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DVD Salem's Lot - The Miniseries
The vampiric Stephen King tale returns to the small screen, 25 years after the first made-for-TV Salem's Lot, a Tobe Hooper-directed ratings hit. This time it's Rob Lowe as a successful writer who returns to his haunted hometown. As a kid, something awful happened to him in the spooky mansion on the hill; now that he's back, the mansion is once again buzzing with evil portents. The physical production (shot in Australia) is convincing, and it's fun to see old pros such as Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, and James Cromwell cutting up in juicy roles. The storytelling, however, feels oddly disjointed, as though King's sprawl had been arbitrarily hacked away rather than adapted (a few big moments are bewilderingly left offscreen). The approach misses the basic assets of a vampire story: the disbelief, the lore, the sex appeal. Instead, it feels like a random collection of bits for short attention spans. --Robert Horton
Stephen King has not been treated kindly by the movies. For years, his books were turned into films. Most of them bad. None of them on par with the books. This has been remedied in the past few years by the television miniseries, the only format that can do King justice. For while he may be a horror writer, it's King's gift for prose and characterization that makes him shine above others in the genre. The Shining and especially The Stand fared well as miniseries. Now Salem's Lot has been remade. The Tobe Hooper version (also made for TV) was flawed in that it made some unwise changes to the book and had a silly ending but it was genuinely scary. And to that end, this remake largely falls short.
(This review is written from the perspective of someone who has read the book and I assume most viewers will have read it or are familiar with it.)
I don't know why every writer who takes a crack at King has to change plot and character needlessly but it seems they do. This version has far too much setup before anything really happens. Some of the good stuff includes an updated backstory for Ben Mears and a much more sinister history for him with the Marsten house (in this version, he actually witnesses the suicide death of Hubie Marsten instead of only imagining it years later.) This version also includes Dr. Jim Cody and Father Callahan-one of whom was eliminated from the original and the other serving a much truncated role. The Barlow character is also a full-fledged one instead of a speechless Nosferatu that relied on the Straker character (played in the original by James Mason) for a voice and personality.
Alas most of the new material is unnecessary padding and I was largely bored by the first half. For example, a new story line about Dr. Cody having an affair with a patient and getting blackmailed that was not in the book and totally unnecessary. These revisions on the original become particularly annoying when some of the best moments from the book are left out later on or not fully explained. One of the creepiest moments in the novel was when the team breaks into the Marsten House only to find Barlow had already relocated and left them a letter correctly guessing and urbanely threatening each team member. That was completely omitted. They do add a nice touch though with the subsequent discovery of Susan there that I won't reveal.
By failing to stick to the book and venturing out on his own, the screenwriter (Peter Filardi) also introduces a number of noticeable logic gaps. The characters make a point of saying vampires can't enter a home unless they are invited only to have Barlow later do just that without explanation. Later, after their leader is killed the vampires all seem to turn into zombies with one significant exception. While this made for a poignant interaction between two main characters, it made no sense. Certainly many horror films have idiosyncracies and you the viewer must at a certain point just let go and enjoy but the material must rise above them to make this possible. This miniseries was also filmed in Australia and it's evident from the accents of the minor characters that something is amiss as their ill-fitting American accents occassionally slide all over the map. At one point, I wondered if one character had been changed to an Eastern European only to have her accent wander back to New England a few sentences later.
As for the cast, Donald Sutherland is brilliant in an over-the-top performance as the fey yet ominous Straker. He is easily the best part of the movie. Rob Lowe fares well as Ben Mears and Andre Braugher adds gravitas as Matt Burke. I also liked Samantha Mathis-where has she been hiding?-as Susan Norton and Dan Byrd as Mark Petrie, in a role that is closer to the book than the original film. Rutger Hauer was miscast, however, as Barlow in my opinion and as this is such an important part it's yet another flaw that fatally affects the movie. Overall, the second half somewhat redeems the first but this book is still waiting for better treatment.
(This DVD is well-made but contains no extras. Some deleted scenes might go a long ways toward rectifying the plot gaps but as it is the mystery of why this version had to reinvent a perfectly fine wheel will remain unsolved.)
Better than the original and a nice twist on the pulp novel
Come on guys - it's not THAT bad. In fact, I'll put my neck out and say that it's better than the original (which did tend to drag on a bit). True, there are a heck of a lot of characters to keep tabs on, and with a couple of exceptions they're all thinly drawn, but I remember Stephen King saying way back that he intended Salem's Lot to be Peyton Place with vampires, so the mass of characters shown here is, I believe, in keeping with the author's original vision. It does have it's faults; the main one being that for the first hour we're treated to Ben Mear's bitter diatribe about the small town and how all the people in it are a pack of ratbags. As a result, we don't really care what happens to them. Things shift in the second half (after one of the characters says that Ben only sees the bad in people and ignores the good), but by then the damage has been done. I was also a bit uncomfortable with the climax, where fast moving vampires suddenly became shambling flesh-eating zombies.
Otherwise, I felt this was an enjoyable piece of horror pulp that worked as well as it could within the confines of a TV movie (it really needs to be turned into a three hour horror epic for the big screen where all of King's sexual and violent visions can be given full rein). Visually it's far superior to Tobe Hooper's version, and we've got a better cast (Donald Sutherland hams it up wonderfully and James Cromwell's interpretation of the priest who has fallen from grace is suitably seedy). Rob Lowe is a much more haunted man than David Soul, Rutger Hauer's Barlow is far superior to Reggie Nalder's Nosferatu rip-off, and even if the bulk of the supporting players are Australians and New Zealanders putting on broad American accents (which is always a weird experience for a New Zealander to watch), they all do a fine job. I recommend it.
Vampyres in our very town if we look around....
A very long movie that has confusion written all over it due to the shifting of time from present to past...now where have i seen that before? I know i haven't read Stephen King's noval yet so that might have something to do with my early confusion but come on, give us some hints man....i know there is some narration at the beginning but that didn't help me one bit with all the little subplots going on. The main plot you wonder? When Rob Lowe was a little kid, he took a dare into the house and witness something that change his life forever. He comes back years later and you see him throw a Priest out the window, who happen to be working on Thanksgiving day giving out food to the homeless and hungry. Did it had anything to do with what happen when he was a little kid? Watch and see :o)
I will admit that even tho one can get confused from the very start while watching this movie as all the things is happening so fast around the many characters in this town, u get a sense that the director is losing his direction but it does work well because it adds suspense and the scenes are quite scary in a weird way. I didn't get bored one bit so that says alot too, especially since i seen so many crappy vampyre movies including some of the best like Blade and Interview with a Vampyre, my two all-time favorites for this genre.
I like to say to Rob Lowe, your acting was quite convincing as Ben Mears, the protagonist but you are no David Soul ..don't give up on us baby, don't make the wrong seem right, the future isn't just one night, its written in the moonlight, painted on the stars, we can't change ours .....ooohhh laa la la la la la la so don't give up on us i know, we can still come through...
Sorry for getting carried away a little bit there but watching this movie makes you wonder why evil make us do things we normally don't do...tempation you say? that's it as sin will doom us all if we continue to allow temptation to get the better of us. Then again, this movie is no different from the town that we live in...just look around with open eyes and you will clearly see what i am talking about. Just make sure you lock your doors before you go to sleep.
If your into scary vamprye movies or have read the noval, you might want to check out this installment of Salem's lot but don't be surprise if you are lost from the very start, as was I. Just be prepared to be scared for weeks after you watch it. Thanks alot guys...like i really need this now!
Kingdom Hospital is horror novelist Stephen King's adaptation of Danish director Lars Von Trier's cult miniseries The Kingdom, geared very much for an American audience. The story unfolds across 15 hours, telling the story of a hospital in Maine that's been built on the site of a 19th-century mill fire that killed most of its young occupants--themes that King fans will be familiar with. In the present day, Kingdom Hospital is haunted by the ghost of 10-year-old child worker Mary and, even more bizarrely, a fearsome giant anteater-like creature called Antubis. It falls to the ace doctor Hook (Andrew McCarthy), the paraplegic artist Jack Coleman (Peter Rickman), and the hypochondriac psychic Sally Druse (Diane Ladd) to enlist the help of a surreal assortment of hospital staff... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 12 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Well putting aside the disimilarites from the book, Salems Lot was a wonderfull tingler in the grand tradition of the old Universal Horror Movies.
A. Quaint old sleepy town with your average blase town folk
B. A town son now writer returns home.
C. The creepy antique store owner who seems to hide something sinister behind those charming smiles and pleasantries.
E.That rotting dilapitated house so frightening even outside in the light that it turns the greatest heros spine to mush.
And Mr Barlow, I did like him and there seems to be irony here in that obviously his makeup was based on Max Schreks portrayal in FW Murnaus 1922 silent Nosferatu. Murnau never paid the Stoker estate for the rights to the novels characters and lo and behold over 50... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): David Soul - James Mason Director(s): Tobe Hooper DVD Release Date: Released the 26 October 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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After a government-spawned "superflu" wipes out more than 90 percent of the earth's population, the devastated survivors must decide whether to support or resist the advances of a mysterious stranger from way down South (heh-heh) who wishes to claim this new world order for himself. Although the six-hour length makes it nigh-impossible to digest in one sitting, this well-paced adaptation of Stephen King's apocalyptic magnum opus ranks among the best adaptations of the author's work, with strong performances from Gary Sinise, Miguel Ferrer, and especially Jamey Sheridan as a good-old-boy version of Old Scratch. The opening scene, set to the strains of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper," is one of the most chilling things ever shot for television. Director Mick Garris is no stranger... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gary Sinise - Molly Ringwald Director(s): Mick Garris DVD Release Date: Released the 20 August 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Give me what I want and I'll go away," demands the black-eyed, stocking-capped stranger Linoge (Colm Feore), who appears in a quiet island community on the verge of the worst storm in decades and brutally bludgeons an old lady to death. Tim Daly, the town sheriff and voice of reason and moral strength, locks up the quiet madman, but the deaths pile up as Linoge acts them out from his cell like a murderous mime pulling psychic strings. Stephen King, whose original teleplay is his best work for the screen since The Stand, transforms the sleepy burg into a Peyton Place of guilty secrets and criminal activity ripped from under a blanket of small town normality while the white-out of the snowstorm completely cuts them off from civilization. Director Craig R. Baxley nicely... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Craig R. Baxley DVD Release Date: Released the 22 June 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A vintage Stephen King concept unfolds in Riding the Bullet: a college kid, circa 1970, must hitchhike a very long (and very dark) hundred miles to visit his hospitalized mother. The ghosts waiting for him along the way are either real or of his own mind (which seems to be a dark place itself). As a King short story, this might have been a usefully frightening premise, but it's almost entirely literary; on screen, it boils down to a guy walking down a road at night. Jonathan Jackson is suitably tortured in the lead role (or roles--he frequently appears double on screen, arguing with himself), but the movie is stolen by David Arquette, rocking it up as a '50s greaser who died in a car crash years earlier. Barbara Hershey and Erika Christensen are wasted in support. There's a strain... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jonathan Jackson - David Arquette - Barbara Hershey Director(s): Mick Garris DVD Release Date: Released the 19 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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