Salem's Lot [DVD]

25 years on from Tobe Hooper's 1979 tv mini series this would have to be something special to outdo that slightly above average production but in my view nothing about this 2004 version stands out. Perhaps if you've missed the original this might be entertaining but for atmosphere and acting performances it falls short of the earlier three hour plus series. And that despite a good meaty turn by Donald Sutherland who tried to but didn't come anywhere near the coldly foreboding performance of James Mason in the earlier series, both playing the character Stryker, the high servant of head vampire Rutger Hauer, an actor who will be sadly missed as he died earlier this year.Just a cameo from Hauer and not too much more from Sutherland in terms of screen time. Just my viewpoint but these series could be a lot more interesting when the villains are given a fair shot especially with the actors of the calibre of Sutherland, Hauer and James Cromwell.Rob Lowe and Andre Braugher, a solid character actor of many tv films and series, have most plot and screen time. They do a competent job but not outstanding in my opinion. This version differs from the original series in some respects but it probably is more faithful to Stephen King's novel from memory. It's updated, in a sense, with some hints at controversial issues such as incest, homosexuality, disability, suicide ---- not necessary in my view because this is a story about vampires insidiously taking over a town which in itself is enough to carry the plot. Just saying.174 minutes, English subtitles and full screen 1:77 compared to the 1979 series which is 4:3 aspect.

This is a far more faithful version of Stephen King's original novel, as Director Mikael Solomon and screenwriter Peter Filardi open up the story's focus on many of the other characters that weren't really fleshed out in the 1979 version. For example, master vampire, Kurt Barlow (Rutger Hauer) is shown as he was in the novel to be a charistmatic, erudite seducer of any unwary souls who he meets. Many of the other characters, such as Eva Brunier, Ned Ryerson and Floyd Tibbits are also very effectively brought to on-screen life by the actors playing them. There are a few disturbing scare moments that stick long in the memory, but none that are as memorable as those superbly orchestrated by Tobe Hooper in his version. Rob Lowe is outstanding and suitably haunted as writer Ben Mears, he nails the role perfectly and is probably the definitive portrayal of him. His co-star, Samantha Mathis, brings both a grounded realism and intelligence to her role as Susan, making her eventual fate even more tragic. Donald Sutherland clearly loves his role as Straker and commands attention every time he's on-screen as Straker and chews the scenery with devilish glee. The DVD picture quality and sound is good and it's a remarkable technical feat by Warner Bros. that the entire 174 running time is contained on only one DVD disc,whereas the original 1979 mini series version of 'Salem's Lot is split onto two DVDs in the 2006 release.

not as memorable as David Souls version, but still - watchable

i simply love this version of salem's lot.i was a big fan of the 79 version,but i was always disappointed with how they made the character of barlow into a nosferatu,when in fact in the novel he was a charming but utterly evil humanesque vampire.true,it's still not exactly like the novel,i would've preferred to see the vampire baby etc,and more use of the danny glick character,and the eva and weasel storyline was a bit sugary and the larry crocket incest thing was totally uncalled for,and i didn't like the way they handled the father callahan character,but it's still better than tobe hooper's version,as far as being faithful to the novel goes.i also wish that they'd made better use of rutger hauer as barlow.they could've kept the bonnie sawyer/corey affair in there,instead of changing it to the cody/Mcdougal affair,then we would've seen more of barlow.even though the hooper version had a sense of dread throughout the movie,this one is even darker in my opinion,and i love the soundtrack,especialy when ben is walking to the soup kitchen during the opening scenes.i have to say that i think that the guy who plays floyd tibbets is great,as well as rob lowe.rob lowe IS ben mears.anyway,i love this,despite it's faults,so i recommend it to anyone who's read the book and who's a fan of king.thanks for reading this and i hope it helps.Stephen.

As far as remakes go, I found this to be a very good effort. I won't go into the plot as I'm sure if you're thinking of getting this, then you've probably seen the original.Rob Lowe plays Ben Mears, the role played by David Soul in the original. I actually liked Lowe slightly more than I did Soul, but felt some of the other actors were wasted a little. Donald Sutherland, James Cromwell and Rutger Hauer are fine actors, but I doubt any had more than 25 minutes screen time. Sutherland seems a little crazy as Straker, I absolutely loved James Mason's subtle, creepy performance a lot more back in the 1979 effort. Samantha Mathis was decent, as was Andre Braugher who always seems to play the same character but does it reasonably well.For some reason it's implied that there's an incestuous relationship between a father and daughter, not needed at all in my opinion, and only seemed to be there to shock. The effects are better than in the original, even if I did prefer the vampires eyes in the old version. I liked how Barlow now looked like a man instead of Orlok from Nosferatu. There's some good deaths, but it doesn't have the same sense of foreboding as the original.This version was also made for TV, but it doesn't feel cheap with it having a $25 million budget. I rate this like I do The Shining remake, also a story by Stephen King. It wasn't necessary as the original is great anyway and it's a little long. Not as good as the original, but a very good effort. The DVD has no extra features, but that's not too suprising with the main feature itself lasting roughly 3 hours.