Salem's Lot
1.5/4
Starring: David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia, Ed Flanders, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Lew Ayres
Not Rated (probable PG-13 for Terror/Violence)
"Salem's Lot" is a daytime TV soap opera with some really creepy vampires. It has all the hallmarks of the former: a cast that (with two exceptions) competes with each other to best impersonate a block of cement, atrocious dialogue and bad melodrama that no one on Earth could possibly care about. But boy, are those bloodsuckers scary.
Ben Mears (Soul) is a writer who has moved back to his hometown of Salem's Lot, Maine for a six month stay. He's writing a novel, and thinks that the local haunted mansion may prove to have some good inspiration. While there, he meets the locals, including Jason Burke (Ayres), his old teacher who inspired him to become a writer and Susan Norton (Bedelia), with whom he falls in love with. Also moving in is a man named Richard K. Straker (Mason), who, with his yet to arrive business partner, Kurt Barlow, plans on opening an antique shop. But sinister things start to happen. People start dying with alarming frequency and the survivors are having strange dreams. Ben thinks there is something evil lurking in Salem's Lot, and Straker is at the center of it.
There is about 45 minutes of worthwhile material in "Salem's Lot." Unfortunately, this is a 3 hour movie. That means there's enough filler for roughly two movies. Much of it is filler that does nothing but waste time. Stephen King said that, in writing "Salem's Lot," he wanted to see what would happen if vampires came to small town America. Certainly, there isn't anything wrong with expanding the scope of a movie and getting to know the minor characters. But that would imply that they were interesting. They aren't. I didn't care one bit about the fat drunk played by George Dzundza or his cheating wife played by Julie Cobb. The only thing noteworthy about her lover is that he's played by Fred Willard in a straight role. I kept waiting for his trademark weirdness. Equally uninteresting is the romance between Ben and Susan. While Soul and Bedelia have a certain spark between them, they're given worthless dialogue and neither one of them can claim that they gave a performance that would fly in a high school play. The only ones who give respectable performances are the two legends, James Mason and Lew Ayres. James Mason dives into his part with relish, attacking his dialogue with a sardonic wit. Lew Ayres manages to rescue some of his dialogue, although not all of it. Still, it's an amazing accomplishment under the circumstances. The film comes alive when they are on screen, unfortunately their characters are strictly supporting.
So the movie's "drama" is crappy enough to make Hallmark movies look like Oscar bait. Fine. But what about the horror, which is why anyone would actually rent "Salem's Lot." Surprisingly enough, these are the highlights. The vampires are perfectly eerie, and their entrances manages truly chill. Unfortunately, the more we see of them, the less spooky they become. By the third time I saw them, I giggled. The main vampire also has a great entrance, but when we see his face, it ruins the effect.
The film does gain some energy and momentum in the final hour. That's when director Tobe Hooper narrows the focus and does away with the extraneous characters that eat up screen time. It's not great stuff by any means, but it's watchable (at least compared to what came before. The climax also bears mention because it looks just fantastic. Whoever was responsible for the set design and lighting of the interiors of the mansion earns my compliments. It's a deliciously creepy place and almost worth pausing the movie just to look at it.
So it doesn't work. And it doesn't work for a long time. But what makes it even worse in many ways is that there is some good stuff here, but it's buried under a lot of crap. Use the fast forward button with abandon. Or look up its best scenes on YouTube. You won't be missing much. Trust me.
Starring: David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia, Ed Flanders, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Lew Ayres
Not Rated (probable PG-13 for Terror/Violence)
"Salem's Lot" is a daytime TV soap opera with some really creepy vampires. It has all the hallmarks of the former: a cast that (with two exceptions) competes with each other to best impersonate a block of cement, atrocious dialogue and bad melodrama that no one on Earth could possibly care about. But boy, are those bloodsuckers scary.
Ben Mears (Soul) is a writer who has moved back to his hometown of Salem's Lot, Maine for a six month stay. He's writing a novel, and thinks that the local haunted mansion may prove to have some good inspiration. While there, he meets the locals, including Jason Burke (Ayres), his old teacher who inspired him to become a writer and Susan Norton (Bedelia), with whom he falls in love with. Also moving in is a man named Richard K. Straker (Mason), who, with his yet to arrive business partner, Kurt Barlow, plans on opening an antique shop. But sinister things start to happen. People start dying with alarming frequency and the survivors are having strange dreams. Ben thinks there is something evil lurking in Salem's Lot, and Straker is at the center of it.
There is about 45 minutes of worthwhile material in "Salem's Lot." Unfortunately, this is a 3 hour movie. That means there's enough filler for roughly two movies. Much of it is filler that does nothing but waste time. Stephen King said that, in writing "Salem's Lot," he wanted to see what would happen if vampires came to small town America. Certainly, there isn't anything wrong with expanding the scope of a movie and getting to know the minor characters. But that would imply that they were interesting. They aren't. I didn't care one bit about the fat drunk played by George Dzundza or his cheating wife played by Julie Cobb. The only thing noteworthy about her lover is that he's played by Fred Willard in a straight role. I kept waiting for his trademark weirdness. Equally uninteresting is the romance between Ben and Susan. While Soul and Bedelia have a certain spark between them, they're given worthless dialogue and neither one of them can claim that they gave a performance that would fly in a high school play. The only ones who give respectable performances are the two legends, James Mason and Lew Ayres. James Mason dives into his part with relish, attacking his dialogue with a sardonic wit. Lew Ayres manages to rescue some of his dialogue, although not all of it. Still, it's an amazing accomplishment under the circumstances. The film comes alive when they are on screen, unfortunately their characters are strictly supporting.
So the movie's "drama" is crappy enough to make Hallmark movies look like Oscar bait. Fine. But what about the horror, which is why anyone would actually rent "Salem's Lot." Surprisingly enough, these are the highlights. The vampires are perfectly eerie, and their entrances manages truly chill. Unfortunately, the more we see of them, the less spooky they become. By the third time I saw them, I giggled. The main vampire also has a great entrance, but when we see his face, it ruins the effect.
The film does gain some energy and momentum in the final hour. That's when director Tobe Hooper narrows the focus and does away with the extraneous characters that eat up screen time. It's not great stuff by any means, but it's watchable (at least compared to what came before. The climax also bears mention because it looks just fantastic. Whoever was responsible for the set design and lighting of the interiors of the mansion earns my compliments. It's a deliciously creepy place and almost worth pausing the movie just to look at it.
So it doesn't work. And it doesn't work for a long time. But what makes it even worse in many ways is that there is some good stuff here, but it's buried under a lot of crap. Use the fast forward button with abandon. Or look up its best scenes on YouTube. You won't be missing much. Trust me.
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