Salem's Lot
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Movie Reviews of Salem's Lot
Movie Review: One of Tobe Hoppers better horror movies
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all Salems Lot has not aged that well and certainly it will create a divide in newcomers looking to see what all the fuss is about. The truth is that Salems Lot is a "generation" movie. If you remember this two-part film from 1979 when it played as a miniseries on television then you will lap it up on DVD. If you are of the new teen-horror-movie-goer type, then I have only one recommendation for you - get to know your 70s and 80s horror movies and learn as much as you can about horror that was made in these two striking decades. If you can get into these horror movies then Salems Lot shines through for what it is worth - i.e. extremely frightening for its time.... and this is why it still frightens some us today. However, newcomers will probably not like it, unless they try to settle into the period in which it was made.The premise is actually complex. A writer moves to the town of Salem's Lot to write a book about the Marstin house where he once had a ghostly encounter. A new owner has bought the house and runs an antique store in town. People there are eagerly awaiting the opening and the arrival of the owner's strange business partner - Mr. Barlow. Two local yobs are given the task of picking up a strange delivery and after that the townsfolk begin to experience a change, as weird dreams and visions of the undead take their toll on the people. The writer finds out that a vampire is slowly converting the town into a haven for nosferatu and joins forces with some of the locals to find and kill the source of the evil.
The film is actually 3 hours long and is broken into two parts. There are very many sub-plots and lots of various things going on in the background but nearly everything and everyone is fleshed out. I have never seen a film with so many characters all having an important role to play and this is one of the reasons why this is a great horror film. Although it may not play exactly along the lines of King's book it is certainly one of the best adaptations of his horror literature to date when compared to others. The film is also very eerie and is top-notch on the suspense. In short, Salems Lot is one of the best horror films ever made and is certainly watchable again and again. I probably watch this film at least once a year and it never grows old. A must for any horror fan's collection, but even mainstream viewers will find lots of other things here to keep themselves fixed on the screen.
If you are old enough to remember Starsky and Hutch then go for it! If the first horror film you ever saw was The Blair Witch Project then maybe you should prepare for twenty-four years of aging here before you get it.
Movie Review: Best Vampire Movie in Existence
Summary: 5 Stars
Even with great actors starring in the re-make of Salem's Lot I was very hesitant that it would be able to even touch the original. As I guessed after watching the new re-make (which was ok and filled in some gaps to an already 3 hour original), it still couldn't hold a candle to the original.
The original captures a time when there was no internet, no cell phones. It was an eerie town, a spooky house and a time that if such an evil could infest a town, it probably would spread fast as in this film.
As naive as I am after all these years, I was actually doing searches for Salem's Lot in Maine and was surprised to know that no such place actually exist. It was just a hypothetical place created by Stephen King. However, the location was in Ferndale California where the infamous "Marsten House" still stands on a road where no other houses are and has "No Trespassing" signs everywhere. Doesn't look quite the same from what I'm told and Hollywood dressed up the outside just for the film.
Classic film, one of my brothers still refuses to watch this movie because of the memories of it scarying the hell out of him. I can't even tell you how many times I have seen it. The original actors were absolutely fantastic, David Soul, James Mason and the whole crew.
I still see the best acting in the world when Ben Mears (David Soul) is telling the story in the bar to his old school teacher (that inspired him to be a writer) about entering the house as a kid on a dare. David Soul shines on this role as if he was meant to do this part.
The same can be said about James Mason. He played the part as he was born just to do this movie.
Great movie, a classic, but why in the world does the DVD not have special features like "interviews"?
[...].
You take a 5-Star Horror movie and have no special features. That was my only disapointment..
Movie Review: Nosferatu In The Neighborhood...
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) had his work cut out for him. He had to take a great Stephen King novel about vampires in a small town, and turn it into a believable made-for-tv-mini-series, within the confines of network television. And he had to pull this off during the silly 70s! Well, he did just fine. SALEM'S LOT is a macabre tale of vampirism in the tiny new england town (right outside of Bangor Maine) of Salem's Lot. David "Starsky & Hutch" Soul is author Ben Mears, a semi-famous writer who used to live in SL. He's returned to write a new book about the Marsden House, a forboding mansion on a hill that has a history filled with murder and unexplained disappearances. Enter James Mason as Mr. Straker. He's opening an antique shop in town with his mysteriously absent partner, Mr. Barlow. They've purchased the long vacant Marsden House and strange happenings ensue. Kids are disappearing. Others are getting ill with some type of "anemia". Meanwhile, a huge crate is delivered with something very heavy and cold inside. Mr. Barlow has arrived! The "illness" spreads throughout Salem's Lot, causing even the hard-nosed sheriff to pack up and flee! Dr. Norton (Ed "St. Elsewhere" Flanders) tries to figure out what's making everyone sick. Ben finally convinces him that vampires are behind it all when Mrs. Glick (the missing boys' mum) rises from her autopsy table, thirsty for the red stuff! Chills abound as we follow our reluctant vampire-hunters on their quest to give The Master (Barlow) his terminal heartburn. Lance Kerwin stars as a backward kid with a monster obsession. He's also one of the only people in town with a brain! Together with Ben and Dr. Norton, the chase is on. Hooper deserves credit for working so well within such a restrictive and generally dull medium. A must-own for horror fanatics like yours truly...Movie Review: The best vampire movie ever made, period
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most singularly terrifying, mesmerizing, suspenseful, subtle, and masterfully done films in the history of the horror genre, and you shouldn't expect any Anne Rice-homoerotic-13 year old goth ... from this one, because there isn't any. Having read King's book, I would say that this far exceeds the novel in terms of generating actual fear as opposed to (god forbid) what King wanted, another well spoken Dracula (instead of the absolutely horrifying Nosferatu figure played by Reggie Nalder, which we don't see till the ending sequences of the film.) David Soul does a far more convincing job as Ben Mears than Christopher Walken as the psychic protagonist in the Dead Zone. Mason does the best job I've ever seen as an "aiding the evil" character in a motion picture as Straker, the antiques dealer with an unpleasant agenda, and the soundtrack itself (which I wish they would release on a CD), along with the almost mutant like but not at all campy vampires (livid green skin, glowing, beady eyes, etc), make the film.. The book is great, but this is simply miles ahead of it in terms of mood, atmosphere, and the performances of the actors and actresses in general. The ludicrous thing is that it is generally written off as one of the worse translations of King to film, when in fact it is the best, leaving the book itself in the dust. This still ranks as one of my favorite horror movies, and along with "The Haunting" (1964), is my favorite. The motion picture version doesn't allow, (although it is still excellent), the proverbial vampiric tension to rise as the miniseries version does. There is a horror in this film difficult to articulate. Hooper and King's evaluation of it are simply wrong, based upon a book that, while entertaining, is basically another version of Dracula. This is the real thing.Movie Review: So scared I couldn't finish it...and I'm 33
Summary: 5 Stars
I too am one of the viewers who originally saw the mini-series as a pre teenager. It was shown on two consecutive saturdays and I was totally horrified watching both episodes. I actually walked in on the scene where the Glick boy floated in from thefog tapping at his brother's window. I thought the movie was some ghost made for tv movie. That is until I horrfyingly watched this apparition hover over his bro' and take a chunk out of his neck! I was glued and repulsed ever since. To me this has to be the greatest or perhapsone of the greatest horror movies ever. Why? I think mainly because so much of the horror comes from the unsaid in this film. David Soul's sense of dread of the Marsden House, and James Mason's brilliant performance as Mr. Barlow's keeper are two awsome example of how actors can portray so much feeling and dread without going overthe top with unending screams. I love Mason's line, "Mr. Barlow is so looking forward to meet you." OOOOO! gives me chills.
I recently began watching the dvd version and I couldn't finish watching it because of the sense of dread and fear bulding up within me!
Don't bother with the mutilated movie version. I bought the movie version thinking it was going to add scenes not suitable for tv and boy was I fooled!
I too have read the novel of the same name and I was frightened by the book as well. In fact it was the first SK book I had read and I was surprised that I enjoyed his work so much.
If you love movies in general this one you cannot afford to miss!