Movie: 'Salem's Lot (2004)

Three times around with Carrie was pretty exhausting, but two miniseries of 'Salem's Lot was especially taxing, and technically a longer time investment.

I'm not sure if the 1994 miniseries version of The Stand was to blame, but over the following ten years, a series of ill-advised and not-really-needed Stephen King miniseries aired. Perhaps the creators felt that 20 years of advances in special effects and a few big name actors and a modern setting would make for an improved adaptation. Here in the 2004 'Salem's Lot (bringing back the leading apostrophe!) we have a few big name actors, outweighing the 1979 version: Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, and James Cromwell, and maybe some other recognizable ones depending on how much TV you watch.

For the most part I felt this version tried to stick closer to the book. One big exception, of course, is the totally whacked-out ending. The opening scene, which was so different I nearly deleted it from my DVR thinking I had the wrong movie, teases this difference. In spite of creating this ultimately adversarial relationship between Father Callahan, Ben Mears, and Mark Petrie, there is a lot of things that click better. In spite of some tepid and dour acting, Rob Lowe looks more like Ben Mears's description in the book. Mark is way older than his book counterpart (and a "mean kid" to boot) but looks pretty much as described. Barlow has returned to being articulate and human-looking as he was in the book. Donald Sutherland, however, did not go chrome-dome as Straker. I guess even the best actors have to draw the line somewhere. Most different was Matt Burke, who regained his original name, but is now black and gay. The 1979 movie, probably in the interest of time, merged a bunch of characters together. There isn't so much of that going on here, but some of the book's more minor characters enjoy expanded roles, such as Dud the dump manager and Charlie the bus driver. For some inexplicable reason Eva has become French Canadian and marries Weasel, or at least tries to anyway. All in all, the parts of this movie that try to hew close to the book get derailed by the parts where things wildly diverge.

In the filming locations department, this has to be the craziest one yet. This time, maybe for tax reasons, Australia is now subbing in as Maine. Not only that, but the supporting cast is largely from either Australia or New Zealand, and it seems as if they've been dubbed over with American voices. Either that or they should have fired the sound guy because I've seen kung fu movies dubbed better. Plus, the ambient noise seems to drown out the dialogue in places. The chroniclers at IMDB have correctly noted that trees in full summer foliage are flocked for the winter setting, not to mention the not-found-in-Maine eucalyptus trees all over the place.

In closing, you can lead a perfectly happy life by not seeing either adaptation of 'Salem's Lot. This version is a missed opportunity to have fixed some of the shortfalls of the first one, and ultimately leaves you wondering what the whole point was in the first place.