Salem’s Lot (2024) Review: This Long-Delayed Remake Could Only Muster Some Bites

The long-delayed Salem’s Lot surprisingly marks the first time Stephen King’s 1975 novel of the same name is given a feature film treatment. Originally set for a 2022 release date and again in 2023, the movie was postponed indefinitely at the time, making me feel as if the big-screen remake reeks of a rotten corpse.

Now that it’s finally here, albeit skipping U.S. theatrical release in favour of a Max Original exclusive, I was curious how producer James Wan and director Gary Dauberman chose to bring one of Stephen King’s well-known horror stories into today’s era. The good news is that Dauberman, who also adapted the screenplay made the right choice retaining the retro 1970s setting similar to Tobe Hooper’s 1979 cult classic of the two-part miniseries instead of modernising everything seen in 2004 TNT’s version of Salem’s Lot in 2004 starring Rob Lowe.

The movie opens promisingly as Dauberman sets the ominous tone right from the get-go, where co-owner R.T. Straker (Pilou Asbæk) of Barlow & Straker Fine Furnishings antique store at the quaint little Maine town of Jerusalem’s Lot tasked his deliveryman, Royal (Timothy John Smith) to send a large crate to the Marsten House up the hills. Dauberman successfully captures the dread-inducing visuals throughout the scene of a night delivery leading to the aforementioned house with Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott’s eerie score alongside the use of atmospheric sound design. It was a good start, suggesting you are in for a scary ride.

Salem’s Lot then introduces the main protagonist, Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), a book author who returns to his childhood home searching for inspiration for his next book. He is looking for a place to rent and from there, he meets Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh) who works at the real estate office. The story also features other characters including the boys from the Stanley Street Elementary School — the Glick brothers, Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) and Ralphie (Cade Woodward) and their friend, Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter).

When one of the boys goes missing (a silhouette scene of the two boys walking through the woods with the sky at dusk in the background is worth mentioning here), the townspeople form a search party to locate his whereabouts. His disappearance has something to do with Straker fulfilling his master, Barlow’s (Alexander Ward, sporting a monstrous Nosferatu-style vampire appearance) demand.

As more bodies start to pile up, Ben along with others such as schoolteacher Burke (Bill Camp) knowledgeable of vampire lore, Dr Cody (Alfre Woodard) and the alcoholic Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) discover there’s a vampirism spreading all over the town.

The movie picks up the pace halfway through as the characters face some of the infected townspeople who turn into vampires and cast them out with crosses. Not just any crosses but ones that emit a bright, yellow glow whenever they detect the presence of a vampire. I can’t help but feel the glowing effect of the cross like I’m watching a cutscene of a horror game.

Despite its 1970s setting, the old-school slow-burn dread and mystery that permeates the novel and Tobe Hooper’s miniseries are largely replaced by the pacey rhythm of ’80s and ’90s horror vibes at this point. Whether it was the result of the studio interference, it’s hard not to notice the clashes of tones between The Conjuring Universe-style filmmaking (evidently in the opening scene) and the spooky fun type of vampire horror of the second half minus the tongue-in-cheek humour.

The movie even culminates in an action-packed climax set at a drive-in movie theatre — a significant change from the novel’s original ending and Tobe Hooper’s miniseries focusing on the characters going house to house to kill the vampires in the daylight. The change can be seen as a means to raise the stakes (pun intended) and it sure has its entertaining moments, even though I kind of wish the movie would work better if it’s tonally consistent with what Dauberman already established from the beginning of Salem’s Lot.

Salem’s Lot clocks at nearly two hours long, meaning the supposedly character-driven drama for most of the movie is heavily condensed, resulting in perfunctory roles, though the actors did the best they could. Frankly, this is the type of horror movie that would benefit from a longer narrative length and structure. For instance, Lewis Pullman’s Ben could have delved deeper into his character arc, given his childhood past and how his parents’ tragic death affected him ever since. Instead, the movie prefers to rush things by glossing over his character and so does the rest, denying them the much-needed backstories to make me feel invested in their plights later in the story.

Salem’s Lot will be streaming on Max on October 3, 2024.