A Return to Salem's Lot is a 1987 American vampire film co-written and directed by Larry Cohen and starring Michael Moriarty, Andrew Duggan, Samuel Fuller, Evelyn Keyes, and June Havoc.

Years later, the studio approached Cohen to write and direct a low-budget feature for them; he proposed a sequel to Salem's Lot.

Joe takes custody of Jeremy, and decides to return to his hometown of Salem's Lot, Maine, where he owns an abandoned, rundown farmhouse passed down to him by his deceased Aunt Clara.

Inside, Joe, Sherry, and Jeremy are welcomed to a dinner attended by various high society, among them Amanda Fenton, the young granddaughter of the town doctor.

Axel attempts to appeal to Joe's objective anthropological methodology, hoping he can give their community mainstream exposure, and eventually write a religious text for their people.

Axel gives Joe a tour of the town, during which he explains the dangers of drinking human blood in the late 20th-century, amongst them various contractible viruses such as hepatitis and AIDS.

At a nighttime school meeting, Jeremy and Joe learn that the townspeople have bred "drones", people who can safely be exposed to sunlight in order to oversee daily operations of the community, maintaining a façade of normalcy.

When Joe attempts to flee with Jeremy, he is attacked along a river by two of the local drones, one of whom he bludgeons to death with a rock, before being knocked unconscious himself.

After staging a siege against the townspeople with Van Meer and burning down their homes, Joe and Jeremy are confronted by Axel, who reveals himself in his true, grotesque vampiric form.

"[4] Author Mike Mayo, writing in The Horror Show Guide: The Ultimate Frightfest of Movies (2013), notes that Cohen "uses Stephen King's premise of a small town overrun by bloodsuckers as a platform from which he can satirize conservative American smugness.

"[5] Larry Cohen later said the film began when he went to Warner Bros with Andre de Toth and pitched them the idea of remaking House of Wax (1953).

[7] Years later, Warner Bros. approached Cohen to direct another low-budget feature for them, and he proposed a sequel to Salem's Lot that only loosely used King's source novel for its basis.

A Return to Salem's Lot opened at the Cannes Film Market on May 13, 1987[a] It was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Warner Bros. in September 1987.

"[16] Alan Jones of the Radio Times gave the film a favorable review, awarding it 3 out of 5 stars and writing: "Cohen happily whittles away at the American Dream, offering plenty of satire and allegory, as well as examining moral dilemmas, plus fine performances by old-timers June Havoc, Evelyn Keyes and director Samuel Fuller, who steals the show as a single-minded vampire hunter.