Salem's Lot (2004)

Release date:

2004 USA

Running time:

181' (cover 181') - Source: DVD (RC 1/NTSC)
174' (cover 174') - Source: DVD (RC 2/PAL)

Rating:

Germ.: 16; UK: 15; US: NR

Main Crew:

Director: Mikael Salomon (Sole Survivor 2000; Hard Rain 1998)
Producer: TNT / Warner Bros. TV / The Wolper Organization / Coote/Hayes
Productions
Score: Christopher Gordon / Lisa Gerrard & Patrick cassidy (add. music)
Writer: Peter Filardi (based on the novel by Stephen King)
Director of photography: Ben Nott

Cast:

Summary:

Welcome to Jerusalem's Lot - Salem's Lot, as locals call it. Population: 1319. And growing eerier by the moment.
Ben Mears (Rob Lowe), a successful writer with traumatic memories of his haunted childhood, returns to the small Maine town to write a book about the town and its inhabitants. But Ben is not the only newcomer to town. Richard Straker (Donald Sutherland), a mysterious antiques dealer, and his unseen business partner Kurt Barlow (Rutger Hauer) have moved into the ominous Marsten House. It doesn't take long before strange things begin happening. A series of mysterious deaths and disappearances eventually lead Ben, waitress Susan Norton (Samantha Mathis), high school teacher Matt Burke (Andre Braugher) and Father Donald Callahan (James Cromwell) on a quest to uncover the terrifying truth. Something unholy has overtaken their town... something with links to the sinister mansion of Ben's nightmares.

Note:

- Salem's Lot was written in 1973 by Stephen King, and was published by Doubleday in 1975.
- This is the book's second TV adaptation (25 years after the first also made-for-TV Salem's Lot by Tobe Hooper), this time by Cinematographer-turned-director Mikael Salomon, with an estimated budget of $25,000,000. The film was shot in Creswick, north of Melbourne, Australia, and was broadcast in two parts on Turner Network Television on June 20th and 21st 2004.
- There are references to other Stephen King works: In a local bar one of the characters is singing a karaoke version of "Stand By Me", and one of the dogs in the movie is named "Cujo". It also reunites Rob Lowe with Stephen King, ten years after Lowe played Nick Andros in King's "The Stand".
- Lowe says after he finished filming the mini-series, he thought he had arthritis in his wrist. Then, while watching the dailies in post-production, he realized it was in the arm he'd been using to stake the vampires.
- Rutger Hauer and Donald Sutherland have previously co-starred in the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer film.

click here for filmstills (pictures from the movie)

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