Ben is a moderately successful author in his mid-thirties who returns to the town where he spent four formative childhood years. Widowed two years prior after a motorcycle accident, he seeks closure and a place to process his grief. He harbors a deep, lingering fear of the Marsten House from a traumatic childhood encounter and hopes to use the building as inspiration for his next novel.

Susan is a 25-year-old college graduate living with her parents in Jerusalem's Lot. She feels stifled by the town's provincial mindset and dreams of moving to New York to work in publishing. Her sheltered upbringing conflicts with her desire for independence and a broader life experience.

Mark is the highly intelligent, imaginative new kid in town. He possesses an intense fascination with horror media, monster models, and magic tricks. Rather than making him timid, his vivid imagination gives him a practical framework for understanding and confronting the frightening events occurring in his new home.

Matt is a veteran English teacher at the local high school. Having taught many of the town's residents, he understands the subtle, unwritten rules of Jerusalem's Lot. He is well-read and perceptive, making him one of the first locals to recognize the sinister pattern emerging in the community.

Kurt Barlow is the mysterious new owner of the Marsten House. He remains unseen by the townspeople, operating his new antique business entirely through his partner. His arrival in Jerusalem's Lot coincides perfectly with a sudden wave of disappearances and strange illnesses spreading through the community.

Straker is the public face of the new antique shop in town. He presents himself as a sophisticated, bald, older gentleman with impeccable manners that charm many of the local women. Beneath this polite exterior lies a cruel, utterly devoted servant who carries out his master's darkest orders.

Doctor Cody is a dedicated local physician in Jerusalem's Lot. While his profession demands a strict adherence to science and biology, he possesses enough intellectual humility to recognize when medical textbooks fail to explain the strange ailments afflicting the town's children.

Father Callahan is the village Catholic priest. He privately struggles with a growing cynicism toward his faith, feeling exhausted by the mundane, petty sins of his congregation. He harbors a secret desire to act as a righteous warrior against a tangible, primal evil rather than serving as a passive counselor.

Danny is a local middle school boy. After a terrifying encounter in the woods, he develops a mysterious, rapidly progressing case of pernicious anemia that leaves the local medical staff completely baffled.

Ralphie is Danny's young brother. His sudden disappearance in the woods near the Marsten House serves as the inciting incident that alerts the town that something is terribly wrong.

Tony is the father of Danny and Ralphie. The sequential tragedies striking his children push him past the breaking point, resulting in severe emotional distress during public mourning.

Margie is the mother of the Glick boys. The loss of her children takes a severe physical and mental toll on her, leaving her vulnerable to the same mysterious forces plagueing the town.

Ann is Susan's mother. She is highly protective of her daughter and deeply invested in the town's traditional social structures. She prefers familiar, manageable locals over outsiders who might disrupt her plans for her family.

Floyd is a local young man who has been casually dating Susan Norton. He represents the safe, predictable life that Susan's mother wants for her, but his intense jealousy toward Ben Mears reveals a volatile temper.

Mike is a former student of Matt Burke who makes his living maintaining the town graveyard. Following a recent burial, he experiences extreme terror, exhaustion, and physical decline.

Larry is the town's opportunistic real estate agent. He is willing to overlook strange requests and look the other way regarding his clients' peculiar business practices as long as the financial compensation is generous.

Henry is Mark's father. He embodies strict, dogmatic rationalism and refuses to entertain any explanation for the town's events that defies standard scientific logic, even when presented with eyewitness accounts.