Brian Hall

I love the book, and still to this day strongly enjoy the outdated, but still very tense 79 made for TV movie. Then all of us heard whispers that there was a calling of sorts that there was going to be a remake of the book. How delighted I was that some of the same people that made IT a spooky pulse pounding hit were going to be a part of this great endeavor. Then there were setbacks and delays and even worse... nothing at all!! Everyone was up asking if it was still a thing, or a horror fever dream. Then out of nowhere the trailer dropped, showing tidbits, salivating with every fame it showed of a cursed town in the onslaught of vampires. But you never saw Mr. Barlow!!! Now we come to October of 2024, and here the movie is, ready to be enjoyed by Steven King and horror fans alike. As the movie starts it just throws you into the story like you should already know what is happening. There is no real character development and if there is any you have to ask yourself if it's relevant to the story. In this case 10 out of 10 cases no it isn't. The characters are flat (thank God they're good actors) there's no real drama. The window scene that was so spooky cool in the book as well as the TV movie, was yawnable. Mr. Barlow looked like a shiney CGI turd, that looked so out of place it was scoffable. The movie was fast paced only so that it could get to the end credits. In the end, I would highly suggest that the writers and the directors use everything at their disposal the book as well as a campy yet cool TV movie, go back to the drawing board and make a movie worth the name Salem's Lot.