Synopsis: Based on Stephen King's second published novel, Salem's Lot is a variation on Dracula. King subverts the story by making the gradual takeover of the town by vampires the focus of his story. Ben Mears (David Soul) is a writer who left Salem's Lot shortly after high school. He's haunted by a single image--the image of a man who committed suicide in a haunted house. He returns to Salem's Lot to write a novel based on his experience. In the process he falls in love with a local high school teacher (nicely played by a young and beautiful Bonnie Bedila)After the arrival of an antique's dealer (James Mason), children disappear and creepy things begin to happen in the town.

It's one of King's most accomplished early works. Originally meant to be directed as a feature film by George Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead), once Universal announced its remake of Dracula, the production company put the project on track as a television miniseries. Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergist, Lifeforce) stepped in as director. While Hooper's direction is sharp particularly during the second half of the miniseries, his unusual restraint due to the constraints of television work against him. The best sequences (particularly during the last hour)capture all of the creepiness missing from the early part of the miniseries. Paul Monash's teleplay captures the best elements of King's novel. While it's a bit lacking in terms of creepiness during the early part of the production, Monash's script does manage to capture the small town atmosphere very well.

David Soul gives a thoughtful performance as Mears. Bonnie Bedelia is marvelous as Susan the high school teacher that captures his heart. The film is filled out with a great cast of strong character actors including Fred Willard, Elisha Cook, Jnr., Lew Ayres and Ed Flaunders. The production design and art direction doesn't betray the television roots of the miniseries like most projects from the same time frame (most notably the awful version of The Martian Chronicles). Part of this is due to the smalltown Maine Setting.

While it's nice to have this on DVD, the print is in awful shape. There's a huge amount of analog artifacts. There's dust, dirt and lots of other problems with the print. This looks like the print that was used for the videotape version. The picture is frequently soft and is missing a lot of detail. The colors haven't been balanced correctly as well and they frequently bleed. Although the outside of the disc states it's a duallayer disc, it doesn't look it. The only plus here is that the entire miniseries is included on one disc.

The mono sound is flat and doesn't have any dynamic range. While I realize it's too much to expect a 5.1 or stereo remix, the least Warner could have done was to try and find a better source for the print and soundtrack. The only extra included is a "theatrical trailer" which I don't recall being broadcast when the miniseries originally aired. Perhaps it was created for the theatrical version of the film. The theatrical trailer actually looks better than much of the print used for this transfer.

Sadly, Salem's Lot, like a lot of early DVD's issued by Warner, looks like it was haphazardly slapped together. It's a pity as there was a missed opportunity here. While it isn't the best miniseries, it's an early classic of the horror miniseries that were created for television during the late 70's. The film would have benefited from a commentary from director Hooper, star Soul and Bedila. I'm sure there must be documentary or behind the scenes footage that could have been included as well. Like a lot of Warner "product" (Horror of Dracula comes to mind), too little effort and not enough thought or care was put into this reissue. I'm sorry to say that this is a very disappointing DVD.  (Amazon Reviewer)

Cast: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres

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