Sunday, June 20, 2004
return to 'Salem's Lot
omg ... ever since i've been noticing the billboards advertising the remake of the 1979 tv miniseries 'Salem's Lot i've found myself becoming a little anxious. some of you know this about me but for those who don't ... when i was very young my mother was an avid horror film fan. she would watch creature feature on a local tv station that showed horror movies every saturday afternoon. why she would ever let me watch them with her i'll never know ... i used to be so horribly afraid of the dark afterwards (of course) and would scream out her name until she would come and sleep with me. not every night mind you ... but on more than one occasion. the movie that completely destroyed me for WEEKS was The Exorcist but i'll talk about that movie (and it's effects on my psyche) some other time. the other movie that rendered me an extremely horrified child was the 1979 miniseries 'Salem's Lot based on the stephen king novel. there were images in that movie that petrified me ... not so much the main evil vampire (who looks pretty cheesey) but the child vampires!
god ... i used to be so afraid that someone or something would scratch at my window (just like in the movie) and say "let me in." i can't tell you how scared i was ... it was that movie that prompted me to sleep with my favorite blanket wrapped around my neck. it was my rationale that if a vampire tried to bite me i would feel it trying to take the blanket off my neck and i'd wake up and scream. i also had this old metal crucifix that i kept in a drawer because it alone scared me just to have it out in my room. jesus was affixed to the cross by one screw on the back ... i removed that screw, removed jesus (gave him to my mother and told her i never wanted to see it again) and left the plain cross next to my bed ... should any vampires show up at my window sill, well then i'd be ready. if you've seen the 1979 version of the movie, the kid who survives the whole vampire thing had a cross in his room (he was a horror movie fan and knew how to fend off vampires) so i learned my lesson well.
anyways ... the billboards ... seeing the billboards reminded me of all of those horrible feelings. i've since gotten over my fear (by watching both 'Salem's Lot and The Exorcist in full, as an adult) but ... god, those images still take me back. i think i had in the back of my mind that the remake would be cheesey and would not be that scary ... seeing the promo pix from the remake led me to believe that that would be the case:
ooooh ... but having just watched the first part (part 2 airs monday night at 8pm on TNT) i can attest that they did a pretty good job with the remake. the story is better ... it's more true to the book. the vampires, while pretty scary, are not as scary as they were in the original. you can tell the movie is an updated version (they utilize mobile phones, talk about the internet, there are gay characters, etc.) but the one scene they duplicated almost exactly was the scene with the vampire kid scratching at the window saying "let me in" and the smart kid who fends him off with the cross he has in his bedroom !!!
yikes! i'm not as scared as i was when i was a child but i thank my lucky stars i won't be sleeping alone tonight.
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