In a Word, Atmosphere
Salem's Lot (1979)
directed by Tobe Hooper
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
To paraphrase a passage from the book I read last night, "goddamn wind plays with the nerves." Like Jacques Tourneur before him, Tobe Hooper knows just what to do with an industrial high velocity fan: find the right dark spot in the woods, set some kids wandering lost for home, and turn the switch. Salem's Lot takes a small town's daily habits and hollows them out from the inside: the teenage brothers from a normal home, the couple by the lake, the real estate agent's blousy secretary. The forest is rotten, and the outpost at the edge of it is full of fear. There's the dead child at the window, pawing in the fog; the old man in the old car (one of James Mason's best performances); and the hospital rooms and rocking chairs where near-dead die and live again. Hoop can't scrub away King's Catholic/husband/father dross completely, but the miniseries' successes are entirely cinematic (Mr. Barlow is the Jaws of 1979), making Salem's Lot the preeminent pre-'90 TV school of horror. In real life, Tobe Hooper is a Texas conservationist, the sort of someone who might seem distracted if he crossed your path walking by a hill country river. But what were you doing by the Frio at night anyway?
directed by Tobe Hooper
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
To paraphrase a passage from the book I read last night, "goddamn wind plays with the nerves." Like Jacques Tourneur before him, Tobe Hooper knows just what to do with an industrial high velocity fan: find the right dark spot in the woods, set some kids wandering lost for home, and turn the switch. Salem's Lot takes a small town's daily habits and hollows them out from the inside: the teenage brothers from a normal home, the couple by the lake, the real estate agent's blousy secretary. The forest is rotten, and the outpost at the edge of it is full of fear. There's the dead child at the window, pawing in the fog; the old man in the old car (one of James Mason's best performances); and the hospital rooms and rocking chairs where near-dead die and live again. Hoop can't scrub away King's Catholic/husband/father dross completely, but the miniseries' successes are entirely cinematic (Mr. Barlow is the Jaws of 1979), making Salem's Lot the preeminent pre-'90 TV school of horror. In real life, Tobe Hooper is a Texas conservationist, the sort of someone who might seem distracted if he crossed your path walking by a hill country river. But what were you doing by the Frio at night anyway?
posted by NPK at 9:21 AM
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