Vampire week Day 5: 1979's 'Salem's Lot, apparently short for "Jerusalem's Lot"...which makes it lose a lot of its title appeal.
Even the trailer is really long...
Anyway, the main thing this movie has playing against it is that it's 3 freaking hours long. So is the 2004 remake. This has mostly to do with the fact that these weren't movies, but actually TV Mini series. Either way, way too long to watch in a single sitting.
Salem's Lot had a several very creepy scenes playing in its favor, it just was forced to space those out to a point where they became something wonderful and amazing when they showed up because it meant a break from the monotony of the late 70's drama. I know it has a reputation as a vampire classic but I don't see it. Usually a horror classic has something really good, but this couldn't save itself from its own pacing.
If someone were to make an "I've got shit to do with my day" fan-edit of the movie, distilling it to relevant plots and creepy vampire scenes, it would be a great 70's vampire flick. As it stands, Salem's Lot is an example of a slow burn done wrong. For reference, "Let The Right One In" is a slow burn done right.
Unfortunately I can't recommend this movie in its original form. It's worth watching if you have no problems fast-forwarding the slow bits, but to sit and view in its 3 hour entirety just doesn't pay off enough.
The next movie will be: Dracula 3000. This should be funny.
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