Movie Review: Salem's Lot (1979)

Synopsis: Author Ben Mears returns to his hometown to write a book about a house from his childhood he believes to be haunted and evil. While there, a mysterious plague begins to infect residents, and he soon realizes everyone is being turned into vampires.

Who's in it? The movie stars David Soul, James Mason, Bonnie Bedelia, Julie Cobb and Elisha Cook, Jr.


Review: I remember seeing Salem's Lot when I was just four years old, and it was a television mini-series (we had four channels to choose from back then) and didn't remember much about it. I noticed they remade it recently and decided to re-watch the original before seeing the newer version. After doing so, my opinion of the film was mixed.

Movies based on Stephen King books tend to be hit-or-miss for me. Some of them are decent while others were probably better in print. This movie, or at least this version of it, probably falls in the latter category.

I'll start out by saying the vampire part of the movie was decent with some of the scenes being somewhat creepy, even though the main vampire, Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder) looked like someone in a bad Nosferatu costume. There was even an unexpected twist at the end involving Ben (Soul) and his love interest, Susan (Bedelia).

The main problem with this film is it just way too long. I know part of that was the result of it being filmed as a two-part mini-series but there are just too many side stories that have nothing to do with the main plot, whether it was the love affair between the local realtor (Fred Willard) and his married secretary (Cobb) or Susan's jealous ex-boyfriend (Barney McFadden) stalking her. Not to mention some scenes were clearly drawn out to pad the runtime.

As a result of that, the actual vampire storyline lost a little something and just wasn't as impactful, especially when the final battle with Marlow seemed to be a little too short and a little too easy (making the twist involving Susan's fate all that much harder to explain since there didn't seem to be any need for urgency). Perhaps the much shorter remake will correct that.

Final Opinion: As a mini-series, this was probably an OK thing to watch on TV. As a 3-hour-plus movie, it is honestly a bit dull for a vampire film. 

My Grade: C

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