Movies That Suck...

This week I had both the privilege and misfortune of watching two adaptations of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, a classic vampire tale I'm sorry to say I've yet to read, but now plan to read soon. Each miniseries had strengths and weaknesses, though one was clearly better than the other.

Salem's Lot (1979):
Once I firmly reminded myself that I was watching a television miniseries from the late ‘70s when things like Fred Willard having an affair with his secretary were as believable as David Soul's hair, and when effects were limited, I found I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I don't think any King miniseries can ever hold up against the epic The Stand, but while every adaptation since that one has gotten progressively worse, it was nice to see decent ones were made when I was far too young to be aware of them. Just as The Stand (eventually) inspired me to read the novel, so too did this version pique my interest about a small town with a cursed house that attracts a vampire, and the eventual death of the town itself. There's a formula to vampire stories that's pleasantly broken here. Soul does a fair job as the protagonist, a writer returning to the place he grew up, haunted by memories from his childhood, who learns the town has drawn more than himself...

Salem's Lot (2004):
It had it's moments, but got bogged down early on by Rob Lowe's emotionless narration. I'm told that this version is more faithful to the book, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's better. I think the version of The Shining with Steven Weber proves that point. The film had better effects, and strong actors like Donald Sutherland, Andre Braugher and Rutger Hauer, but still fell short somehow. Hauer's underused 10-15 minutes of screentime made me miss the latex masked version of his character in the ‘79 adaptation. This version featured a diverse group of people dealing with horror and survival in his or her own way, something I liked about The Stand. In 1979, most of the cast supported Soul. Each of the townspeople had more of a story here, although not all were necessarily interesting or necessary. I did like James Cromwell as Father Callahan, especially since the character was barely a footnote in the first miniseries. In reading Wolves of the Calla, I got the sense that there was more to Callahan's tale and we get that with Cromwell. Unfortunately, his subtle performance is replaced by uncharacteristic maniacal behavior that doesn't look well on him. It just gives me another reason to read Salem's Lot, as well as finish reading The Dark Tower series, which is a major goal for this Summer.

The 1979 version feels like a classic, and though I was only four or five years old when it first aired, the cinematography left me with a sense of nostalgia. 2004 made references to the problems in the Middle East, and updated the medical approach to such a genre. I could only here the victims described as suffering from “extreme anemia” so many times before any terror was completely sucked out of the film. The people might as well have been dying from something as mundane as a virus at that point. 1979's Salem's Lot isn't perfect, but you fear for the characters, and care about their survival even as you realize no one is safe. Who knows; maybe in another 25 years Joss Whedon will tackle the story, and tell a modern classic vampire tale the right way.