posted by ebean
Rocked! I had never read a proper adult horror novel before and was blown away. A big fan of the horror film, I was shocked to find that the printed word could actually give me the chills. It did. Reading horror is completely different from watching horror. When you watch horror, you loose the visual uncertainty that reading allows. You are presented with images that you can contextualize in time, space, reality, fiction, etc. When you read, your imagination runs wild. And it isn’t over in 2 hours. It is a long lingering shiver that makes you feel like you are going nuts because you are the only one on the subway totally creeped out. Whereas in a theater, everyone jumps when the ghost appears in the medicine cabinet mirror.
All that said, the quality of writing in Salem’s Lot is superb. The story is classic.
I admit, I wanted to know what was going to happen and started to watch Salem’s Lot the movie but had to stop. It just wasn’t the same experience at all. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences and to think about why the film was made the way it was. To put it into the context of the time it was made, its place in horror film and general cinematic history, and to ponder Stephen King’s screenplay adaptation of his own book. Now that I’ve finished the book I’ll go back and watch the movie.
Mr. King, you rock!
Elephantbeans 