In 1979, the director of Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper, directed Salem's Lot, based on the 1975 novel 'salem's Lot. It was good, oddly good considering its rating of PG. Coming in at 3 hrs and 3 minutes, it was lengthy. They sacrificed much as far as character and flesh of the town, but kept the majority of the large events intact.
Had they left all of the characters and their individual arcs in the movie, they would have had to do it in two parts. There were specific changes that I disliked, such as Father Callahan's minimization. Also the constable, Parkins Gillespie. In the book, Gillespie's 'wait-and-see' attitude was a great source of joy for me, and I was disappointed to lose that in the movie version. Also, the truly frightening part of reading the book was not so much the evil of the vampires initially, but rather the viciousness of the human element as it stood. This is seen with the baby, Randy. In the movie, they mentioned the baby's death, but did not show the horrific circumstances of his life, which stands out to me after two readings as the most terrifying part of any book I've ever read.
I also met opposition with the casting. Simply put, Mark Petrie and Susan Norton were the only characters that matched their actors, in my opinion. I would have had the guy that played Ben Mears play Father Callahan, for instance, and grey his hair a bit. Of course, they reduced Father Callahan's importance entirely. This is kind of comical to me because Father Callahan and the part he played in The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of the Calla is what drew me to read 'salem's Lot at all.
This was a pretty good movie that aged well, but I'd recommend the book over it.
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