When Stephen King's novels are adapted as feature films, the goal is always compression. Even the longest of King's films (Frank Darabont's 189-minute adaptation of The Green Mile and Mike Flanagan's 180-minute director's cut Doctor Sleep) feature composite characters and gloss over subplots from the source material. As cinematic as the books are, this is a reflection of the author's style: his fiction creates not just lives but worlds.
The way many filmmakers have gotten around this obstacle in the past is by not adapting the books as feature films but as miniseries, and The Salem Lot is a prime example. The novel (which is King’s second published) is not one of the writer’s longer tomes, but it has twice found a more comfortable home with the expanded space available on the small screen: first in director Tobe Hooper’s 1979 adaptation and then again in 2004 with director Mikael Salomon at the helm. A prominent part of the book’s experience is witnessing the vampire infestation creep into the abbreviated town that gives the book its title, and the development as a two-part television series allowed for that.
With this story in mind, writer-director Gary Dauberman has challenged conventions with his new adaptation of The Salem LotAnd the medium, unsurprisingly, packs an outsized punch. Its running time is more than an hour shorter than the episodes of the respective miniseries combined, and that means it has a very different pace and energy. It therefore requires an adjustment of expectations on the part of constant King readers, but crucially, the core of the novel remains: a thrilling vampire-centric horror story with a collection of compelling characters battling the monstrous forces of evil.
Lewis Pullman stars as Ben Mears, a novelist who travels to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, hoping to reconnect with his past while working on his next book. His return comes shortly after the arrival of Richard Straker (Pilou Asbæk), a new resident who owns an antiques shop with his never-seen business partner Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward), and also shortly before successive horrors begin to hit the town. It begins with the disappearance of a young boy named Ralph Glick (Cade Woodward), who goes missing as he and his brother Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) walk home from a friend's house, but the death begins to spread like a cancer.
Though Ben is initially viewed with suspicion by the town as an outsider, he begins to grasp the reality of what's happening after kindly English teacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp) survives an attack. Together with Matthew, the charming and ambitious Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), local doctor Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard), alcoholic priest Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) and brave young monster expert Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), Ben attempts to save Salem's Lot by destroying evil at its source.
Salem's Lot doesn't have the scope of Stephen King's book, but it has a lot of good ideas.
After initially being slated for a theatrical release in 2022 and then sitting on a shelf for an extended period, the streaming arrival of The Salem Lot There might be concerns that the delay is due to quality shortcomings, but that's not the case. This is a horror film that takes the time to develop the characters' personalities and their bonds in the midst of a time of extreme crisis (a specialty of Stephen King's writing), and while it feels rushed in some sections and lacks the scope of the source material, it balances the scales with clever ideas for story and style.
Rather than complicating matters with the existence of cell phones, the film smartly maintains the novel's mid-1970s time period, with deference shown to Tobe Hooper's beloved. The Salem Lot Though adaptive in certain decisions (most notably Kurt Barlow’s monstrous appearance), it’s still effectively terrifying as it plays with the familiar and exercises its own creativity. Anyone who knows the book/miniseries knows to brace themselves for Danny Glick floating outside Mark Petrie’s window, but Dauberman still manages to make you jump with the moment. Director and cinematographer Michael Burgess makes exceptional use of silhouette in the haunting scene where Ralph is kidnapped (leading to a creepy first-person perspective sequence in the moments before his death), and while I won’t say too much to avoid spoilers, the film does deviate from the novel by making inventive use of a drive-in movie theater as a key setting.
The film brings together a great cast to play the ensemble of heroes full of personality.
Some cuts are more surprising and disappointing than others – such as Ben Mears’ traumatic personal history at the Marsten House where Straker and Barlow live and the episodes of attacks on locals – but the film manages to bring the characters to life with dedicated time and wonderful performances. Lewis Pullman has an unassuming charm that suits the main protagonist looking for his next chapter, and the actor has terrific chemistry with co-star Makenzie Leigh, whose sweet, bright-eyed Susan is full of ambition and excited at the prospect of leaving The Lot.
The Salem Lot does right by Mark Petrie, with Jordan Preston Carter infusing it with a powerful defiance that tolerates no nonsense from bullies; Bill Camp has the perfect level of gravitas for Matthew Burke to convince others of the very real presence of the supernatural in the Maine town; and both Alfre Woodard and William Sadler are scene-stealers: the former playing a woman of science who bristles in the face of real monsters, and the latter playing a lawman who is very outspoken about not giving a shit.
In the long, long legacy of Stephen King films (there are more than 50 to date), Gary Dauberman's The Salem Lot It's a title that sits in the middle of the pack: not bad, but not exceptional either. It's a shame it's not getting a theatrical release, but it will certainly be an entertaining experience during the spooky season of 2024, and it's just as well that the film is axed so the studio can get a tax break.