Salem's Lot (1979) Review

Salem’s Lot (1979) Review

Stephen King’s second novel, Salem’s Lot is a tribute to the classic gothic vampire tales like Nosferatu and Dracula. The made-for-TV movie adaptation, directed by Poltergeist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper, is not only a great adaptation, but one of the best vampire films of its era.

A writer returns to the small town of Jerusalem’s Lot (A.K.A ‘Salem’s Lot) to write about a mysterious old house that he believes is inherently evil, because of something he saw there as a kid. The writer doesn’t look like much, but he’s a smooth-talking no-nonsense intellectual determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. Living in the house is a creepy, elderly British shopkeeper, who you just know is bad news from the way he talks and behaves. The writer develops a relationship with a local woman, played by Bonnie Bedelia, who’s probably best known for playing John McLane’s wife in Die Hard. After an oddly cold crate is delivered to the old house and townspeople start dying then coming back to life with shiny eyes and pale skin, they uncover the truth: the shopkeeper is housing an ancient vampire.   

Not only is Salem’s Lot the best TV movie/mini-series based on a story by Stephen King that I’ve seen, it’s one of the best made-for-TV horror movies I’ve ever seen in general. Why can’t more high-quality TV horror movies like this be made today? Salem’s Lot doesn’t rely on excessive gore and jump scares, it creates tension and a haunting atmosphere with a deliberate build-up that is slow, but in a way that works, not in a way that feels boring—pretty impressive considering its daunting length.

The old dark house cliché doesn’t feel cliché here, because the house is repeatedly shown from the outside, but the inside isn’t really shown until the end. When it is eventually shown, it’s really eerie, and reminiscent of the cannibal’s house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The whole movie has Tobe Hooper’s unmistakable directing style, but the real reason the movie works is because of the believable characters and the equally believable bloodsuckers. 

The master vampire looks like the classic Nosferatu-style vampire and, like the inside of the house, isn’t shown until close to the end, but he looks truly frightening. The effects, though simple, hold up surprisingly well, and the production design is on-par with theatrically-released movies of that time. The movie actually did receive a re-edited theatrical release in Europe, and that version was also released on VHS. 

As great as this movie is, it’s not without some flaws and poorly-aged elements. At a couple key scary moments, the image turns to freeze frame and zooms in as loud music plays. This was probably more acceptable back in the late 70’s when it was shown on TV and it immediately cut to a commercial after this, but watching it today, it’s just laughable. This isn’t the only time the music stands out in a bad way, either. It’s frequently over-bearing, but becomes less so in the later scenes. 

One of the most effective scares is when a kid, who gets turned into a vampire, floats outside his friend’s window amid wispy fog, which was filmed in reverse to add an extra creep factor, and it works. But then the kid returns to do it again. Then a third time. By this point it starts to feel repetitive. There are attempts to make it not feel exactly the same every time—one of the times the kid in bed gets a cross and repels his vampiric friend—but it’s not enough to overcome the repetitive feeling. 

Aside from the few flaws, Salem’s Lot uses old-school scares to great effect, and has stood the test of time. It was very recently released on blu ray, and I definitely recommend picking it up. The picture and sound quality are fantastic, especially for an old TV movie, and all three hours of it plays uninterrupted. 

 

Carrie (1976) Review

Carrie (1976) Review

Carrie is the first movie to be based on a novel by Stephen King, and the novel was also King’s first to be published. This is one of those rare cases where a horror movie actually got awards attention, and rightly so, because this is not just any old Stephen King story: this is one of the best movies to be based on any of his works. 

Sissy Spacek plays Carrie White, an awkward high school girl who everyone hates and picks on, largely because of her religious zealot mother, played by Piper Laurie. Carrie has her period while taking a shower after gym class, and because of her poor upbringing, doesn’t know what’s happening to her, and freaks out, prompting her malicious classmates to pelt her with tampons. Everyone present gets in trouble for doing so, and one girl decides to exact revenge on Carrie in the most diabolic way possible.

Meanwhile, Carrie is discovering she has telekinetic powers, but isn’t sure how to use them yet. Her mother forces religion on her and mistreats her, but she goes against her mother’s wishes when one of the girls in her class makes her boyfriend ask Carrie to the prom (because she feels bad for what she did and wants to make it up to her) and Carrie agrees to go with him, but what happens at the prom is the ultimate embarrassment for her, triggering the ultimate consequence for everyone else. 

Carrie is an incredibly well made film, and not just simply for the horror genre. Director Brian de Palma brought King’s book to the big screen in a way that was faithful to the author’s work, but also made it unique and totally effective. Right from the opening scene, it’s easy to feel sympathy for Carrie. Sissy Spacek does an excellent job and has such a distinct look, with her wide blue eyes and small stature. Interestingly, in the book, Carrie’s described as looking the opposite: she’s fat and has bad acne. 

Piper Laurie also gives a great performance; every scene she’s in she steals, but Spacek still holds her own against her. Both of them have great chemistry, which might sound odd, but when they’re on-screen together, you absolutely believe she’s the daughter of this religious nut, and that’s the keyword here: believe. You believe this could all happen, and that’s a huge part of why it’s so scary. 

The supporting characters are all strong as well—there’s even a young John Travolta, in his first major movie role. But it’s all thanks to Brian de Palma. Not only did he get great performances out of these actors, he created such an unsettling atmosphere, especially in the White’s household, with candles set up everywhere and Jesus hanging from the cross in Carrie’s prayer closet. Once it gets to the prom, the mood starts to lighten, even though there’s the sense that something bad is going to happen. It’s kind of like watching a car crash: you can see tragedy coming, you’re not entirely sure what’s going to happen, but you know it’s not going to be good. It’s almost dream-like as Carrie and her date are crowned prom queen and king and they run up on stage, but then it all comes crashing down in a bucket of blood.  

I can’t talk about this movie without talking about the ending, which was used heavily in the marketing, and is now the most well-known part. It’s one thing to hear that a bucket of pig’s blood gets dumped on her and she retaliates by killing everyone, but it’s another to actually see it on-screen. There’s great use of slow motion and split-screen throughout, and the effects still hold up. 

As much as I think this movie is great, there are some small things about it I don’t like, mostly in the first half. After the incident in the showers, Carrie visits the principal’s office, and after he gets her name wrong, calling her “Cassie”, so the gym teacher corrects him, but what does he do? Calls her Cassie several more times, even after being corrected again. It’s just a bit too exaggerated. Another thing that’s overdone is a shrieking music clip pulled straight from the shower scene in Psycho used every time Carrie unleashes her powers. I get that it was trying to indicate she was causing these incidents, but it just doesn’t work for me. It feels a bit cheesy in an otherwise serious and scary movie. 

Carrie has an undeniable 70’s feel to it, and though it’s dated in a few ways, is so well made/adapted, there was never any need to remake it, yet it’s been remade not just once, in 2013, but twice, before that being a television movie in 2002. As a whole, the original holds up very well today, and this is one of those cases where I think the movie is actually better than the book. 

Carrie ranks among the greatest horror movies of the 1970’s, and that really says something, considering this is the same decade that saw the release of such classics as The Exorcist, Halloween, and Alien. It’s well-acted, well-directed, with a killer premise that will always be relevant, so long as kids keep going to high school proms.