Spooky season, pumpkin spice season, sweater weather time, autumn, fall, whatever your preferred terminology, we’re almost there, and that means it’s time to start looking at trailers for all the scary movies coming in October.
Salem’s Lot would be notable at any time, as it is one of Stephen King’s scariest and most beloved books, but it’s especially notable now as one movie David Zaslav DIDN’T tank for a tax write off.
I firmly believe if Stephen King himself wasn’t periodically taking to Twitter to state that 1) a new Salem’s Lot movie exists, and 2) it doesn’t suck, and 3) he doesn’t know what Warner Brothers is doing with it, either, this movie WOULD have disappeared into the ether along with Batgirl, Scoob! Holiday Haunt, and Coyote vs. Acme.
Salem’s Lot has previously been made into a couple of miniseries, most notably in 1979, but now a feature film adaptation comes from Gary Dauberman, best known as the screenwriter of horror movies like IT, Annabelle, and The Nun. Salem’s Lot is his sophomore effort as a director, and it stars Lewis Pullman as Ben Mears, a writer who returns to his small hometown in Maine only to discover things are not quite what they seem with the newest residents in town. The trailer dropped yesterday, and it pretty much gives the whole movie away.
I know this is one of King’s most perennially popular books, but not EVERYONE has read it, sheesh. Save something for the movie! But again, I am 100% sure this movie would be long since deleted were it not for King keeping pressure on Warner Bros. Discovery to release it, and we should be glad we’re getting anything at all, even if it comes with a spoiler-filled trailer.
The original plan was for a theatrical release in 2023—the film was completed in 2022—but it sat in limbo, hop-scotching around release dates before finally being converted to a “Max Original film”—a phrase that means nothing to no one, no matter how much David Zaslav wants it to mean something—and will be released on October 3. That’s better than nothing. At least we’ll have a chance to see it and appreciate what looks like a truly spectacular scary movie house. Of course, they could always yank it off Max later and disappear it forever, but at least for now, come October, we’ll have a chance to see Lewis Pullman fight vampires.