Stephen King’s** **sprawling vampire epic, about a bloodsucker who spreads vampirism through a small US community, is one of his scariest novels. This 1979 mini-series faithfully follows King’s pattern of establishing the characters at a leisurely pace before ripping them all to shreds, but doesn’t quite nail the scale of the infection, focusing on a few characters in a seemingly empty town.
That said, the vampire effects are impressive, and there are some iconic scares — especially the unnerving appearance of a little vampire boy at his brother’s window. The strong cast is led by the so-hot-right-then David Soul as the prodigal son returning home, and James Mason as the scary Mr. Straker.
