Marsten House history and evil backstory in Salem’s place explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Salem’s place (2024).The Marsten House is an important place in Salem’s place which has a dark past. for many years, It rose above the city of Jerusalem Lot and was 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 place Formidable Vampire, Kurt Barlow. Barlow seeks to transform all the denizens of the city into vampires, starting with his first victim brought to the Marsten House.

The shadowy individual The Marsten House is named after, Hubert “Hubie” MarstenNever appears and is only briefly mentioned in the 2024 adaptation of Salem’s place. When Barlow’s coffin is delivered to the Marsten house, the people 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 place Stephen King’s book, more backstory is provided for Hubie fleshing out his past and the origins of the Marsten House, along with the place’s eventual fate.

Who Hubie Marsten was and why he killed his wife in the Marsten house

Hubie was dangerous in more ways than one

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 also a contract killer and is believed to have brutally killed multiple children. Eventually he left Boston and retreated to Jerusalem’s Lot, where he and his wife, Birdie Marsten, were isolated and stayed in their home, only leaving once a week to go grocery shopping. finally, Hubby met Barlowwho at that time used the alias of an Austrian nobleman named Kurt Breichen.

For years Hubie and Barlow sent letters to each other, and Hubie apparently paved the way for Barlow to arrive in Jerusalem’s lot, even though the vampire did not arrive in the town for 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 Mers broke into the Morsten house and saw Hubie’s hanging body, an image that haunted Ben for the rest of his life.

Why Hubie killed himself and his wife is not clearly stated in the Salem’s place book. One possibility is that Hubby gradually realized that the individual he was corresponding with was the devil incarnate, and rather than continue the partnership, Hubby ended his life and his wife’s life, which was potentially supported by him burning the letters between Himself and Barlow. Another possibility is that as a hitman who kidnapped children and did horrible things to his wife, Hubie’s actions are the culmination of his evil and misguided ways.

Why the Marsten house was left empty before Salem’s site

It was hard real estate to sell

Given the horrific tragedies that occurred with Hubie and Birdie, The mansion was feared and avoided, and of course no one was interested in buying it.. This is why the Marsten House was left empty for decades before the events of Salem’s place And why is it surprising that the local realtor, Larry Crockett, managed to sell such an undesirable property. In fact, it wasn’t Larry’s real estate skills that led to the Marsten house being purchased.

At the behest of Barlow, Straker convinces 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 if he had made a deal with the devil. This deal was the beginning of the end for Jerusalem’s lot, as Straker and Barlow were invited into the city, and now own the place from which they will launch their cruel and nefarious schemes.

Is the Marsten House inherently evil in Salem’s space?

The city suffers from it

Ben tells Susan Norton in the Salem’s place Roman that “There may be some truth in the idea that houses absorb the emotions that are spent in them, that they hold a kind of … dry charge.” According to this logic, The Marsh House took in the terrible deeds Hubie committed during his time therealong with the dangerous feelings he felt. This created a dry spell that drew villains like Barlow and Stroker there, and it was the perfect place for them to live in the Jerusalem Lot.

in this sense, The Marsten House acts as a literal and symbolic beacon of evil in the city. Sheriff Parkins Gillespie and others Salem’s place Characters touch on the fact that there is something deeply wrong at the heart of Jerusalem’s lot that has been ignored and allowed to fester for years. The Marsten House essentially acted as an amplifier for the 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 court

His fate is different in source material vs. The 2024 movie

In the novel, Ben and Mark Petrie return to Jerusalem’s plot one year after killing Barlow and escaping the vampire-infested city. 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 also the Marsten houseBringing an end to the evil it unleashed.

in 2024 Salem’s place Adaptation, Ben and Mark kill Barlow, and all the other vampires are also killed. They drive out of town, but there’s no post-credits scene and no sort of follow-up of them returning one year later to burn down the Marsten house, and it’s last seen still standing. This is One of many significant changes that the 2024 movie makes of these Salem’s place novel, along with providing minimal backstory for Hubie and his history with Barlow.