Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia
Have I Seen it Before: Never.
Did I Like It: I worry I went into this with the wrong mindset. People have enjoyed it, right? I’m pressing play on the blu ray, and I can’t get the reality out of my head that It (1990) is a 4 hour exercise where maybe two minutes of it work. Maybe the network boradcast treatment of horror novels—and especially King’s work—is destined for failure. The movie really had to win me over.
And didn’t quite get the job done. Here there might be scant seconds that work, and each of those seconds are jump cuts. The entire film is not kept together by any performance that gives the film real menace, a la Tim Curry in It. James Mason has a little bit of menace to him, and Bonnie Bedelia is always a welcome a presence, but neither of them are given enough to do to even remotely make a three hour run time not feel like a chore.
I’d say the film ages poorly, but I’m having a hard time imagining that the people of 1979 could reach for dread when confronted with only occasional appearances of a vampire that looks less like Count Orlock in Nosferatu (1922) and more like the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine (1968).
Even those few and far between jump scares wear thin as things proceed. I realize as they pile up that not only is a vampire suddenly jumping into frame, but that frame freezes in place, to really drive home the fact that I’m supposed to be scared. Throw in some act breaks that were originally designed to sell me an Atari 2600 doesn’t help matters much.
Then again, it could be worse. I direct the curious to Salem’s Lot (2004). At least this version didn’t force Rob Lowe to leave The West Wing.