Stephen King Month: Salem's Lot (2004)

2 Stars - A Bit Crap

Once more we delve back into Stephen King's first small town story 'Salem's Lot, this time in the form of the 2004 miniseries, where they modernised the setting and changed some things... but I'll get into that.

I've already explained the story of this one in my other 'Salem's Lot review, but basically small Maine Town with Vampires.

This miniseries isn't all that good, the story drags and the supporting characters, the very thing that makes the book so good, aren't interesting to watch and so whenever they're on you just think where's the story? The acting is actually fairly decent with notable actors like James Cromwell, Andre Braugher and Rutger Hauer it would be hard not to be, but the best actors don't get that many scenes, in fact I think Hauer has all of about three...

As an adaptation it isn't very good, the modernisation feels forced as they all miraculously seem to forget that they're in a time where mobile phones could help out in a lot of situations and it doesn't contribute anything to the way they tell the story. The biggest change they made is the one most guaranteed to annoy fans of the book and once again it's what they do to father Callahan, who just can't seem to catch a break in these things. They had kept a faithful and true to the character interpretation of him right up until the end where he suddenly gets turned into a badguy, which is such a change from the book that it is inexcusable. There are also little changes made here and there, like when a guy falls where he thought there would be stairs in this he lands on a table saw, as opposed to the much more gruesome wooden spikes on the ground in the book.

Words Are His Power

In short, an annoying miniseries, give it a miss