The Story:
Stephen King has had his fair share of novels make it to the small screen instead of the big screen. Many of these mini-series were outstanding. But the quality of the movies may have to do with the source material. It seems that his newer novels are being overlooked more and more for remakes of his earlier novels. First, there was The Shining, which stuck more strictly to the book…and offered little of the scares of the very different cinema release. Now we have Salem's Lot, which truly is a remake, because to a large extent, it follows the original mini-series script.

In case you don't know the general plot, writer Ben Mears (Rob Lowe) returns to the small town of Salem's Lot to face his demons—demons he first met in the old Marsten house when he was a young boy. Just as Ben is a stranger in town, so are Straker & Barlow, two men who now live in the old Marsten place and own a small antique shop in town. Straker (Donald Sutherland) runs the shop, and the mysterious Barlow (Rutger Hauer) is never seen. When a young boy disappears, the new strangers in town all become suspects, but soon, it seems like a plague is breaking out, and people begin dying left and right. It isn't long before townsfolk begin to suspect the unthinkable…vampires are taking over Salem's Lot.

I think it easiest to weigh the goods and bads of this film. Let's begin with the bads, shall we? First bad. Rob Lowe's narration. Lowe is fine in the role of Ben Mears, but the decision to have him narrating just doesn't work. At most times, it comes across as a sappy, contrite comment on small town living. At other times, it's supposed to be an overdub of him telling a tale of his past to another character—but his dialogue sounds like narration instead of one human being speaking to another, and it's just hard to listen to it without laughing. Then there's the parallels to another King movie adaptation, Needful Things—for Straker owns a store, flatters and charms the townsfolk (sometimes with gifts), knows their weaknesses and dirty little secrets, and knows how to turn them against each other (another six-degrees of Stephen King: Bonnie Bedelia played Susan in the original Salem's Lot and was also the lead female character in Needful Things!). This movie also suffers from mini-series syndrome. The entire first half is laden with setup and character introduction, and it's only in the last few minutes of part 1 that you get a real good thrill that makes you want to tune into part 2. It's one thing to see it presented on television that way—but it's hard to sit down to a 3-hour horror movie on DVD and find few chills in the first hour and a half. And the most dreaded part of this adaptation is the convoluted ending of the film, connected to the opening scene, which shows us that Ben Mears is actually recounting the whole story of the situation in Salem's Lot to a doctor in a hospital. The final words of dialogue in the movie manage to make the past 3 hours just fall apart—and those who have seen the original are going to wish this one would have stuck to that ending. This new ending forfeited the whole atmosphere of the movie. And finally, despite an hour and a half of character development, the relationships between the characters never seemed so well played out. Everyone seemed to be facing this horror alone, and just happened to be standing in the same room with other characters while doing it.

Now the bright sides. There are some truly chilling moments in this movie. Slick production and modern effects bring the vampires up to modern standards of creepiness. The infamous "window" scene that scared millions of little kids back in the 70s has been somewhat reproduced, but it's still more frightening in the original. While closely following the plot of the original movie, this one also strays far enough from it at times to offer some new thrills, and even updates some of the concepts. Teacher Matt Burke (Andre Braugher) is both black and gay in this film, which offers a nice touch to his inviting a lean young man into his home (who happens to be a vampire). One young disabled man finds relief at last in the world of the undead. There's a twist on the resting place of the vampires. And then there's the case of Barlow. Depending on where you are coming from, this could be a positive or negative. For King purists, the vampire Marlow is not a Nosferatu-like monster as in the original, but basically just a normal human being (as in the novel) who looks like a scarier version of Rutger Hauer. As a result however, he's not nearly as ominous or threatening as the baldheaded freak from the original.

All in all, if you can overlook the annoying narration, the drawn out first half that eventually gets you to the good stuff, and the weak final moments of the movie, you can sit back and enjoy a scary joyride through the small town of Salem's Lot in a not necessary, but enjoyable remake.

The DVD

Video:
It's nice to see a movie originally made for television in its widescreen format, with an aspect ratio of 1:85:1. The transfer is pretty much flawless with no signs of damage to the print. Flesh tones are right on and the color saturation is also very good, but this is not as easily noticeable because the blacks go overboard, making for harsh contrast. The dark shades almost overtake the entire screen, and the colors end up seeming a bit drearier than they are. There's also a hint of grain to the image, and maybe I was just seeing things, but the second half of the film (that would be part 2 of the mini-series) seemed to have less. And speaking of the break between the two halves of the movie, there was a brutal pause from layering at the halfway mark.

Sound:
The 5.1 surround sound is dead on. The vocals are clear and up front in the center speaker, eerie sounds are set deeply back for full surround effect, and the distortion free bass offers just enough kick.

Extras:
Considering this is a 3-hour movie, they skipped any extras to keep this release one disc. You have the option of subtitles, including English, French or Spanish. Chapter Select offers a whopping 51 breaks.

Final Thoughts:
The remake of Salem's Lot sticks to many elements of the original, ads in a few new goodies to change things up, including some aspects of the original novel that were not in the first mini-series, and uses modern effects to give a creepy edge to the vampires. At the same time, despite being the same length as the original mini-series, it seems to drag on a little more, not really engrossing viewers until the second half, features an unnecessary and annoying narrative by the lead character, and suffers from an anti-climactic and cryptic final scene. There are definitely enough chills to make this worth watching though, and the DVD presentation, although short on extras, offers a clean, if too dark, image, and excellent surround sound.