Tobe Hooper's 1979 adaptation of Stephen King's early yarn about a vampire epidemic in small-town America still carries a great distinction - notwithstanding the flared jeans and mullets, it is very scary.
The scariness is particularly notable given that this was a TV miniseries - there was therefore never going to be anything particularly gory or visually horrific in it (although Reggie Nalder's Nosferatu-style head vampire Barlow is pretty nasty). But the claustrophobic atmosphere of slowly escalating horror, which made King's original novel so effective, is well duplicated here in audiovisual form. As the vampiric influence spreads, there is a genuine sense of prejudice.
David Soul is an adequate protagonist and Bonnie Bedelia is an attractive damsel in distress, and all the cast do well in the many, many incidental roles. But the film belongs to James Mason, playing a role - essentially, the vampire's "familiar" - unlike anything he had played before, and playing it with gleeful and malevolent relish.
This was strong, strong stuff for telly back in 1979, and still packs a scary wallop.
The scariness is particularly notable given that this was a TV miniseries - there was therefore never going to be anything particularly gory or visually horrific in it (although Reggie Nalder's Nosferatu-style head vampire Barlow is pretty nasty). But the claustrophobic atmosphere of slowly escalating horror, which made King's original novel so effective, is well duplicated here in audiovisual form. As the vampiric influence spreads, there is a genuine sense of prejudice.
David Soul is an adequate protagonist and Bonnie Bedelia is an attractive damsel in distress, and all the cast do well in the many, many incidental roles. But the film belongs to James Mason, playing a role - essentially, the vampire's "familiar" - unlike anything he had played before, and playing it with gleeful and malevolent relish.
This was strong, strong stuff for telly back in 1979, and still packs a scary wallop.