Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot

[Bruce Banner]

After re-watching Die Hard: With a Vengeance, playing a taunting menace from afar, I can't help but wonder how well Jeremy Irons can do if he had a chance to play Barlow or Straker. When reading the scene in the book where he taunts Ben and crew in with the letter I keep reading it in Iron's voice.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Yeah, but alot of King is better suited for TV than film. They just need someone with actual talent at the helm, instead of continuing to throw them at Mick Garris.

What about Darabont? He did Shawshank and The Mist really well.

 

[Sawyer]

That'd be nice. Watching his pilot for TWD, I could see him pulling off The Stand.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Yeah, but alot of King is better suited for TV than film. They just need someone with actual talent at the helm, instead of continuing to throw them at Mick Garris.

I don't know if I agree. I know his books are long and all but I feel TV takes away the magic just a bit. I mean, his best adaptations have been in film (and some of his worst I'll grant you) but Carrie, The Shining (even though it wasn't entirely fathful), Stand By Me, Misery, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist there just something pretty magic about them through the power of cinema. None of the TV adaptations have even approached those.

 

[Solidus]

Ya but none of them have been given the treatment to such stories as Band of Brothers, or series like Game of Thrones, Rome, The Walking Dead ect.

 

[GoldGoblin]

Did you like Desperation?

 

[Sawyer]

If WB is stupid enough to let go of Cary Fukunaga for IT, then someone needs to snatch him up and let the man give us some Salem's Lot.

 

[danoyse]

I would still love to see this happen. It’s not one of these 900+ page epics like IT or The Stand, so I think it would just work so well as a theatrical movie.

It’s my favorite Stephen King book. I read it again last summer and it still scares the crap out of me. The 1979 movie had it’s moments, but I’d love to see a big-screen take on it.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I read it for the first time this summer (admittedly my first King book ever) and this could definitely work as a movie. I loved it. King writes and describes evil in such a unique way I can finally see what the fuss is about. The only adaptations have done tv movies. I would love to see this happen and to create another scary vampire tale.

I honestly wouldn't mind David Oyelowo for Ben.

There's some scenes from this book that are just waiting to give people nightmares in a movie. A vampire scratching on someone's window telling them to let them in? My God, how many people's fears are those?

 

[danoyse]

I’ve read it at least six or seven times. Last summer, I started reading it again while I was at the pool. I had just gotten past the part where Ben had told Susan what happened to him at the Marsten House when I decided to head home. But I cut through the laundry room at my apartment to get home, which has this dark, musty hallway outside.

Even though I’d read the book before, I was like for a second when I got to that hallway with that chapter still in my head...

 

[Doctor Jones]

I’ve read it at least six or seven times. Last summer, I started reading it again while I was at the pool. I had just gotten past the part where Ben had told Susan what happened to him at the Marsten House when I decided to head home. But I cut through the laundry room at my apartment to get home, which has this dark, musty hallway outside.

Even though I’d read the book before, I was like for a second when I got to that hallway with that chapter still in my head...

I really love that whole chapter where King describes the secrets of the town and its secrets that the townspeople keep and no one else will ever know. It was so eerie. Obviously you can't show this in a movie, but that chapter really establishes a great tone and famework in how to approach the town cinematically from the get go.

 

[danoyse]

I really love that whole chapter where King describes the secrets of the town and its secrets that the townspeople keep and no one else will ever know. It was so eerie. Obviously you can't show this in a movie, but that chapter really establishes a great tone and famework in how to approach the town cinematically from the get go.

I loved that chapter. And the chapter about how the town was never officially declared dead, but that it was anyway, going through how all of the townspeople had met their end. It wasn’t a bloodbath, it wasn’t a fight, it was just gone. Some of them were just still in their beds, or behind shelves in their basements. They could drive through the town in daylight, and while it looked empty, they knew the people were all inside.

It was just so creepy.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I loved that chapter. And the chapter about how the town was never officially declared dead, but that it was anyway, going through how all of the townspeople had met their end. It wasn’t a bloodbath, it wasn’t a fight, it was just gone. Some of them were just still in their beds, or behind shelves in their basements. They could drive through the town in daylight, and while it looked empty, they knew the people were all inside.

It was just so creepy.

Oh yeah, that was terrific. See the knowledge of that could be conveyed on screen and create for something very unique. Salem's Lot is definitely one of the seminal vampire stories since Dracula and I Am Legend so it makes a lot of sense to do this next.

 

[C. Lee]

It was the first King novel I read back in the day....one of the few books that made me turn extra lights on after reading. I liked the original miniseries a lot....just liked parts of the remake. I wouldn't mind seeing another one made.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Has anyone seen Return to Salem's Lot? I've always wanted to check it out, but it's sort of hard to find.

 

[danoyse]

Has anyone seen Return to Salem's Lot? I've always wanted to check it out, but it's sort of hard to find.

I saw it on HBO a long time ago. It’s pretty bad.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I really want to see an expanded Stephen King universe on film. The actor who plays Flagg in The Dark Tower series likely won't be the same guy who plays him in The Stand and that's okay, since Flagg has a number of different forms. But I hope whoever they get to play Father Callahan in TDT is also in the Salem's Lot movie, should it ever be made.

 

[C. Lee]

Has anyone seen Return to Salem's Lot? I've always wanted to check it out, but it's sort of hard to find.

I did a long time ago...can't really remember a thing about it except that I put it in my "watch again in a hundred years" category.

 

[The Joker]

My favorite Stephen King book. It's supremely creepy and brilliant. I loved the original movie with David Soul and James Mason. To this day I think it has the scariest movie vampires ever. Mason is a great sinister scenery chewer as Straker. The Marsten house was perfectly done, just like how I envision it in the book staring down on the town from a hill. He may not have been accurate to the book version but Reggie Nalder's Barlow scared the bejesus out of me, and still gives me the chills today;

Didn't care for the remake at all. I thought it was pretty bad. Rutger Hauer's Barlow was the only character I liked.

Has anyone seen Return to Salem's Lot? I've always wanted to check it out, but it's sort of hard to find.

In my opinion it was pretty awful.

 

[Sawyer]

Well well well...

James Wan, Gary Dauberman Tackling Stephen King's Vampire Tale 'Salem's Lot'

 

[DarkKnight88]

Yes!

Hopefully it actually happens.

 

[Persona]

But I hope whoever they get to play Father Callahan in TDT is also in the Salem's Lot movie, should it ever be made.

You beat me to it! Would be pretty awesome to see the same actor show up in Season 5 of The Dark Tower or whatever.

 

[The Joker]

Exciting news. I am a huge fan of the book and the 1979 movie. The 2004 remake was garbage.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Exciting news. I am a huge fan of the book and the 1979 movie. The 2004 remake was garbage.

The vampires in the 1979 version are without doubt the creepiest I have ever seen.

 

[Sawyer]

I feel like certain King stories allow for a time period update, but I kind of hope this one is set in the '70s.

A Mark Petrie of 2019 would reach for his iPhone the second he sees Danny Glick outside the window, and put that **** on Twitter by morning.