'Salem’s Lot is one of Stephen King’s most popular and influential novels, which is the first problem for the new film adaptation, also called 'Salem’s Lot. Written and directed by Gary Dauberman, who previously adapted It as a two-film franchise, as well as writing and directing for the Annabelle and The Nun franchises, this is the third adaptation of 'Salem’s Lot, but the first as a feature film (the previous two were miniseries). This is the second problem for 'Salem’s Lot, a film that manages to feel both overfamiliar and undercooked.
Lewis Pullman stars as Ben Mears, a writer returning to his small hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, referred to by everyone as merely “the Lot”. Ben’s last book didn’t land so well, and now he’s looking for inspiration in his hometown, where he has a creepy murder house high on a hill and his own tragic past to mine for inspiration. He sets about digging into the town’s history and quickly falls in with some locals, chiefly English teacher Matt (Bill Camp), and cute real estate assistant Susan (Makenzie Leigh). At the same time, new kid in town Mark (Jordan Preston Carter) is fighting for his life on the playground and trying to make friends. Oh, and a very obviously evil European (Pilou Asbæk) has moved into the murder house on the hill. Nothing to see here!
Things 'Salem’s Lot does very well include music (from Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott), and production design and cinematography (courtesy Marc Fisichella and Michael Burgess, respectively, with set decoration by Jennifer Engel). This is a VERY good-looking film, with some truly striking visuals. Some notable practical effects are included, and the return of practical, in-camera visual effects is, overall, making cinema look great again. Dauberman & CO. set the scene very well, 'Salem’s Lot looks like the kind of quaint New England town where you just KNOW they used to hang witches.
But this film has a real John Carter problem, which is that the novel has been so influential for generations of writers and filmmakers that this film feels like a rehash of decades of horror storytelling that have come before. It’s like A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ groundbreaking sci-fi/fantasy novel and the first installment in his “Barsoom” series. By the time the John Carter movie landed in the 2010s, it felt like a reheated mishmash of generations of sci-fi that had come before, particularly Star Wars, which was influenced by Burroughs’ work. Likewise, this film can’t help but feel like a Midnight Mass knock-off, mainly because Midnight Mass tackles similar material better than this adaptation of 'Salem’s Lot, and even though the book is older, Midnight Mass predates this film.
The second problem is that the film probably shouldn’t be a film. 'Salem’s Lot is a 439-page novel, in order to convert it into a two-hour film, Dauberman has to cut so much character development it renders the characters completely inert. We don’t get a chance to know or care about anyone. Even Ben Mears, ostensibly the protagonist, is a cipher. Lewis Pullman does what he can with puppy eyes and subtle sex appeal, but we simply aren’t given a chance to get to know Ben beyond a few biographical bullet points. Ditto for Mark, though Jordan Preston Carter’s performance is spunky enough to buy this kid taking on vampires. No one else fares well, though. Makenzie Leigh is completely stranded as Susan, Bill Camp can do world-weary in his sleep and plays that card well here, but again, we just don’t have time to care about Matt the English teacher.
We don’t have time to care about anybody, which means the climax of the film falls flat. People die or turn into vampires, and it elicits no emotion, because we just don’t know who these people are. And when one character announces that 'Salem’s Lot is a dying town, I was surprised, because it looks like a typically picturesque New England village circa 1976. Small, yes, but there are no visual cues to suggest it’s dying (contrast to the small island town in Midnight Mass, which looks like crap from the first time we see it). The 1976 setting does make the Duana Taha Easter Egg stick out all the more, though, because including a reference to a now-person in a then-story is a real choice.
Movies are like short stories, which is why King’s short stories typically make for better films, and his novels make for better TV series. His novels can be adapted as feature films, but you have to take huge liberties to do it, unfortunately the liberties taken here mean steamrolling through plot at a breakneck pace and sacrificing all character development for the sake of getting to the next plot point faster. The cast, which also includes Alfre Woodard, is doing the best they can with what they have, it’s easy to imagine they could really sink their teeth into properly fleshed out characters. On a completely surface level, 'Salem’s Lot is enjoyable as mindless spooky season fun. It certainly gets the look of a vampire film right, but nothing about it is memorable. It’s like a microwave meal version of Stephen King. It’s edible, but you will extract nothing of value from it.
'Salem’s Lot will stream exclusively on Max from October 3, 2024.
