The script makes a couple of artistic choices -- emphasizing how basically everyone in the Lot has a dirty secret, or aren't as pure as they appear to be, thus creating an opening for Barlow to enter -- and re-framing King's original "The town is yours, and you are the town's" chapter epigrams as Mears' monologue. The vampire effects and horror portions fall mostly flat (with partial exceptions for the Ralphie-in-hospital and Floyd-in-vent bits). Feels like this remake didn't have anywhere left to go without directly mimicking the first (1979) adaptation -- which is getting a little dated, yes, but still grabs the viewer in a deep, wide-eyed place.
Rob Lowe let slip in his memoirs, years later, that Rutger Hauer (Barlow) came to the set woefully unprepared, hadn't studied his lines, actually improvised some whack-job narrative about "I used to be a cowboy" during the Mears-and-Barlow coffin confrontation, requiring director Salomon to admonish the Dutchman for not taking his role seriously. Pretty sure Hauer is reading his lines off the coffin-lid in that final sequence, and, well, that pretty much summarizes his commitment and stage-presence throughout the rest of the film. This adaptation isn't a total failure, but it's in the middle or bottom half of King celluloid.
Rob Lowe let slip in his memoirs, years later, that Rutger Hauer (Barlow) came to the set woefully unprepared, hadn't studied his lines, actually improvised some whack-job narrative about "I used to be a cowboy" during the Mears-and-Barlow coffin confrontation, requiring director Salomon to admonish the Dutchman for not taking his role seriously. Pretty sure Hauer is reading his lines off the coffin-lid in that final sequence, and, well, that pretty much summarizes his commitment and stage-presence throughout the rest of the film. This adaptation isn't a total failure, but it's in the middle or bottom half of King celluloid.