When it came to adapting Stephen King to the small screen, Tobe Hooper’s mini-series of Salem’s Lot provided the blueprint. The 2004 remake is one of those deals where I only saw the first episode and for one reason or another, I never got around to finishing the rest of the mini-series, so I can’t speak to how that one was. Now, here comes the third version of the tale, directed by Gary Dauberman, who wrote the new It movies.
For a while, it looked like this was going to be one of those Batgirl deals as Warner Bros. let it sit on the shelf forever. Now that it’s finally on Max, I have to say it looks perfectly at home on the small screen. That’s a nice way of saying, “I would’ve been pissed if I paid $15 to see this in the theater.”
The plot is basically the same. A writer named Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman, son of Bill) returns to his small hometown in Maine. Almost instantly, the place is plagued by a rash of deaths and disappearances. It’s only a matter of time till he learns that the place is crawling with vampires.
This version of Salem’s Lot isn’t awful. It just feels like a skimpy first draft. Everything comes way too easy for the characters. When figuring out the mystery, they immediately jump to the right conclusions. Not only that, but everyone believes the characters when they tell them vampires are real. To make matters worse, the vamps roll over fairly easily. I’m sure the slapdash plot was mostly due to condensing of the book into a feature length movie, but it leaves it feeling dramatically dead.
The performances are a mix of bland (leading man Pullman) to flat-out terrible (Pilou Asbaek as the vampire’s familiar, Straker). Only Alfre Woodard brings a hint of fun as the smalltown doctor who takes no shit.
Most of the scenes suffer from comparison to the original, or the book for that matter. The ending earns points for taking place at a drive-in, but it goes on a bit too long. Ultimately, there’s just not a whole lot to like about this Lot.
I disagree, I think this a solid remake overall and there's a decent amount to like about it, course I never read the book so that might be a factor in my overall enjoyment of it. Yeah the characters do jump to the right conclusions a bit too early, but that's a criticism you could also level at the original "The Fog"(The characters in that film believed in ghosts a little too easily)
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