Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot (1979)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia
Memorable Line: "The house was a monument to evil sitting there all these years holding the essence of evil in its smoldering bones."

* Small Screen Gem *
By 1979, any project associated with Stephen King was A-list and for TV (in that day), this movie did get quite the treatment. Produced as a two part mini-series, the strength of this movie is Stephen King's source material and despite some mis-steps, it still has some chilling moments and is, on the whole, quite effective.

Ben Mears (Soul), a novelist, returns to his home town and considers writing a book on a house in the town that has haunted him since childhood. Coinciding with his return is a some mysterious strangers (Mason) taking up residence in the house. Towns people start to disappear starting with the chilling disappearance of one of Mark Petrie's (Kerwin) friends. Mears immediately suspects that there is no coincidence and knows that the house and the evil that inhabits it is involved. More people start to disappear and some end up dead, their primary symptoms being massive blood loss. Some towns people ignore what is going on, some takes sides and some get up and leave, but Mears, Petrie and Mears' new girlfriend, Susan (Bedelia) take up the fight which leads to a frightful confrontation between good and evil.

I've always been ambivalent about this movie. I've always felt that James Mason was miscast as the physically intimidating Straker and the direction taken with Barlow was an outright mistake even though you can see that it was clearly influenced by Noseratu. Still in spite of this, the movie is authentically frightening in places.

Soul and Kerwin make a good team in their battle against evil and both give solid performances. The supporting cast is convincing, especially Lew Ayers as Jason Burk and Geoffry Lewis and Mike Ryerson.

Hooper's direction is alternately flat in places and compelling in others. I think most of the problems were due to the constraints of working with a TV budget.

If you're looking for a good scare without too much gore, then "Salem's Lot" is the movie for you.