When you think of good audio-visual presentations of Stephen King novels, you don't really think about the original book, but the result from a really good director. You think about Kubrick's "The Shining", Cronenberg's "Dead Zone", and, ah, gimme a moment, it's around here somewhere. Uhm, well, there's ... hell, the best thing which has come from Stephen King has been on teevee. And there's no shame in that, in fact, if he turned his back to Hollywood entirely, and just worked on the small screen, we'd have much better things to see on the tube.
Case in point, the recent made for teevee two-parter "Salem's Lot". This was King's first novel (my first exposure to Stephen King was reading Ben Grimm in the Fantastic Four - sorta like something out of "The Ice Storm", yes, I am get gonna all meta on your ass — reading "Salem's Lot", and shitting bricks when somebody startles him (well, what the hell else would The Thing shit but bricks?))
Anyways, Stephen King's best film work in the last decade has been in teevee. As an adaptation of his novel, the teevee version of "The Shining" was actually quite good, and "The Stand" had some nudity.
And now we get "Salem's Lot", which has been previously made for teevee, but was campy and had too much Soul - David Soul. This version has Rob Lowe and a farmer priest, and best of all, the vampire is played by Rutger Hauer. It is creepy, tense and really captures the tone and style of King's novel like the big screen versions don't.
Sure, there are the in-jokes (a guy calls his dog "Cujo", etc, and while I didn't see it, like in "Kingdom Hospital", there was probably somebody reading a Stephen King book) but the mini-series really rolls along on the dread suspense instead of SFX.
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Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
Jim,
Carrie was King's first novel, Salem's Lot his second and The Shining his third.
Brian De Palma made a pretty good film based on Carrie if memory serves. And I liked John Carpenter's Christine far more than I liked the crappy book.
The best films based on King's work would also include Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me and The Green Mile.
I'm a big fan of Tobe Hooper's original version of Salem's Lot and still watch it every once in a while. The King book scared the crap out of me as a kid and was one of my first "adult" novels to read. Have not seen the new version on TNT, though am looking forward to its DVD release.
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
HA! Yes, you gotta stop reading The Duke, man. No good can come from those pretentious witterings by that foul-mouthed motherfucker.
My favourite part of this was the last line. "Oh yeah, the plot..."
Ha!
3 - Joe
I liked both versions and they tweaked the plot enough that seeing one wasn't the same as seeing another. I liked the James Mason/Donald Sutherland role, and that they managed to get two generations of dudes with pervy voices to play the vampire's toady. Additionally, the Dead Zone movie with Walken, Sheen, and whole lot of shivering is one of the better film adaptations.
4 - Chris Kent
I agree about The Dead Zone. It's far and away the finest adaptation of a Stephen King novel. I also think it's one of Christopher Walken's finest performances. Just a very sad, emotional harrowing film.
5 - saman
i was inspired by your review and downnlaoded a full movie. what can i say? not bad for king's adaptation