Producers: Michael Clear, Roy Lee, James Wan and Mark Wolper   Director: Gary Dauberman   Screenplay: Gary Dauberman   Cast: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, John Benjamin Hickey, Jordan Preston Carter, Pilou Asbæk, William Sadler, Debra Christofferson, Spencer Treat Clark, Nicholas Crovetti, Cade Woodward and Alexander Ward    Distributor: Warner Bros./New Line/Max

Grade: C

The third time isn’t the charm for adaptations of Stephen King’s second novel, a clever 1975 vampire saga.  Actually the first, a 1979 television mini-series directed by Tobe Hooper, remains by far the best, not least because of the presence of a superbly sinister James Mason as Straker, the vampire’s amanuensis.  A second mini-series, directed by Mikael Salomon, came in 2004; it was adequate but inferior to Hooper’s take, as Donald Sutherland was to Mason.  Now Gary Dauberman, one of the screenwriters for Andy Muschietti’s two-part theatrical version of King’s “It,” offers a third adaptation, which whittles the massive tome down to feature length.  It’s the weakest of the bunch, as well as the least faithful; all make some changes to King’s book, but the ones here are particularly ill-advised, designed to juice up the narrative to meet today’s audience demand for action set-pieces.  And its Straker, Pilou Asbæk, is pretty pathetic.

Of course the basic outline remains.  Author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman, even more pallid than his predecessors David Soul and Rob Lowe) returns to his childhood hometown of Salem’s Lot, Maine, to investigate an old house that’s long haunted his memory.  It’s just been purchased by Straker and his oddly absent partner Barlow (Alexander Ward), who open an antique store in town.  Barlow is quickly revealed as a ravenous vampire, though he doesn’t appear, a ghoulish Nosferatu, until late in the action. 

To make a very long King story short, Barlow begins turning townspeople into vampires, starting with young Danny Glick (Nicholas Crovetti), and from them the epidemic spreads.  Though it takes some convincing, Ben eventually teams up with a bunch of cohorts—teacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp), transfer student Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), alcoholic priest Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey), local Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard), and perky librarian/romantic interest Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh)—to battle the menace.  (The police chief played by William Sadler simply runs away.)  Despite setbacks that result in some of them perishing, they have a measure of success.

Inevitably, though in the seventies its resuscitation of a genre that had grown moribund had a certain revelatory impact, given the avalanche of vampire movies that have come down the pike in the last fifty years “Salem’s Lot” can’t help but feel rather old-fashioned now.  And the not-so-special effects in this version (glow-in-the-dark crucifixes, for instance) accentuate that.

Dauberman tries to combat the seen-that feel with some innovations.  One sequence, in which Mark takes refuge in a tree house when pursued by a mob of vampires, is fairly effective, if hardly groundbreaking.  And the idea behind expanding the finale to a bigger location isn’t bad.  It’s ruined, however, by a ridiculous alteration of one character, Susan’s mother Anne (Debra Christofferson), who’s transformed into a shotgun-toting, cowboy-hat wearing termagant spewing out furious threats.  True, her presence does drag out the finale mercilessly, which viewers accustomed to such protracted exhibitions may enjoy.  But it’s part of a clearly intentional decision to add humor to the mix, which mightn’t be a bad idea if it weren’t done so crudely. 

Nobody in the cast comes off especially well, but given the uninspired script one can understand why the performances (save for the mincing Asbæk and scenery-chewing Christofferson) are so muted.  On the technical level things aren’t much better: the production design (Marc Fisichella) and costumes (Virginia Johnson) are undistinguished, though the period feel is adequately caught, and while Michael Burgess’ cinematography manages an occasional nice image—like the abduction of Danny and his brother (Cade Woodward) seen in silhouette from a distance as they walk through a forest against the backdrop of a sky in which the sun is just beginning to set—for the most part it’s pedestrian.  Luke Ciarrocchi’s editing sometimes feels abrupt, the result perhaps of directives to trim some scenes, while the score by Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott is what you’d expect, nothing less but nothing more.

Bottom line: if you’re looking for a movie of King’s novel, stick with the Hooper mini-series, or, in a clinch, Salomon’s.

Producers: Mark Fasano, James Henrie, John Blanford and Dan McDonough   Director: David Henrie   Screenplay: Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz   Cast: Mason Thames, Julian Lerner, Abby James Witherspoon, Noah Cottrell, Nora Zehetner, Patrick Renna, Emma Fasano, Ashley Trisler, Gary Weeks, Bobbi Baker, Lilah Pate, Nico Tirozzi, Kelly Collins Lintz, Kevin James, Lorraine Bracco and Mel Gibson   Distributor: Pastime Pictures  

Grade: C

There’s a throwback quality to this pedestrian youth-oriented lite-horror flick directed by actor David Henrie, best known for his role as Selena Gomez’s brother in the long-running Disney sitcom “Wizards of Waverly Place.”  Set in 1997, it aims for the nostalgic vibe reminiscent of a movie like J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8,” but it winds up feeling more like something Mick Garris might have made in the 1990s—“Hocus Pocus,” for example.  (That’s not intended as a compliment.)

The main kid character is Noah Reed (Mason Thames, of “The Black Phone”), who’s grieving the absence of his journalist father after several years have passed; his mother Abby (Nora Zehetner) runs a guest house catering to summer visitors at Martha’s Vineyard (though the shoot actually occurred in North Carolina).  Noah has a trio of close friends: Ben Driskel (Noah Cottrell), the star hitter on their Little League team, Eugene Wexler (Julian Lerner), smaller and more nervous; and saucy Sammy Devers (Abby James Witherspoon). 

Noah wants to follow in his father’s footsteps, and has gotten Edgar Palmer (Kevin James), the editor of the local paper, to consider publishing an article he’ll write.  But Palmer’s interested in some puff piece to cater to his readers, not the juicy stuff—like a piece about a possible peeping Tom—that budding investigative reporter Noah writes up. 

But Noah soon has a problem bigger than a rejection of his article.  Ben winds up in a near catatonic state after nearly being drowned by a weird hooded figure during a nighttime swim with cute Ellie Evans (Lilah Pate), and Noah is convinced that his condition was caused by some evil force, likely a crone Ellie saw that was probably a witch. Noah figures it might have been Miss Halverson (Lorraine Bracco), a strange woman who’s just moved into the Reed hostelry.  His pursuit of proof against her proves a disaster, however. 

Meanwhile Noah has made the acquaintance of Gene Carruthers (Mel Gibson), a crusty, reclusive fellow he’d considered writing about because he and his friends have heard rumors about the guy’s involvement in the disappearance of his wife and young son years before.  It turns out that Gene is a retired cop who has a special interest in villains who prey on children, since his own boy (Nico Tirozzi) was actually kidnapped and never found.  Though he dismisses Noah’s suggestions of witchcraft out of hand, Gene suspects that the attack on Ben might be connected with the child abductions he’s recorded over the years, and particularly with the recent case of Ronnie Harlow (Spencer Fitzgerald) in New Hampshire, who was left in a much-changed state similar to Ben’s.  And when another local kid, Kevin (Gavin Bedell) winds up missing, Carruthers becomes determined to investigate, and Noah refuses to give up on his theories either. 

Eventually everything winds up at a house where Noah, Eugene and Sammy have tracked the person Noah has identified as the prime suspect.  Fortunately, Gene has come to the same conclusion via a different route.

“Monster Summer” isn’t an awful Halloween-related flick for kids, though it would likely be too scary for very young ones and too tame for more jaded teens and adolescents, who are accustomed to things more viscerally exciting nowadays.  Though the other youngsters are rather bland, Thames, as in “Phone,” makes a fine young protagonist, and Gibson seems to be having a good time playing a grouchy but committed old guy who learns some important lessons from his new friend in the end.  Bracco is pretty much wasted, and James must have accepted his tiny part as a favor, but Patrick Renna and Ashley Trisler get a chance to chew the scenery down the home stretch.  Technically the movie is okay—Elliott Glick’s production design is decent despite a few clunkers (what’s the local theatre doing showing “Casper” and “Hook” in 1997?), as is Larry Blanford’s cinematography and Robb Sullivan’s editing, though Frederik Wiedmann’s score is bombastic.  Henrie’s direction suggests that he learned the craft from his cable TV sitcom work in his younger days.

Indeed, a kid-oriented cable station would be the more appropriate venue for this mildly spooky, determinedly old-fashioned boys’ adventure story, but perhaps Saturday afternoon theatrical screenings will attract some desperate family audiences. But a “Goonies”-level classic it is not.