FireBlade DVD Review: Salem’s Lot

Review by Jerry Stratton, 4/2/2001

People ought to respect a book. Even if it isn’t especially well written.

When this movie came out in 1979 I missed seeing it, although I had enjoyed the book immensely. I was, honestly, just plain too scared to see it “live” on screen. The book was scary enough. Perhaps it would have been frightening then, I don’t remember myself well enough (I do remember sleeping with a cross after reading the book). It is not very frightening now.

Last night I reviewed Altered States, from 1980. Tonight I’ll do a television show from 1979. I picked both of these up at Target for $10, and they’re not much more expensive on Amazon.

“Salem’s Lot” pits David Soul (Starsky & Hutch’s “Hutch”) against James Mason (Lolita’s “Humbert Humbert”). Here, David Soul (what a name for a seventies actor! Of course he wasn’t born with it) plays writer Ben Mears. Ben is returning home to write a psychological horror story about a house that scared him when he was a kid. Gee, do you think this sounds like Stephen King’s alter ego? It ought to, King wrote the book. Like most of his books, it takes place somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Maine. The book involved far more psyching you out than outright horror. The movie only touches on that aspect a tiny bit, such as when the camera pans across a yard and you see abandoned toys and unkempt grass. For the most part, the movie is a straightforward horror story.

Why do the vampires always have better vehicles?

This was a made-for-TV miniseries, and as far as I can tell it is the whole thing. It is 183 minutes long, which would put it at about four nights of one-hour slots or two nights of two-hour slots. (Assuming 46 minutes per hour.) There are many versions available at shorter lengths, however, as it was later cut up to make a single-viewing movie. Set aside three hours to see this (commercials are not included) and don’t worry about flipping the disk over: it’s a dual layer DVD with no interruptions. Have lots of popcorn ready.

The horror in the movie does not really hold up twenty years later. I’m not even sure how well it would have held up at the time had I seen it, seeing as I really enjoyed Stephen King’s storytelling style. The special effects really show their age. There are some very scary moments, though, such as the tapping on the window scene (you’ll know it when you see it).

Every good horror movie has to have sex. Really good horror movies have phone sex.

The acting, however, is extremely good. I joke about David Soul, but he did a very good job. Lance Kerwin had a hard time getting rid of an accent that doesn’t fit either Maine or the California where he was born. Geoffrey Lewis (“The Way of the Gun”) made a great gravedigger. I don’t understand the truck scene at all, though. Of course the damn box is moving around you idiots, you didn’t tie it down!

Yeah, the movie definitely has its horror-share of people acting like idiots. Movie-goers complain about how vampires and other monsters are always so predictable and stupid, but the reason is because they don’t have much to live up to. Their victims aren’t much better. In its favor, this was one of the first vampire movies to require something behind the cross (though this was from the book).

Not a good night to get lost in the woods.

The DVD is extremely basic: the movie and some trailers. If you can find it really cheap, and you are a fan of either the movie, the book, or the actors, it is probably worth it. Otherwise, it probably is not. The book “Salem’s Lot” was fascinating, and full of Stephen King’s trademark character interactions. By necessity, the movie had to drop a lot of that in favor of action and adventure, but that isn’t really what “Salem’s Lot” is about. The movie adds nothing to the book.

Recommendation: Possible Rental

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Jerry

“Joseph wore a tuxedo, tattered and dirty, with his hat in his hand, while Mary wore a torn and stained white dress. Jesus was swaddled in newspaper and slept peacefully in a shopping cart. Singing policemen kept their watch by night. If you wound them up, they sang the melody to Silent Night. The three wise men were there as well. They dropped coins into Joseph’s hat.” It Isn’t Murder If They’re Yankees