No Hope November - Day 26 - "Salem's Lot"

After remarking that I was done doing movies based upon Stephen King books for No Hope November, I decided to go back to the well one more time. "Salem's Lot" was a two part made for TV movie that aired in 1979 on CBS. They stuck the two parts together on this dvd to create a film that lasts for just over 3 hours. Brilliantly directed by Tobe Hooper, Salem's Lot is a story about a writer (David Soul), that returns to his hometown to write a book about a supposed haunted house that sits on a big hill on the edge of town. The writer is named "Ben" and he wants to rent the big old house and stay there while he writes his book. Unfortunately for Ben, a mysterious man named Straker beats him to the punch and buys the house, and also opens an antique store in town. Ben rents a room at a boarding house and begins to settle in to life in the small Maine town, befriending some of the locals and researches for his book. As time goes by people start disappearing and Ben starts to believe it has something to do with the haunted house and the mysterious Mr. Straker. Then the meat of the story really gets going and Salem's Lot develops into a fabulously atmospheric and ever increasingly spooky as a Mo Fo kind of movie. It is creepy and moody. There are vampires that are extremely well done and frightening. These ghouls don't glitter in the sunshine, they are mean and ugly killing machines. Nosferatu style vampires. This is a super movie and anyone that enjoys suspense is sure to get a kick out of it. Well written, well acted and directed, Salem's Lot conveys feelings of fear and dread without any big scenes of blood or gore. A finely crafted story that accomplished everything it set out to do, establishing interesting characters and settings, creating a mood, and scaring the crap out of the viewer. Salem's Lot is a champ.