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Axel is the main antagonist of 1987's movie A Return to Salem's Lot, a loose adaptation of the 1979 miniseries Salem's Lot, the first adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name. Axel is the mayor, judge, and secret master vampire of Salem's Lot.
He was portrayed by Andrew Duggan.
Biography[]
Finding Salem's Lot[]
Axel was a vampire of mysterious origins, though it can be assumed he is a really old Vampire. Axel was a vampire that posed as a human in public, and he, along with a group of Vampires disguised as pilgrims, arrived in a small region in Maine. There they built a town in the 1600s. There, Judge Axel named the town Jerusalem`s Lot, and made it a Vampire colony. Now their new leader, Axel also encouraged his followers to drink cow blood and not human blood, so to keep his society in secret. Axel, however, would allow his vampires to kill any human who dares trespass into town. Ever since than, Axel became the judge, mayor, and secret master vampire of Salem's Lot. He also made the vampires mate with humans, so that they produce vampire-human hybrids, who watch the town during the day.
Meeting Joe Weber[]
One day a man named Joe Weber and his son Jeremy return to Salem's Lot, his hometown. There, Joe and Jeremy decided to rebuild an old house not far from Salem's Lot. At night time, a group of teens go to Salem's Lot, and are attacked by the vampires there. Two teens try to run away, but Axel, in his true form, attacks and melts the teen's faces off. One of them, the last surviving one, runs away, with Judge Axel following her before eventually going back to his main building.
Judge Axel, in his human form, meets Joe who is taking the traumatized teenager into the judge's building. Axel pretends to be a welcoming person at first, but has his vampires take the teen away so that they could drain her blood and kill her. Joe attempts to intervene, but Axel threatens Joe with a non functioning gun. Axel reveals to Joe that he, and all of the people in Salem's Lot, are in fact vampires. 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. To remedy this, Axel has arranged for the locals to primarily feast on the blood of live cows at their local dairy, however, some times when human trespassers come, or when their "holiday" comes, they attack and feast off of human blood.
During the tour, Joe is met by his Aunt Clara, whom he believed to be dead—she, too, a vampire. Bewildered by what he has learned, Joe no less decides to remain in Salem's Lot and renovate his familial home. 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. The school principal also explains the vampires' origins, and how they traveled to the United States concurrent to the pilgrims. Joe soon rekindles a romance with Cathy (also a vampire), a woman whom he had an affair with as a teenager. Meanwhile, Jeremy attests to Joe that he plans to become a vampire and live eternally in the community. When Jeremy becomes sensitive to sunlight and grows ill, Joe realizes he has already begun his transformation. 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.
Betrayal and Demise[]
Joe awakens from the attack in the Axels' home, where Aunt Clara, Cathy, and others reveal that Cathy is pregnant with Joe's child. They also inform him Jeremy is about to be "reborn". Shortly after, Joe is met by Van Meer, an eccentric Nazi hunter who has been surveilling the town. Joe and Van Meer bond together, hoping to save Jeremy from the vampires' influence. They also learn that Judge Axel attempts to spread vampirism to humans around the world, revealing his true nature. Vane Meer and Joe go around staking and killing vampires, and Axel, in his coffin, is informed by a drone that all of his followers are being killed. Axel devises a plan, and kidnaps Jeremy Weber. At night, Joe and Van Meer find Axel and the others, and there, Axel attempts to stake Jeremy in front of Joe. However, Van Meer shoots Axel, causing Axel to cry out in rage, however, Van Meers seemingly shoots and kills himself. Joe then escapes with his son, Jeremy, and together they escape the building.
The Webers set fires to the houses of the town, and kill hundreds of vampires. Axel, followed the team though, driven with a thirst for revenge. After chasing them down, a fight ensures in a barn, where Axel's true face is partially shown. Axel attacks Joe Weber, the latter thrown into the wall by Axel. Trying to turn Joe`s son into a vampire, Axel wrestles with Jeremy, however, he is soon attacked by Joe, whom he starts wrestling with. When he was distracted fighting Joe, Axel got stabbed by the American flag from Jeremy. Axel's full true vampire form is revealed for a moment, and lies down as Joe and his son watch in horror as Axel's skin and flesh melt, with his bones turning into an ashy substance, before fire combusts out of him, killing him as the flames spread and eventually, consume the barn. Afterwards, Joe, Van Meer, who was revealed to have faked his death, and Jeremy escape Salem's Lot as many, if not all the vampires burn in sunlight.
Personality[]
On the outside, Judge Axel appears as this affable, and somewhat grandfatherly charming vampire who is welcoming and caring about his wife and people. He wants to make vampire kind grand and want to even wants Joe Weber to make a bible for his people. However, this is all a facade. Axel is a cunning, ruthless, vampire that hates humans and has no empathy and even encourages his followers to kill any human that dares trespass his town. Axel also plans on grooming Joe Weber into becoming part of a vampire society, and would do anything to make him write a bible for them. He does so by making him go to an affair with a vampire named Cathy, so that she could conceive a child that would make Joe stick to vampire society by blood. However, Axel has no problem with killing Joe if he fails to be a good model towards Axel's goals, the vampire judge would simply kill him.
Axel also has no genuine care towards his people, only seeing them as a quiet society where he will rule. This is evident when Joe and Van Meer start staking vampires everywhere that Axel believes that he should: "Dispose of the old" and "bring in the new." He especially sees the "drones", the half human half vampire hybrids that guard the vampires coffins in the day as "dirt" according to Axel's grandson, the Sherriff. When fully dropping his facade, Axel is a feral, bestial monster whose sole purpose is to cause pain on others.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Axel is an A Return to Salem's Lot's version of Kurt Barlow.
