ADAPTING books of the horror variety into film will always come with great difficulty. How could anyone possibly distil 500 pages – give or take – into a two-hour film?
Typically, one of two parts of horror novels are sacrificed when made into film. This tends to often be the horror or the characters and their development, in which one is watered down to make room for the other.
For Salem’s Lot, it appears both have happened simultaneously.
Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same time, Salem’s Lot takes place in the sleepy, rural town of Jerusalem’s Lot. After leaving the town as a child following the death of his parents, author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) returns to find inspiration for his next book.
As fate would have it, Kurt Barlow has also arrived in Jerusalem’s Lot. Mears and the townspeople slowly realise Barlow is intent on turning Jerusalem’s Lot into a vampire colony.
Outdated horror in modern times
If this version of Salem’s Lot was released in the 80s or even 90s, it could very well have been a modest hit as it fits the mould of the
made-for-television horror films emblematic to those eras.
However, in 2024, the film feels like a remnant of the past. The characters are barely developed, the horror is simultaneously tame yet over the top while the stunt work precariously balances itself on a fence in between being janky and campy.
The odd orange filter used to evoke rural 70s America is just salt
on the wound, turning the cinematography into looking digitally artificial and hollow.
Like similar films and television series’ released after Stranger Things in 2016, which itself was heavily influenced by King’s books, Salem’s Lot tries to replicate the energy behind the “young characters going up a terrible evil force” formula.
This too falls flat as the film brushes every character aside as it flails its way from one plot point to the next, racing to cover as much ground as possible to wrap the story up. It is impossible to ignore how there is plenty that feels wrong with the film.
Stake through heart
The red flags for the film range from its multiple filming gaps: how it was originally set to release in 2022, how it was postponed to the middle of 2023 before Warner Bros went silent on the film’s release throughout the year and how it was finally confirmed that it would come out this month.
Salem’s Lot final red flag was how Warner Bros shifted its release from cinemas to the Max (HBO Go here) streaming platform. The studio clearly had no confidence in the film and after watching it, the reasons are quite clear.
King’s books are hard to adapt solely due to how dense they are. The horror is elemental and many of his books hinge on the strong writing behind his characters and how they move the story forwards while outwardly building the world within the books.
An overwhelming majority of filmmakers that have attempted to adapt the author’s written material into film have failed. King’s own attempt at adapting his Trucks short story into film resulted
in the catastrophic, alcohol
and cocaine-fueled Maximum Overdrive movie.
Having said that, the failure in Salem’s Lot vampiric flight can not be entirely blamed on director Gary Dauberman as the film is not objectively bad in any sense.
It has a certain comfort reminiscent of nostalgic films but with a million other films here in the present, Salem’s Lot can not do much but be another fleeting film without personality.
Salem’s Lot is streaming on HBO Go.
