Stephy Watched Salem's Lot (1979)

 Hello There! Time for me to ramble about another movie! And to finish out spooky month, I actually watched something spooky!

No picture this time. For reasons. Reasons that are I didn't have a picture this time...

You'll enjoy Mr. Barlow. And he'll enjoy you.

- Straker

no I won't...

About/Summary

A 1979 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's novel. 

A novelist returns to Salem's Lot, where he lived as a child, to write a book. But things begin happening to the residents soon after he arrives.

Content/Trigger Warnings

Violence

Non-graphic deaths

Lying about rape (a woman is cheating on her husband and when caught, says the other man was raping her. It is very obviously a lie)

Child Death

Characters/Casting 

Casting was pretty good. Though almost none of the characters were how I pictured when I read the book. Not sure if it's because Stephen King described them differently, or if my brain just came up with my own descriptions. 

Susan and her mother were less annoying this time. Which was nice. 

Atmosphere/Setting

The setting is a small town named Salem's Lot (actually, it's Jerusalem's Lot but it got shortened) in the 1970s. I enjoy fictional stories set in small towns because, unlike Jason Aldean, I actually live in a smallish town (not sure what counts as a small town, but the town I live in has less than 3,000 people). I always find it a bit interesting to compare fictional small towns to my own. My small town is lacking once again because it does not have a spooky house on the hill. But I feel like the movie kind of got the small-town vibe down pretty well. I feel that the book did a better job, but the book had entire chapters dedicated to telling you about the town and the people in it. A lot of which was cut in the movie, but I understand. Couldn't fit all that into three hours. If they tried there would have been at least one hour of just that. So, good job with the setting. 

The atmosphere was spooky. Which was good. I really got nothing else to say about it. Sorry? not sorry

Writing

Stephen King wrote the novel. Paul Monash wrote the screenplay. And both did a damn good job. Five stars, sirs.

Adaptation

This is a weird adaptation. There were a lot of odd little changes. Like, character names were changed. Some of the changes were okay. The combination of characters was a change. For example, Bonnie Sawyer was having an affair with her boss, Larry Crockett, instead of a random teenager (did he work for the phone company or something? I can't remember). It worked because it was one less character to introduce. And there were a lot of characters in the novel. So, those changes worked for me.

One change that did not work for me was Barlow. Just... Nope. Did not like that.

But otherwise, it was a pretty good adaptation, in my opinion.

Plot

The plot was really good. I mean, the whole plot was "Dude moves to small town then weird shit happens, and look at that, vampire." And the mini-series (and yes, I keep referring to it as a movie and as a mini-series because my brain refuses to pick one...) did well to convey that plot over three hours.

Costuming

Is this how people dressed in the 70s? Interesting 🤔

Larry Crockett's suits, though. Why? Was that fashionable back then? Way too much white.

How diverse is it?

I think I saw a black man. Not sure though cause it wasn't a long shot and I think you just see his back.

Also, everyone is straight... Boring.

Overall Thoughts

Quality mini-series. Pretty good adaptation. Four out of five stars. Y'all lost a star for that Barlow change. I did not like it. Sorry. not sorry this time either.

And that's all I got for this one. See y'all on Saturday for the post that makes me realize I did nothing once again for an entire week.

Stephy Reads Salem's Lot by Stephen King

 Hello There!

Oliver has no idea why I do this to him.

Trigger Warnings:

Child Abuse

Animal Death

Homophobic Slurs

Child Death

Death

Blood

Ableist Language

Rape (mentioned, slight description, implied)

Salem's Lot is about Jerusalem's Lot. Which is full of a lot of shit people. Ben Mears, a writer who once lived in the Lot when he was a kid, returns hoping to get some inspiration. Which is the first of a long list of Bad Ideas. Well, maybe not the first. The first was probably building the town... Ben arrives in town at the same time as two other men. Business partners. And I don't mean that as some sort of innuendo. They ain't fucking. Which... Yeah, I'm okay with that. Straker and Barlow, are their names. They open an antique store. They also buy the spooky old house on the hill. Which most fictional small towns seem to have one of those. Is that just a fiction thing? Do real-life small towns all have a spooky house on the hill that teenagers dare each other to go into at night? If so, I am once again very disappointed in the town I live in. Not a single spooky old house, on a hill or not.

Soon after Ben arrives in the Lot, he meets Susan Norton and they begin dating. Then a dog is murdered. A kid goes missing after that. And ya know what, it just starts going downhill fast after that. 

I really enjoyed this book. Even though it took me over a month to read. But that's my fault. I read it before and I was constantly like "Oh, bad part is coming up" and I'd go read fluffy fan-fiction for a few days. Last time I read it, it only took me a couple days. I enjoy Stephen King's writing. And I really enjoyed that even though Ben was the main character, we got chapters that dived into the other characters. Which most were shit and deserved the deaths they received. 

There is a hint that the people in town are shitty because there is some Evil in the old spooky house on the hill. I'm not sure if that is actually something or I was reading a bit too much into it.

Most of the characters in this book are horrible. I hate them. I think they're supposed to be that way, though. Well, for the most part. I did really like Matt and Mark though. Matt was totally my favorite character. 

The first time I read this I remember being on the edge of my seat needing to know what happened next. It was suspenseful and terrifying at times. I only remembered big plot points this time, so I was still on the edge of my seat about things. Though, like I said earlier, sometimes I would remember a bad thing was going to happen and then I avoided the book for a couple days. 

This probably isn't my favorite vampire book (oh yeah, forgot to mention, there are vampires). But this ranks pretty high on the top ten list. And the only reason it doesn't rank higher is because I do prefer romance shit. So give me those pretty vampires that want to make heart eyes at each other. But as far as horror vampires, yeah this book is pretty high on the list. 

One terrifying point is how quickly the vampire practically took over the town. Dude worked smart and fast. So, good job.

Aaaand... That's really all I got. 

If you follow me on Tumblr, I will be posting some Things I Say While... about this book. I've been kind of slacking on those. I apologize. I really miss doing them.

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And see y'all on Saturday.