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I reread the book because the trailer looked so cool, but I wound up having to watch the film in chunks to get through it. I'd heard that early reviews were good, so I was pretty disappointed. The film is gorgeous, and it makes for a great trailer, but that is about it. The book does not translate to movie format, you need to completely rework it, make fundamental changes. The book is very slow build and you just cannot do that in a film. But, you still need to rework it into something that, well, works.
The first half of the book is character studies and the slow creeping realization that by the time our heroes get moving almost everyone is already doomed.
The first half of the film cut almost everything, it had to, but didn't give us much in it's place unless that rushed scrap of romance between Susan and Ben really works for you.
For the ending, they changed the location to the drive-in movie place. Now, this needed to work either thematically or mechanically. It didn't do either. I mean, I get what they were going for. The drive-in had those 'the show begins at sundown' signs. It's a movie ending at a place that celebrates movies. But, 'yay movies' wasn't really built up by the film.
Mechanically, it's a mess. Even if we buy that vampires can be out before sundown as long as they are in the shade, the field of vampires was way broader than the screen providing shade. Like, if you want to sell a large outdoor field as the vampire gathering place, you've either got to make it make really solid logistical sense or have it work so well thematically we don't care. Or, ideally, both.
Also, as a photographer who has waited for the damn sun to get behind the horizon line, sun and shadows don't move that fast. Making the day cycle itself unnatural can work in a horror setting, but here it's nonsense. The movie has no consistent through-line or logic, it's like it was made by a committee who's main job was to just get the project done, and it felt like the sun and shadows rushing reflected that.
If the movie had a theme, it's the one stated by the Sheriff, that the town was already dead. There was a lack of extras and cars even before the invasion took hold. There were no other people at the boarding house. This is a 180 from the book where the vampire wants to set up in a rural area because people have their hands in the water and soil, they rip life right from the earth, they aren't removed from it like city folk. Barlow describes in visceral terms how being out there is taking life from closer to the source. In the book, the town may have been filled with toxic relationships and pointless lives, but it was very much alive with new life being made in old beds with creaking headboards. If they want to do an 180 I don't care, but they need to realize that's the theme. It's not 'movies are fun'.
Another issue is that at times the special effects were terrible and lead to blocking problems in some scenes. Like, if you want to be all in on love of movies then the effects and the actual beat 'em up part at the end need to be compelling, engaging, not messes.
If they wanted to follow the whole 'town is already dead' theme, they could have had lots of dry, tall grass in the field that made finishing off the baby vamps all too easy. They did reference the town's previous fire, so I thought that was going to be the play. But since we have zero emotional investment in them that would also have been weak.
I don't want to spend too much time tearing into the film, but they just failed on so many level to tell a coherent story. I was just baffled by the weak attempt to be all 'yay movies' as the way to wrap things up.
The first half of the book is character studies and the slow creeping realization that by the time our heroes get moving almost everyone is already doomed.
The first half of the film cut almost everything, it had to, but didn't give us much in it's place unless that rushed scrap of romance between Susan and Ben really works for you.
For the ending, they changed the location to the drive-in movie place. Now, this needed to work either thematically or mechanically. It didn't do either. I mean, I get what they were going for. The drive-in had those 'the show begins at sundown' signs. It's a movie ending at a place that celebrates movies. But, 'yay movies' wasn't really built up by the film.
Mechanically, it's a mess. Even if we buy that vampires can be out before sundown as long as they are in the shade, the field of vampires was way broader than the screen providing shade. Like, if you want to sell a large outdoor field as the vampire gathering place, you've either got to make it make really solid logistical sense or have it work so well thematically we don't care. Or, ideally, both.
Also, as a photographer who has waited for the damn sun to get behind the horizon line, sun and shadows don't move that fast. Making the day cycle itself unnatural can work in a horror setting, but here it's nonsense. The movie has no consistent through-line or logic, it's like it was made by a committee who's main job was to just get the project done, and it felt like the sun and shadows rushing reflected that.
If the movie had a theme, it's the one stated by the Sheriff, that the town was already dead. There was a lack of extras and cars even before the invasion took hold. There were no other people at the boarding house. This is a 180 from the book where the vampire wants to set up in a rural area because people have their hands in the water and soil, they rip life right from the earth, they aren't removed from it like city folk. Barlow describes in visceral terms how being out there is taking life from closer to the source. In the book, the town may have been filled with toxic relationships and pointless lives, but it was very much alive with new life being made in old beds with creaking headboards. If they want to do an 180 I don't care, but they need to realize that's the theme. It's not 'movies are fun'.
Another issue is that at times the special effects were terrible and lead to blocking problems in some scenes. Like, if you want to be all in on love of movies then the effects and the actual beat 'em up part at the end need to be compelling, engaging, not messes.
If they wanted to follow the whole 'town is already dead' theme, they could have had lots of dry, tall grass in the field that made finishing off the baby vamps all too easy. They did reference the town's previous fire, so I thought that was going to be the play. But since we have zero emotional investment in them that would also have been weak.
I don't want to spend too much time tearing into the film, but they just failed on so many level to tell a coherent story. I was just baffled by the weak attempt to be all 'yay movies' as the way to wrap things up.
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Date: 2024-10-07 04:50 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2024-10-21 04:25 am (UTC)From:I've seen both It mini-series, tho.
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Date: 2024-10-22 10:08 pm (UTC)From:I feel like it would be hard to do Salem's Lot well on any screen, but that may be because I have vivid memories of reading it when I was young, all alone in the middle of the night... On the other hand, I would never have believed that I'd enjoy a mini-series of The Stand, but I was pleasantly surprised about that.
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Date: 2024-10-22 11:11 pm (UTC)From: