Tobe Hooper directs David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia and James Mason in this Stephen King adaptation of vampires taking over a small town (eventually).

The miniseries that started the trend of moving King horror sagas to big budget, small screen weekenders rather than judiciously pruned movies. This has dated horribly. Criminally scareless, the acting is inconsistent (Winners – Bonnie Bodelia, Geoffrey Lewis, Julie Cobb. Losers – David Soul, James Mason.), as are the production values. The pacing though is what really fucks this over. The first half nothing happens except some small town love triangles, then… mainly off screen… we have a vampire holocaust, leaving the survivors idling outside an old, dark house waiting for the finale to gear up. They’d find their feet with these endeavours by the time IT was optioned but the waste of Hooper and Mason is pretty shocking.

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