With David Soul of course and it's the definitive movie as far as I'm concerned?? Barlow was nothing short of creepy as fuck with clear Nosferatu influences while the other SALEM'S LOT had Rob Lowe and Barlow was human and another movie Stephen King preferred over the other versions and that also includes, The SHINING with Steven Weber..
shareI think the 70s miniseries holds up all right, though it's dated in some ways.
shareI'm looking forward to this new one. Curious how this interpretation is going to be.
I saw the original back in 1979 and it gave me nightmares. Still one of the scariest movies ever in my opinion.
The 2004 version wasn't bad but nowhere near as scary as the original.
I love the book. I think the new version should have been a 10 part mini-series. There are so many interesting characters and situations in the book that could be fleshed out on film. Too bad this is only a movie and not a mini-series.
The very best Stephen King adaptions were the early ones up to 1983. Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Cujo, The Dead Zone and Christine. These were the only ones that really captured the same mood you have while reading his books.
After that, there were a couple of good adaptions from time to time, like Stand by Me, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption and the TV version of It and The Stand but most were forgettable. The very, very best, though, were the ones up to 83.
Any post-2000 adaption of King's books is just going to be pointless and bad and barely recognizable as a King story. It? A shallow, jumpscare scream-fest. The Stand? A disjointed boring slog. Carrie remake? The bland, baby-food version.
Totally agree with you, but don’t forget “Pet Sematary” 1989. It definitely captured the mood of the book.
share"It? A shallow, jumpscare scream-fest"
Not to mention the clown that looked nothing like the very clear description in the book.
I have it on VHS (the Crypt Collection videocassette). Old school stuff but great miniseries.
shareIt has been said that up to 1983, Stephen King Adaptations were the best: SALEM'S LOT(1979) THE SHINING(1980) CUJO(1983) CHRISTINE(1983) and anything after that wasn't as good because back then, the use of Practical FX was more prominent than CGI like today. In CUJO, they used 6 different dogs including a person dressed up like a St. Bernard
shareSome adaptations of SK stories produced after 1983 are considered masterpieces by many movie fans: Stand by Me, Misery (I think still the only SK movie that has won an Oscar), Shawshank Redemption (for so many years No. 1 on imdb's top 250), The Green Mile. The Stand and It are also among the most acclaimed SK adaptations.
shareTo me, those adaptations came off more as drama type of movies than his early movies focused more on the Supernatural
shareStand by Me, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile are dramas and Misery's a thriller. It is true that most of his acclaimed horror adaptations were released before 1984.
shareNow the Novel MISERY is more grisly than the movie. For example, in the movie, when she uses the sledge hammer to break Paul Sheldon's ankles, in the Novel, Annie uses an axe and cuts his feet off and then, uses a blowtorch to cauterize it. Yeah.. Also, in the movie, at the end when they're struggling with each other and Paul takes that weight and clubs her with it and she dies, in the Novel, that happened, however, when Paul called the Police, he crawled outside to wait for them. When they arrived, the Police went in and Annie was nowhere to be found. They looked everywhere and finally, found Annie out in the barn dead facedown while holding a chainsaw meant for Paul
shareNovel and movie, both Miseries are nerve-racking thrillers, the movie being more grisly as you wrote. The major difference I remember was the use of axe in the novel to cut the poor author's feet.
shareWhich version of Salem's Lot does King prefer? I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed the Rob Lowe version.
shareThe 1979 version you are speaking of.....
Very good, very scary for it's time.
David SOul, Lance Kerwin, James Mason.
Creepy kid scraping the window.
Yeah, and the blue faced vampire. Very good two parter (as I remember it) that stands out amongst 1970s television.
They showed how they shot the scene with the kid at the window. They had the kid in a harness on a crane swinging him back and forth while applying the fog FX
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