'Salem's Lot (2004 TV mini-series)
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| 'Salem's Lot | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Mikael Salomon |
| Produced by | Jeffrey M. Hayes, Brett Popplewell, Marc van Buuren, Mark Wolper |
| Written by | Novel: Stephen King Teleplay: Peter Filardi |
| Starring | Rob Lowe, Andre Braugher, Donald Sutherland, Samantha Mathis, Rutger Hauer |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros., TNT |
| Release date(s) | 2004 |
| Running time | 181 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ? |
| IMDb profile | |
'Salem's Lot was a two-part miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's classic vampire story 'Salem's Lot. The story set out to bring the 1975 novel into modern times. Characters now use cellphones and the internet. There are also a number of small inside jokes to other King works. (A dog is named Cujo, and "Stand by Me" is sung at a karaoke).
Large portions of film were shot at Creswick, in Central Victoria, Australia.
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[edit] Plot summary
The story opens with Ben Mears (Rob Lowe) attacking the priest, Donald Callahan (James Cromwell) in a homeless shelter. They fall together from a high window into the street. In the hospital, Ben Mears tells his story and his reasons for the way he acted to a nurse in the hospital. He starts, naturally enough, at the beginning of it all...
Ben, then a successful writer, returns to his hometown, Jerusalem's Lot (also known as 'Salem's Lot), intending to write a novel while he deals with the demons of his past. As a child, he eventually tells Susan Norton (a former Art Student, current waitress), he accepted a dare to enter the house of Hubie Marsden. Local legend said that there was something wrong with the house and/or its owner. That night, Ben eavesdropped on something horrible--including Hubie begging Something (later theorized to be mindless Evil) for his life, before committing suicide. Ben believes he heard Hubie Marsden's last child victim crying in the bathroom, but he didn't try to rescue him. When he reaches Salem's Lot, Ben discovers his plan to rent the Marsden House have been derailed. The owner, Larry Crockett (Grubb) has sold it to a pair of antique dealers--Richard Straker (Sutherland) and Kurt Barlow (Hauer).
The dark secrets of Salem's Lot begin to emerge. Crocket is sexually abusing his daughter Ruthie (McNamee), and when she spends time with a sweet cripple named Dud (Cowell), fires him. Evie (Blake), who runs the boarding house where Ben stays, played evil games with Hughie Marden when a teenager. The school bus driver is a bully who loves to torment the children he transports, forcing those he doesn't like to walk home. But these secrets all erupt as Barlow finally arrives in town--he is a vampire and soon begins recruiting more.
A child vanishes, and soon his brother begins to get sick, then dies. Laborer Mike Ryerson (Morris) buries the boy, then also gets sick and dies. He returns from the grave (complete with autopsy scars) to tempt high school teacher Matt Burke (Braugher), who is saved but has a heart attack. The evidence mounts, and Ben is persuaded that the town is being infested with vampirism. A small band composed of himself, Dr. Cody (Mammone), Father Callahan and Mark Petrie (Byrd) begin acting as vampire hunters--although they balk upon finding that Susan Norton has also been turned. Ben begs them to try and see what happens if they kill the Master Vampire.
Through all of this the different characters face their own demons as the demons surround them. Father Callahan, trying to confront Barlow by himself, finds his faith is not enough. Barlow forces him to drink some of his blood, turning him into a servant (possibly to replace the slain Straker). Larry Crocket, who invited the vampire into town, sees his daughter willingly join Dud in the night. Most of all, Ben still tries to wrestle with his own feelings of guilt and a failure to see virtue, at least consciously.
Cody and Burke are killed. Mark Petrie and Ben manage to destroy Barlow, who taunts Ben with his existence as a parasite of others' tragedies.
Yet when Ben sees Susan again, she is still a vampire. And she wants to tell him what she learned--that official records indicate the boy he blames himself for not helping all those years ago was already dead. Ben isn't to blame. When Susan turns to attack Mark, Ben is forced to destroy her.
Back in the present, the nurse is deeply moved but frightened by the story. He realizes Ben wasn't acting alone. While he goes to check on Father Callahan, who has died, Mark slips into Ben's room to tell him it is over. The Nurse sees Mark, realizes what has happened, but lets him go.
In his hospital room, Ben passes away, feeling at peace.
[edit] Cast
- Rob Lowe as Ben Mears
- Andre Braugher as Matt Burke
- Donald Sutherland as Richard Straker
- Samantha Mathis as Susan Norton
- Robert Mammone as Dr. James Cody
- Dan Byrd as Mark Petrie
- Rutger Hauer as Kurt Barlow
- James Cromwell as Father Callahan
- Andy Anderson as Charlie Rhodes
- Robert Grubb as Larry Crockett
- Steven Vidler as Sheriff Parkins
- Penny McNamee as Ruth Crockett
- Brendan Cowell as Dud Rogers
- Christopher Morris as Mike Ryerson
- Todd MacDonald as Floyd Tibbits
- Bree Desborough as Sandy
- Paul Ashcroft as Royce
- Elizabeth Alexander as Ann Norton
- Martin Vaughan as "Weasel" Craig
- Julia Blake as Eve Prunier
Rutger Hauer has played very powerful vampires at least twice before--in Dracula III: Legacy and in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Donald Sutherland appeared with Rutger Hauer in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and was also in the vampire story in the anthology film Dr. Terror's House of Horrors.
Samantha Mathis, Christopher Morris and Martin Vaughan also appeared in Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, written by Peter Filardi.
[edit] Deviations from the novel
This list is not exhaustive, but intended to convey a sense of the differences between the film and the novel:
- Instead of circa 1970 the film clearly takes place sometime in around 2004.
- Father Callahan becomes an actual servant of Barlow, even committing murder for him.
- Ben and Mark hunt down Father Callahan to Chicago and kill him.
- Mark's father is absent and the Petries are less comfortable financially.
- Ben dies at the end.
- Matt Burke is murdered by Father Callahan.
- Susan retains some of her personality as a vampire, including a love of Ben. The same can be said of Weasel.
- Marjorie Glick is portrayed as rather well-to-do.
- Eve Prunier is given a history with Hugh Marsden, and chooses to become a vampire to be with Weasel.
- Duds is a much younger and more naive character.
- Larry Crocket is portrayed as sexually abusing his daughter, Ruth, who is something of a Goth and had actually dated Duds.
- Sheriff Parkins is younger and more competent, leaving town partially in hopes of spending time with his daughter and grandchild rather than risk becoming a vampire himself.
- A bite from Marjorie Glick is "cured" via a tetanus shot.
- Ben is troubled by a sense of personal guilt from a belief he allowed a child to die when he himself was a child, and to some extent by turning in some US Army soldiers who had saved his life in Afghanistan for torture. This last incident is known, and condemned, by some locals.
- Larry Crocket goes to the vampirized Ruth, begging to join "them." But they refuse his blood. Duds says they can use his flesh. It is implied that a horde of vampires then devours him.
- When destroyed, vampires fall "up" and dissolve, then evaporate when they hit a ceiling.
[edit] Soundtrack
The song featured over the end credits is a cover of The Rolling Stones song Paint It Black by Gob.
[edit] Reactions
The movie received mixed reactions from both critics and fans. Most praised the lavish production values and the casting, but many were put off by the major changes to both the novel's plot and characters. For example, Father Callahan, rather than being the tragic character whose faith fails him, now turns into Barlow's new apprentice after Straker is slain. At this time the fifth Dark Tower novel, Wolves of the Calla, had come out, which featured the return of Father Callahan's character and the start of his redemption. This made his turn to villainy in the film all the more blasphemous to the fans. Some were also critical of some of the unnecessary attempts to modernize the story, with the inclusion of cell phones, etc.
