Rating of
2/4
Chiller seems like Salem’s Lot except no vampires
Indyfreak - wrote on 08/25/22
Lavish if lackluster adaptation of the bestseller by Peter Straub.
The cast of veteran heavy-hitters like Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. aren’t bad. Though some have a longer screentime than others. Alice Krige (aka the Borg Queen) is excellent as the beautiful woman of mystery. The stranger aspects of the story are resting on her and Alice Krige steps up to deliver her part.
There’s a concentrated effort to establish atmosphere in the film. Mission accomplished, except it’s not really that scary. The actors do a fine job looking scared, but the big payoff is mainly jump-scares at rotting corpses.
It’s funny how Stephen King is a big fan of the original book. This feels very much like his work. The odd thing is while it’s more classy than a lot of movies based on a Stephen King story, it’s not as creepy.
