hung Hubie, killing him an later killing his wife. . Young man Ben Mears witnessed this event, and was traumatized of what happened ever since than.
Salem`s Lot[]
Some time after, the Spirit of the house attracted the attention of evil Vampire lord known only as Kurt Barlow. And so Kurt sent his servant and mortal watchdog Richard Thomas Straker to buy the house. Straker bought the house from a man named Larry Crockett. Ben Mears, now a full grown man and novel writer, learned of Straker and Barlow, who pretended to be businessmen, planning to buy the house. Ben Mears came to Jerusalem's Lot to buy the house so that he could write a book about it and the traumatic experience he witnessed happen to Hubie Marsten in his childhood. Later, when shipping the coffin of Barlow, two men got scared when hearing a noise in the Marsten House, driving them away. Later, Kurt Barlow came to Dud Rodgers, and Dud asked if there are any ghosts in the house, in which Barlow stated there are no ghosts, before infecting him. Later, Straker captured Susan Norton and Mark Petrie, only for him to be knocked out cold by Mark. It is unknown if Straker was killed by Barlow or the Spirit. Later, Ben Mears, Father Callahan, and staked and killed as many Vampires as they can before leaving. Eventually, the entire town was infected with Vampires. Fortunately, Barlow was destroyed, and the Marsten House was set on fire, burning it down along with the rest of Jerusalem's Lot. It is unknown what happened to the Spirit, either it died, or was driven out. If it was Satan, then it most indeed was driven out, possibly losing power to have a connection to the physical universe.
Trivia[]
- The Marsten House is one of the few Stephen King villains, alongside the Overlook Hotel, to be a sentient object.
- Straker, like in the novel, is seen upside down, dead, with blood dripping down his neck. While it may be easy to assume that Barlow drained Straker of his blood like in the novel, it is debatable since Hubie Marsten was killed in a similar way by being hung up on the ceiling, which was an act done by the Marsten House.
- Two options are available. either Straker was hung upside down and drained of his blood by Barlow, or the Marsten House killed Straker itself, or Straker was killed by the Marsten House, hung upside down, and later found by Barlow and drained of his blood.
- It is unknown if the original novel incarnation and the 1979 version are alive or sentient, it could be that an evil spirit haunts the place, but it could also easily be it is a place where bad people are and where bad things happen, not necessarily a sentient object .
- It is unknown if the Marsten House will be sentient or not in the third 2023 movie adaptation.
