‘Salem’s Lot’ review: Stephen King adaptation has stereotypes, but also surprises

Adapting a well-known Stephen King novel, particularly one which already spawned a cult mini-series directed by none apart from Tobe Hooper himself, has acquired to be a reasonably large uphill wrestle.

There are few individuals who most likely perceive this higher than screenwriter Gary Dauberman, who tailored each IT and IT: Chapter 2 for contemporary audiences. Dauberman’s confirmed himself twice in that regard, and now with Salem’s Lot (which he additionally directs), he pulls off a sensationally creepy hat trick.

Dauberman’s feature-length tackle King’s traditional vampire novel is a solidly entertaining scare-fest that pays homage to the unique adaptation whereas additionally doing its personal factor.

What’s Salem’s Lot about?

Pulling us straight again into the mid ’70s with the thematically acceptable sound of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sunset,” Salem’s Lot begins with horror author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) rolling again into his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot to search out some inspiration for his subsequent novel.

Little does he know he is about to have it served as much as him on a plate. The city has two new residents offering loads of thriller and motion: historic vampire Barlow (Alexander Ward) and his human caretaker Richard Straker (Pilou Asbæk), who’re hellbent on turning the city into their private diner and military of the undead.

There’s additionally a budding romance between Ben and native retailer Susie Norton (Makenzie Leigh), but it surely will get rapidly overshadowed by snowballing disappearances and a struggle for survival.

Mashable Prime Tales

Salem’s Lot doesn’t take itself too critically.

How do you even start to make a vampire film lately? The style is so packed stuffed with lore and stereotypes that it is laborious to not fall into the entice of predictability.

Salem’s Lot navigates this tightrope by leaning into the legends, cleverly mixing real scares with tongue-in-cheek moments. There is a scene in a morgue, as an example, the place key characters should race in opposition to time to style a makeshift crucifix — fumbling with taping two items of wooden collectively whereas struggling to recollect the fitting non secular phrases to say — and the entire thing is self-aware sufficient to be enjoyable with out detracting from the stress.

Regardless of some lighter moments, Salem’s Lot isn’t any comedy; there’s loads of horror to be discovered within the movie. The leap scares are there, as are the creepy youngsters made well-known within the novel and sequence adaptation. Most significantly, Barlow himself is each bit as ominous and ugly as a vampire-in-chief ought to be.

Salem’s Lot has stereotypes, but in addition surprises.

There are just a few irritating issues about Salem’s Lot. Regardless of the self-awareness of the script, as an example, the principle characters can not seem to cease falling into the identical traps that horror protagonists have been falling into for many years now.

“Shouldn’t all of us keep collectively?” says 11-year-old vampire hunter (and comfortably the very best character) Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter). The response he will get — “There’s no time. Half an hour till sundown!” — is nonsensical sufficient to be nearly enraging.

The film has some minor points with pacing, too. King’s novel has a big solid of characters, making it higher suited to a mini-series. Whereas Dauberman’s script does a superb job of maintaining the tempo and stress, it might have spent extra time constructing the relationships between characters, particularly Ben and Susie.

The excellent news? None of those points are sufficient to spoil the movie as an entire, which mixes a enjoyable script and inventive route by Dauberman with sturdy performances throughout the board. Salem’s Lot pays homage to the supply materials and mini-series (whats up, nightmarish window sequence), but it surely’s when the movie branches out and does its personal factor that it actually excels. One of the best instance of that is the finale, which — with out going into spoiler territory — is a thrillingly chaotic sequence that makes inventive use of daylight and a traditional ’70s setting to offer the film a recent and bloody sendoff.

Salem’s Lot is now streaming on Max.