On October 3, the vampire horror film «Salem’s Lot», based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, was released on the Max streaming platform. First reviews from film critics turned out to be been not very high, but it often happens that they do not coincide with the viewers’ opinion. Traditionally, on Friday, the website published book review, and in this review we will analyze what the newest version of the King’s classic looks like on the movie screen.
Pluses:
the movie has a certain authenticity of atmosphere and setting; the last half hour is at least not boring to watch; «the final boss» scary enough;
Minuses:
absolutely uninteresting characters; poor computer graphics; in general, the story in its current form does not seem really creepy and exciting;
«Salem’s Lot»
Genre a horror movie about the supernatural
Director Gary Doberman
Starring Lewis Pullman, Mackenzie Lee, Bill Kemp, Spencer Treat Clark, Alfre Woodard, William Sadler, Pilou Asbæk, John Benjamin Hickey
Premiere Max
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
1975. The writer Ben Mears, who spent his childhood there but eventually left, returns to the sleepy town of Salem’s Lot. The area is also home to the infamous Marsten House, where brutal murders took place and which is notorious among the townspeople. Ben’s memories of this gloomy place are not the best, but now he is determined to collect material and find inspiration for his new book.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the house has new owners — business partners Mr. Richard Straker and the mysterious Mr. Kurt Barlow, whom no one has ever seen before. Gradually, Ben develops a romantic relationship with the local secretary Susan Norton, but the young people will not be able to enjoy their carefree love because people are starting to disappear in the town. In addition, schoolteacher Matthew Burke claims that the undertaker Mike Ryerson, whom he met the day before, fell victim to dark forces.
As soon as it gets closer to Halloween, filmmakers instantly recall the inexhaustible source of gloomy plots in the form of Stephen King’s works, and this October is no exception. And for the third year in a row, we have a project related to the King of Horror’s work that is being released on streaming. In 2022, it was «Mr. Harrigan’s Phone» on Netflix, last year — «Pet Cemetery: Bloodlines» on Paramount+, and now it’s the turn off «Salem’s Lot» on the Max platform.
And this is not the first attempt by filmmakers to bring this story to the screen. In 1979, only 4 years after the novel was published, the world saw the first film adaptation in the form of a miniseries directed by the author of the cult slasher «The Texas Chainsaw Massacre» Tobe Hooper. А twenty years ago Danish cinematographer and director Mikael Salomon took on the adaptation of «Salem’s Lot». It was also a television project in the format of a two-part miniseries, boasting stars such as Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, and Rutger Hauer in the cast.
In terms of depicting the evil spirits, the novelty tends to be closer to Hooper’s version: the vampires here also have brightly glowing eyes, and Kurt Barlow creates another variation of Count Orlok from the immortal classic «Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror» Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. But what the film is sorely lacking is a quality character study, for which director Gary Doberman simply did not have enough time.
And this is not surprising because the authors of the feature film had no chance to transfer the numerous nuances of the almost 600-page novel to the screen. It is not for nothing that his predecessors turned to the miniseries format, while Doberman, who, incidentally, had a hand in writing the script for both parts of the newest «It», is limited to the standard two-hour runtime. In fact, such a bloodless version of the original source is unlikely to appeal to his ardent fans.
But even for those who are unfamiliar with the almost half-century-old book, «Salem’s Lot» of 2024 offers nothing qualitatively interesting, creepy, or tense. It’s a mediocre adaptation that lacks the necessary suspense, and the authentic retro atmosphere of a small town where horrific events take place is decidedly lacking. It seems that the factor of total hopelessness in a city teeming with vampire breeds and the tension faced by the main characters was better handled by the far from outstanding «30 Days of Night».
It’s not that the filmmakers aren’t capable of creating fear, but they allow themselves to show sporadic black humor that ruins the ominous atmosphere. In general, watching an hour and a half of futile tossing and turning of uninteresting function characters is a kind of pleasure. The last half hour adds significantly to the tension, but even here the authors blatantly abuse the typical genre trope of manipulating sunlight, and the level of computer graphics does not stand up to any criticism.
King himself on social network X after watching the movie characterized it’s rather modest «it’s quite good», and also wondered why Warner Bros. was hesitant to release it. The main filming was completed in 2021, and the initial premiere was scheduled for September 2022. However, later, due to some delays in post-production, the release was postponed until next year, and later, given last year’s Hollywood strikes, it was decided to move it to the Max streaming platform. Now we can say for sure that the expectations, if anyone still had them, were in vain.
From the point of view of setting, «Salem’s Lot» presents the story well, but it is not enough to make it exciting. It’s impossible to feel the characters’ fates if the protagonists look paler than the actual hell-born bloodsuckers. Well, now all hope is for «Nosferatu» Robert Eggers.
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