A Return to Salem's Lot (1987)

While it's hard to top masters of horror Tobe Hooper and Stephen King's original miniseries Salem's Lot (1979), B-movie legend Larry Cohen is one of the few men up to the task, which he undertook with the sequel A Return to Salem's Lot (1987). Cohen had actually been commissioned by Warner Brothers to write the script for the original King adaptation, but they rejected his script before bringing on Hooper, so when they came to him again several years later, Cohen agreed on the condition of creative control, which they thankfully granted him. Anthropologist Joe Weber—played by Cohen regular Michael Moriarty—is summoned back to America to take custody of his troubled teenage son who is threatened with a stint in juvie. Joe decides the best thing for his son would be to move into Joe's childhood home in Salem's Lot, Maine, where he can get him away from the big city elements that contributed to his delinquency. Of course, Joe doesn't realize that the town is now populated by a colony of vampires who were escaping persecution in Europe and have been living there peacefully for years. After stumbling on this secret and discovering that the vampires have no desire to harm him or his son, Joe decides to make a go of it in Salem's Lot and even becomes involved romantically with his old high school sweetheart Cathy (Katja Crosby) who is herself a vampire now. In true Larry Cohen fashion, Katja Crosby goes topless for a pair of sex scenes with Moriarty ten minutes apart in the flick, which is one way to guarantee this sequel is at least slightly better than the original!