“Man, was I disappointed”: The Stephen King adaptation “too dull” for Quentin Tarantino
As one of the most heavily-adapted authors in history, Stephen King would be the first to admit that not every page-to-screen translation of his work is guaranteed to be a winner.
While several classics that originated from King’s writing have gone on to become established classics of cinema—the man himself even admitting Brian De Palma’s Carrie was an upgrade on the source material—there have also been more than a few stinkers.
Never one to deflect responsibility, King has pointed to his own feature-length directorial debut Maximum Overdrive as one of the worst offenders, but it was a spine-chilling entry in his bibliography that found plenty of admirers when it was brought to live-action to leave Quentin Tarantino feeling cold.
From the outside looking in, it would appear that a mutual appreciation society between the two titans of their respective fields is never going to be formed, with King famously going off on a tangent to rant about how Kill Bill didn’t deserve the acclaim that was being showered upon it.
On the other side of the coin, Tarantino admitted that he tried to watch a King adaptation helmed by a director he’s a noted fan of, and yet he failed twice over to make it to the credits. Horror’s most famous author and the mastermind behind The Texas Chain Saw Massacre seems like a match made in genre heaven, but the Academy Award-winning filmmaker doesn’t share that opinion.
1979’s two-episode tilt at Salem’s Lot drew strong ratings, earned three Primetime Emmy nominations, fostered cult favourite status, had an influence over vampiric media that stretched decades, and became the subject of a remake that’s spent years lingering in development hell.
Still, even though he’s an ardent supporter of Hooper’s, he couldn’t bring himself to finish his bloodsucking event series. “When I finally saw it, I was prepared for something great,” Tarantino wrote in his book Cinema Speculation. “And man, was I disappointed.”
“To me, it just seemed like a stretched-out TV movie done in a very TV style (and I like TV movies),” he continued. “I tried to watch it again a couple of years ago and it was just too dull. I turned it off after about 25 minutes.” He gave it his best shot, or something approximating at least, but after going zero-for-two Tarantino opted to drive a stake through the heart of any ambitions he held to complete Salem’s Lot.
It’s far from being anywhere near the bottom of the barrel when it comes to movies or TV shows based on King’s work, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion at the end of the day. He might be in the minority, but Salem’s Lot simply couldn’t get Tarantino’s juices flowing.
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