I watched Salem's Lot on HBO today. It's a horror story set in 1975 based on Stephen King's novel.

Summary

The story begins when Ben Mears who like Stephen King is also a writer returns to his old hometown, Jerusalem or shortened Salem's Lot in Maine. Meanwhile a crate from Europe arrives in Salem's Lot brought by Richard Straker. If this sounds familiar is because it seems to be a reimagining of the Dracula story only set in Maine. Anyway, the towns people of Maine gets turned to vampires. It's now up to Ben and his team including Father Callahan (who will play further roles in Stephen King's Dark Tower series) to stop Kurt Barlow, the vampire. There was a side story about Ben's parents dying when he was a child but it was not mentioned further in the movie.

Comments

The story is not only a reimagining of Dracula but it also has a similar themes and structure with other Stephen King novels like "It", "Dr Sleep" and even one by his son, "The Black Phone". Basically, a great evil antagonist comes and an unassuming hero will go on a quest to defeat it.

The movie has some scary parts which will satisfy those who like scary movies. However there may be others who will not like the glowing crosses since it looks campy and unreal.

Conclusion

I liked watching the movie and something to spend time on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Grab a popcorn, relax and enjoy the movie without thinking too much. It's not too gory and scary. It's about a character taking on a role of hero when an evil vampire takes over the small town. It's theme is about stepping up and solving problems when they come. As one of the characters said: he has to fight because "running will only make it worse".