David Soul, James Mason, Bonnie Bedelia, Lance Kerwin and Reggie Nalder star in Tobe Hooper's 1979 horror film based on Stephen King's novel. Soul (Starsky & Hutch) plays Ben Mears, a novelist who returns to his hometown, Salem's Lot, Maine to write about a mysterious, old house that may be haunted. He discovers that an evil presence inhabits the house turning the town's residents into vampires one by one. Mason (Heaven Can Wait) plays antique dealer, Richard Straker, Bedelia (Die Hard) plays teacher and Ben's love interest, Susan Norton, Kerwin plays creative, young boy, Mark Petrie and Nalder plays Straker's business partner and vampire, Kurt Barlow. Geoffrey Lewis (Tango & Cash) and George Dzundza (Basic Instinct) also appear. This is a great vampire/horror flick featuring a good cast, great score & creepy make-up effects. I recommend this.

When a movie is terrible, I hear online/podcast reviewers say "I watched it, so you don't have to" and mean: they took the bullet for you. I agree with them, today.28 minutes into the extremely over-long Salem's Lot, I almost gave up. I didn't want to. I've wanted to see what this was all about since I was a kid, especially since I've viewed practically every other Stephen King adaptation. Even a lot of the sequels to said films. But, damn, this one was extremely tough to get through.More than a decade before King novels were turned more into miniseries or even TV series than theatrical releases, King's second book was adapted into a mind-boggling 3-hour miniseries and it felt every bit of that TV-vibe. Quick cuts, commercial timing, low-rent horror…all there. And distracting, too.The movie SHOULD have been in theatres, Rated R and cut to 90 minutes tops from 184 minutes. Literally, there was an easy hour and a half that could've been either cut or condensed to make it effective and work on the big screen. But, that didn't happen. So we got……a movie that was remade many years later as (also Stephen King's) Needful Things, only they replaced the villain and close setting with Nosferatu.Truthfully, there were some scary moments, some decent acting – mostly (only?) by the future sometimes Mrs. McClane, sometimes Ms. Gennaro and the multiple story lines helped keep my interest…occasionally. But, overall, it's totally not worth the three freaking hours.I was just thinking: maybe I should've seen the 2004 remake, instead and saved time. Egad, that's over three hours as well. Forget you.***Final thoughts: Day 9 Movie in the Can! I'm watching a NEW-2-ME horror movie every day of October 2016 and this one fascinated me with the cover/poster since I was such a little one. Plus, as I said above, I wanted to see it just to check it off my King Film List. Well, mercifully, I finally did get the experience behind me and now I don't even need to read the book…already read the superior (story of) Needful Things, anyways.

(50%) For a TV movie this is worthy of at least some acclaim as it is quite a well made piece, but the fact remains all too clear: it's way too damn long. There's a fair bit to like here from the decent cast right though to the generally good direction and decent scares, but when your 90 minute horror flick elapses even biblical epics then something is not quite right. There's some memorable scenes here, and some impressively crafted sections, but the scenes of David Soul trying the very best he possibly could in closing the stupid doors to his Jeep have always somehow always stood out in my mind as oddly very funny. If you have three hours to kill this is by far not a terrible way to spend it, and this is one of the better horror TV movies ever, but three hours is a long, long time.

This was an excellent miniseries. I use to own the full length miniseries on VHS as a kid. Idk why so many fans had a problem with making Barlow look more like Nosferatu? Honestly, I preferred this version over the 2004 one and the novel written by Stephen King himself. It just makes more sense. Barlow's appearance in the novel and in the 2004 version wasn't scary. I don't find a vampire with a more human like appearance like Dracula to be frightening. David Soul portrayed a better Ben Mears than Rob Lowe. I also liked the actor who played Mark. I found this version satisfying. Sure, it's not exactly like the novel. But then again it's Hollywood.