Salem's Lot '04 Review Country : Australia Year: 2004 Genre: Horror/Vampires Format: Cable Running Time: 181 minutes Distributor: TNT Strange occurences beset a small New England township when a young writer who had grown up there returns to write a book..... Credits Directed by Mikael Salomon. Teleplay by Peter Filardi. Novel by Stephen King. Starring Rob Lowe, Dan Byrd, Donald Sutherland, Samantha Mathis, Rutger Hauer, James Cromwell, Robert Mammone. This project carries the cumbersome definition of Remake of an Adaptation of a bestselling Novel. And you can almost alleviate much of that mouthful with the insertion of the word Reinvention. Frankly, I'm tired of using the word "reinvention" in my reviews of contemporary horror remakes. While recent works like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and, to a lesser extent, Dawn Of The Dead have enjoyed innovative tweaks and rearranged storylines which made them highly effective, I wanted to see an updated Salem's Lot which included the backstory, the supporting characters and the overall menace which Stephen King's novel detailed and which Tobe Hooper's otherwise-fine 1979 television miniseries omitted. Did I get my wish. No and yes. Mostly no....but hell if I'm not pretty damned happy with this new one anyway. I also disdain "comparison" reviews--you know, the ones where the writer spends the bulk of his write-up propping up some earlier film which he's superiorly comparing to the current one that he's giving the finger to. It's just lazy critique. But with such a groundbreaking novel and monumental preceding film that tell the same story, it is instead lazy reviewing to not at least highlight the contrasts, just for narrative clarity. Peter Filardi's teleplay begins ambitiously, detailing a scenario that King himself once fancied would make a neat lead-in for a Salem's Lot sequel, though he had no intention of ever writing it. The disgraced Father Callahan (Jamie Cromwell) is now working in a Detroit soup kitchen when he is accosted by a crazed Ben Mears (Rob Lowe). The altercation lands both into the local ICU, and in flashback form, Mears tells his tale to an attending medic. It is unclear how many years have passed in the interim, but the flashback begins with acclaimed writer Mears arriving in his childhood home town of Salem's Lot, ready to close a deal with realtor Larry Crockett (Robert Grugg) to rent the delapidated Marsten House, a foreboding structure which seems to look down upon the township from its lofty hillside perch. No can do, says Crockett; he's just sold the property to a pair of antique dealers looking to set up shop in town. Mears instead takes a room at a local boarding house managed by one Eva Prunier (Julia Blake), who seems to have some clandestine connection to the Marsten House herself. Meanwhile, the local school bus driver (Andy Anderson) makes new enemies after inflicting his hard-assed punishments on the Glick brothers (Andre de Vanny, Zac Richmond) and resident problem kid Mark Petrie (Dan Byrd). Local physician Jimmy Cody (Robert Mammone) finds himself in hot water after having an affair with former sweetheart Sandy McDougall (Bree Desborough), much to the wrath of her trailer-trash hubby Royce (Paul Ashcroft). Crockett's rebellious daughter Ruthie (Penny McNamee) reluctantly answers to the innocent wiles of local gimp Dud Rogers (Brendan Cowell), while Dud's co-worker's Mike Ryerson (Christopher Morris) and Floyd Tibbits (Todd McDonald) accept payment to deliver a special package from a nearby wharf to the Marsten House. Tibbits used to date Susan Norton (Samantha Mathis), a local waitress who had once exchanged academic emails with Mears and who is now a love interest. And then there's Matt Burke (Andre Braugher), the lifelong bachelor--and privately gay--schoolteacher who once taught Mears, and who witnesses just what is becoming of his town. Especially now that antique dealer Richard Straker (Donald Sutherland) and his silent partner, one Mr. Barlow, have arrived in town. And as Kurt Barlow, Rutger Hauer is both debonair and demonic. All of the above was to brief you on Filardi's script. If it doesn't deviate too much from your vision of how the novel should be adapted, then you're in. If it does, then you're not, and you'll have to be converted. I'll admit, I'm no different. It took me the second half to really get immersed into what director Mikael Salomon is going for here, and it's a grand bit of Something Old and Something New, wrapped in a string of Something Too Horrific. Remember what became of Father Callahan in the first movie? Didn't think so, because nothing did. As for the book? After Barlow stripped him of his faith, the good priest procured a pint of hooch and hit the first bus out of town. Here, we find out just what kind of damnation Barlow had in mind for Callahan. There are certain scenes which fans of the original movie will want to know how they're pulled off here. The scene of Mike Ryerson burying Danny Glick? Different, but eerie enough. Danny Glick at Mark Petrie's window? Plays almost exactly like the book, and pretty damned scary. Ben and Jimmy watching Marjorie come back to life on the embalming table? Meh, rather dull, but kind of cute. Want to know what will creep the bejeepers out of you? Try Floyd Tibbets creeping through the air vent to reach Ben. Or Eva's final proposal to "Weasel" Ed. Or even Ralphie's hospital pounce upon his brother. The new Salem's Lot is not the book-incarnate I wanted, though it tends to posit itself to be just such. On the other hand, it works so damned well in spite of itself, I'm left with no choice but to recommend it. And recommend it. And recommend it. And recommend it. Did I mention that I recommended it? MORE INFO Review by Petch Lucas, for Pitofhorror.com