A writer returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine only to discover that vampires are quickly taking it over in Salem’s Lot, a new adaptation of one of author Stephen King‘s most popular stories now streaming on Max. This slick, fast-paced version of what King has called his favorite of his own novels packs everything into a tight runtime but misses the nuance, atmosphere, and character work that helped make the 1979 miniseries from Tobe Hooper so memorable.
2024’s Salem’s Lot was written and directed by Gary Dauberman, who wrote the Annabelle series of films (and directed the third, Annabelle Comes Home) as well as It, another high-profile Stephen King adaptation. Like the TV versions of King novels produced over the years, It was split into two feature films totaling more than five hours of runtime; unusual for a horror film made for cinemas, but not King’s notoriously dense stories.
In his version of Salem’s Lot, Dauberman effectively condenses the original novel into a rat-a-tat narrative that hits upon every major plot point and borrows some of the more memorable inventions from Hooper’s miniseries. But he never gives the story or its characters room to breathe, and after a while the film begins to feel like a Cliff’s Notes version of the novel made for audiences who just want to get it over with.
Lewis Pullman (son of Bill) stars as Ben Mears, the writer who appears in the Lot in mid-1975 around the same time as an antique shop run by European immigrants R.T. Straker (Pilou Asbæk) and his mysterious, unseen partner Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward). Kudos to production designers for getting some more obscure era-appropriate titles on cinema marquees and at the local drive-in, including The Drowning Pool, Night Moves, and the Prague-shot Operation Daybreak.
When a local child goes missing and his brother Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) turns up dead, local residents like Mike Ryerson (Spencer Treat Clark) are quick to suspect Ben. But when reanimated corpses start popping up around town, schoolteacher Matt Burke (Bill Camp), physician Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard), alcoholic priest Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) and Ben’s love interest Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh) are quick to identify the vampire threat… and decide to take action against it.
They’re joined by young Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), a comic book fan and aspiring magician who promises to break the curse on Danny when the dead boy comes tapping on his window. Mark is the most interesting character in this version of the story, and should have been the main protagonist in a version of Salem’s Lot that needs to come in at under two hours in length.
Unfortunately, Dauberman’s too-faithful script attempts to tell the story of all these characters, and doesn’t do justice to any of them. Camp’s schoolteacher is especially engaging and takes the majority of exposition in the first half of the film before disappearing from the story. There’s feigning interest at developing the characters played by Woodard and Hickey, but they too are unceremoniously dropped without much concern. Ben is allegedly the protagonist here, but could have also been excised from the story without much impact.
What Salem’s Lot lacks in nuanced storytelling it makes up for with a first-rate production design that includes effective recreation of the period and some stylistic flourishes, especially the use of lighting; an early bar scene between Mike and Matt dazzles. This update also has plenty of bloodletting and gore effects missing from earlier TV versions, and shiny CGI effects on the vampires which further drain their humanity.
Barlow, the chief vampire, looks roughly identical to the memorable one played by Reggie Nalder in the 1978 miniseries, a design influenced by Nosferatu (in the novel, he appears as a human). This one only lacks the strange blue tint of the earlier version, and comes with an odd CGI sheen; it’s as if an original practical creature was somewhat reimagined in post-production.
King’s novels aren’t about the monsters they contain, but the evil that lurks both out in the world and within ourselves, and threatens to overtake us if we don’t do something to stop it. Key dialogue in this adaptation of Salem’s Lot comes between Matt and the local sheriff, played by William Sadler, who is too scared to stand up to the evil that has invaded his town, even if that means it will spread to others. This prescient allegory, which is just as relevant in 2024 as it was in 1975, is unfortunately muddled in the new version of the story.
Still, the core story is still there and there’s too much to like here to completely dismiss Salem’s Lot among the sea of Blumhouse horror films that dominate the genre. If you’re looking for a scary vampire flick this Halloween season in advance of the release of Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu during Christmas, Salem’s Lot will do as a tantalizing little amuse-bouche.
2 Responses
According to the director the first cut of the film was 3 hours long. A lot to like but everything in this version felt so rushed 🙁
Better than expected!! I haven’t seen the first miniseries but this was a great Stephen King adaptation, really captured the vibes of the novel.