Web surfing recently I saw an article on Stephen King's Salem's Lot and the difficulties of adapting it (as the studio keeps shifting the release date of an upcoming movie). It's not a bad piece and I certainly don't want to pick on it given the paltry sums that online entertainment pieces tend to bring in. But a passage stuck out to me:
Salem’s Lot also, in the final analysis, needs to be a period piece like Scott Derrickson’s recent The Black Phone. In the current age of smartphones, GPS, internet, and social media, there’s no way that the population of an entire American town, no matter how small, could disappear into thin air without the outside world noticing.
How long have I been hearing variations on the argument that horror and thriller plots are obsolete because cell phones? If this observation were human it could vote, join the army, and―this is the good news―go into a bar for a drink. So I guess that's why nothing bad or weird ever happens anymore.
Salem's Lot is about an ancient vampire traveling with a fussy antique dealer as his Renfield and how they cause havoc in an already soapy Maine town. It's far-fetched by definition. I'm not sure how putting it in the present would strain your suspension of disbelief any further.
2 comments:
Since I had no idea about the connection, I just read the synopsis of The Black Phone on wikipedia where it was mentioned the movie was set in 1978. Pretty creepy story idea written by... wait for it... Joe Hill who happens to be Stephen Kings's son. See? There are a few things I know about horror stories even though I avoid the genre whenever I can - which is often.
It seems that even in contemporary settings there can always be a reason for there being no cell phone service. Goodness knows a whole town could be struck by some sort of electronic disruption that would disconnect the system. West Virginia has a 13K square mile silent zone for a radio telescope where people seem to enjoy living but I understand there are very few places that aren't covered by wi-fi.. Amish country might provide a good locale for a horror movie, at least they already have horses and buggies to add atmosphere.
Jer, who kept that book and The Shining, says it would be worth the effort of remaking Salem's Lot as a movie rather than a tv show. Apparently Stephen King was influenced by the Bram Stoker novel. No surprise there.
Joseph Hillström King is his full name, yes. Changed his name because he didn't want it to look like he was riding his dad's coattails. Both of his sons are authors. Owen kept the surname but generally doesn't write horror, although I think there are a couple of exceptions. Not too surprising, since their mother has published a few books as well.
Collectively we've gone a long way in the past half century toward relying on a few kinds of machine. At the same time, the inner workings of those machines are only understood by specialists, and sometimes they're stumped. The rest of us have no idea and are helpless if anything goes wrong. So that's a volatile situation. As for Amish country, it's an interesting community. Might be worth spending some time there even if they were experiencing werewolf attacks or something. I don't know if anyone has set a whole horror movie there, which would be interesting. One of George Romero's Living Dead movies does have at least one Amish victim.
Bram Stoker didn't quite invent the idea of the vampire, but he's the one who really drove it home. I think almost everyone is influence by him in some way. The miniseries of Salem's Lot wasn't perfect but did have James Mason as the vampire's servant.
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