I figured I'd conclude Vicious Vampire Month with, not only a title I've never seen before, but one of the most famous vampire titles out there. This marks twice this month I've brought up a 3-hour long Stephen King miniseries for review (the other being 'It'), and I could recommend some others for a dose of cheesy, classic Halloween fun. 1979's 'Salem's Lot' has gone down throughout vampiric horror history as one of the quintessential vampire "movies" out there, and one of the best Stephen King adaptations. The film opens in a church somewhere in Guatemala, where Ben Mears (David Soul) and young Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin) are filling small bottles with holy water. When one of the bottles starts to glow, Ben says "they've found us again", the music chimes in, and things then focus on a creepy looking house as the credits start rolling. It's certainly enough to get one interested, and I have to say that I dig composer Harry Sukman's score. It's pretty basic sounding, but along with the focus on that house, it gets one curious about what they are about to see, leading up to however these two got to where they were in the beginning. Rewind two years earlier when Mears returns to the small town of Salem's Lot after a long time away. He is now an established author, and becomes intent on writing about the allegedly haunted house we see in the opening credits; the Marsden House (which plays as much a character in this as 1428 Elm Street does in the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' series). In an attempt to rent it, he finds that is has been claimed by a Richard Straker (Lance Kerwin); another new guy in town who opens his own antique shop, along with his partner, Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder), who we never really get to see for a while. Mears finds a boarding house to stay in instead, and there develops a liking for the lovely Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia). Things are looking up for him, but there's a darkness about the Marsten house's history that Mears hasn't forgotten from his childhood in which he apparently saw the ghost of its previous owner, Hubie Marsten, who committed suicide after some heinous crimes against children. Little does he know that a mysterious crate arrives to the Marsten house one day, carrying more to add to the household than that of an angry ghost. Slowly but surely, people start to go missing and death starts occurring, and it may be up to Mears to save his hometown from certain evil. This one actually ended up reminding me of a lot of other vampire source material that plays similarly; namely 'Fright Night' as far as the vampire next door goes. I also picked up on certain things like a scene where a certain vampire taps on someone's window and calls to him, which 'The Simpsons' reflected in 'Treehouse of Horror IV'. So there was a good amount of Halloweenish fun to be had with this one, and at three hours, it's somewhat surprising how much it doesn't really seem to drag. There are some drawn out moments, but the atmosphere and design of the vampires, themselves, keeps you going. Remember, this is 1979 and made for TV, so for that, kudos to them for the makeup effects! I have to admit, for something made for TV in the late 70s, I found this totally held up. It may even hold up better than 'It', which I swear, even someone afraid of clowns could probably look at now and admit to its cheese factor (although I could be wrong). This one is just a bit creepier, a bit more mysterious, and the monster isn't a famous actor, hamming it up for the camera. I still love 'It', and it fits the fun factor for Halloween very well. 'Salem's Lot', however, fits the creep factor for Halloween, having its monster be a full-on vicious vampire, thus making this review a nice cherry to add on top of this month's sundae of reviews. This is an easy enough to find title, and all you really need for it is three hours to kill, and the desire to get into a horror product from the 70s - which, by the way, was a legendary decade for horror. Some of it is bound to look dated, but that's honestly something that only added to the fun of it all. It's not something I'd necessarily call scary, but it certainly carries a creepiness with it, and even ends on a pretty deep and heartbreaking note. I won't spoil it, but this is a good example of how a true horror movie ought to end. It doesn't involve a villain springing back to life, or a last-minute surprise kill, just a note of doom - almost a cliffhanger. Anyway, your imagination will have to fill in some blanks, but for me, that's generally a good thing. 4/5
1 Comment
6/27/2023 03:42:43 am
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