Writer/Director Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot makes it easy to see why the previous two adaptations of Stephen King’s 1975 novel were miniseries. King packs his stories with rich character work and humanity, so much so that the 1979 and 2004 adaptations couldn’t condense 439 pages into any less than 181 minutes of runtime. After sitting on the shelves for years, the new adaptation gets jettisoned to streaming, along with most of King’s text. It’s an adaptation that feels heavily tampered with, gutting all story and character development solely in favor of vampire scares.
For the uninitiated, Salem’s Lot follows successful writer Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) as he returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot for inspiration for his next novel. His arrival coincides with that of shop owner Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward) and his assistant Richard Straker (Pilou Asbæk). While Ben reconnects with his old town and its new residents, including love interest Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), Straker sets about helping his master turn the town into a human buffet, transforming them one by one into creatures of the night. Ben will instead find himself aligning with the survivors to fight back before they’re all turned.
There are glimmers of life in Dauberman’s Cliff’s Notes adaptation. A stunning shadow box-like scene of Straker stalking the young Glick brothers (Nicholas Crovetti and Cade Woodard) in the woods, vibrant backlit color making their silhouettes pop, is but one of many visually inventive moments that lend style. The vampire designs add atmosphere, with a stylish use of glowing eyes and crucifixes, and Dauberman deviates from the source material for a fun, action-heavy climax.
This adaptation isn’t afraid to kill its darlings, either, with most of its notable cast falling fast and brutally. The problem is that Salem’s Lot is far more interested in the vampire siege taking root in town, excising any semblance of character development. Most of the residents get an intro scene only to get unceremoniously killed later, and often so quickly that it all fails to make any impact. The central romance between Ben and Susan is so rushed, as everything about this adaptation is, that it falls to young Jordan Preston Carter as Mark Petrie to take charge as the definitive hero. Pullman acquits himself well from the abridged narrative shortcuts, injecting enough pathos to hint toward a much better film left on the cutting room floor, though most of the utterly wasted cast aren’t so lucky. A massive shame when you have William Sadler, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, and Spencer Treat Clark rounding out the roster.
Not even Barlow has much of a presence in this version of Salem’s Lot, despite his monstrous appearance and a few standout scenes highlighting his imposing power and reach. So much is trimmed out of the story that it renders this adaptation a hollower version of 30 Days of Night. That might be appealing enough for those unfamiliar with Stephen King’s story entirely or for those simply wanting a briskly paced vampire siege movie for a Halloween season watch. But for the most part, Salem’s Lot is an empty retelling that thoroughly guts Stephen King’s story, including connective tissue, leaving nothing behind but a string of showy vampire horror scenes. That Dauberman adheres to the novel’s ‘70s setting, something that seems to hold no relevance to the story, only further reminds us of what could have been.
There’s very likely a much better, longer cut of this adaptation that exists. One that wasn’t so skittish of letting audiences acclimate to this world and its characters. Of having any semblance of narrative weight, even. But this isn’t that version. Instead, you’re much better off sticking with Tobe Hooper’s classic 1979 adaptation, the faithful and spooky vision that’s far more successful at capturing what King’s stories do so well.
Salem’s Lot premieres on Max on October 3, 2024.