This article contains mention of suicide.
Warning: This article contains spoilers from Salem’s Lot (2024).The Marsten House is an important location in Salem’s Lot that has a dark past. For many years, it has loomed over the town of Jerusalem’s Lot and been avoided as it is believed to be haunted and is a symbol of evil and corruption. It is purchased by the mysterious Richard Straker, who uses the house for Salem’s Lot’s formidable vampire, Kurt Barlow. Barlow seeks to transform all the town’s denizens into vampires, which begins with his first victim being brought to the Marsten House.
The shadowy individual the Marsten House is named after, Hubert “Hubie” Marsten, never appears and is only briefly mentioned in the 2024 adaptation of Salem’s Lot. When Barlow’s coffin is delivered to the Marsten House, the men hired to do so by Straker debate whether the stories of Hubie worshiping Satan are true, and if this is why he killed his wife, Birdie Marsten, and then took his own life. In the Salem’s Lot book by Stephen King, more backstory is provided for Hubie that fleshes out his past and the origins of the Marsten House, along with the location’s eventual fate.
Who Hubie Marsten Was & Why He Killed His Wife In The Marsten House
Hubie Was Dangerous In More Than One Way
Hubie Marsten was the president of a New England trucking company in the 1920s, with the company being a front for the Boston mafia. He was a contracted killer as well and was believed to have brutally killed multiple children. He eventually left Boston and retired to Jerusalem’s Lot, where he and his wife, Birdie Marsten, were reclusive and stayed in their home, only leaving once a week for grocery shopping. At some point, Hubie became acquainted with Barlow, who was then using the alias of an Austrian nobleman named Kurt Breichen.
For 12 years, Hubie and Barlow sent letters to each other, with Hubie seemingly paving the way for Barlow to arrive in Jerusalem’s Lot, although the vampire did not arrive in the town decades after Hubie’s death. After doing unspeakable things to Birdie, Hubie eventually shot her in the head and then hanged himself. A nine-year-old Ben Mears snuck into the Marsten House and saw Hubie’s dangling body, an image that haunted Ben for the rest of his life.
Why Hubie killed himself and his wife is not explicitly stated in the Salem’s Lot book. One possibility is that Hubie gradually came to realize that the individual he was corresponding with was the devil incarnate, and rather than continue this partnership, Hubie ended his life and his wife’s life, which is potentially supported by him burning the letters between himself and Barlow. Another possibility is that, as a hitman who preyed on children and who did horrific things to his wife, Hubie’s actions were the culmination of his evil and misguided ways.
Why The Marsten House Was Left Vacant Before Salem’s Lot
It Was Difficult Real Estate To Sell
Given the horrific tragedies that occurred with Hubie and Birdie, the Marsten House was feared and avoided, and understandably, no one had any interest in buying it. This is why the Marsten House was left vacant for decades before the events of Salem’s Lot and why it is surprising that the local realtor, Larry Crockett, managed to sell such an undesirable property. In reality, it was not Larry’s real estate skills that led to the Marsten House being purchased.
Susan Norton works for Larry Crockett in the 2024 movie, but does not work for him in the novel.
At Barlow’s command, Straker convinced Larry to sell the property to him in exchange for one dollar. It was part of a larger deal, with other properties involved that could be beneficial to Larry. While Larry did not know the full extent of what he was involved in, he began to feel as though he had made a deal with the devil. The deal was the beginning of the end for Jerusalem’s Lot, as Straker and Barlow had been invited into the town, and now owned the place from which they would launch their ruthless and nefarious schemes.
Is The Marsten House Inherently Evil In Salem’s Lot?
The Town Suffers Because Of It
Ben tells Susan Norton in the Salem’s Lot novel that “there may be some truth in that idea that houses absorb the emotions that are spent in them, that they hold a kind of … dry charge.” By this logic, the Marsten House absorbed the horrific deeds that Hubie committed during his time there, along with the dangerous emotions that he felt. This created a dry charge that drew evils such as Barlow and Straker there, making it the perfect place for them to reside in Jerusalem’s Lot.
The Marsten House essentially acts as an amplifier to these deep-rooted problems, with the town unable to move forward due to its lingering presence, which also contributes to sealing the community’s inevitable doom.
In this sense, the Marsten House acts as a literal and symbolic beacon of evil in the town. Sheriff Parkins Gillespie and other Salem’s Lot characters touch on the fact that there is something deeply wrong at the heart of Jerusalem’s Lot that was ignored and allowed to fester for years. The Marsten House essentially acts as an amplifier to these deep-rooted problems, with the town unable to move forward due to its lingering presence, which also contributes to sealing the community’s inevitable doom.
What Happens To The Marsten House After Salem’s Lot
Its Fate Is Different In The Source Material Vs. The 2024 Movie
In the novel, Ben and Mark Petrie return to Jerusalem’s Lot one year after killing Barlow and escaping the vampire-infested town. While the vampires were left leaderless after Barlow’s death, many of them still remained. In order to kill all the remaining vampires, and do right by the family, friends, and neighbors they lost, Ben and Mark start a fire, which destroys not only the vampires, but the Marsten House as well, bringing an end to the evil it unleashed.
In the 2024 Salem’s Lot adaptation, Ben and Mark kill Barlow, and all the other vampires are killed as well. They drive away from the town, but there is no post-credits scene nor any kind of followup of them returning one year later to burn down the Marsten House, and it is last seen still standing. This is one of many significant changes that the 2024 movie makes from the Salem’s Lot novel, along with providing minimal backstory for Hubie and his history with Barlow.