Salem’s Lot (2024)

Salem's-Lot-(2024)
Salem’s Lot (2024)

I’m sorry to say, that I am not in the greatest of moods to talk about the 1979 Tobe Hooper version of Salem’s Lot as it is still a touchy subject for me. Storywise, it is intriguing, but to sit around for 3 hours and only get 15 minutes of epicness. I expected more about the book’s content and am glad that it got a remake. Well rather glad that the book was made in the cinema again as there was another. So, guys didn’t screw it up in 2004 when it was remade as miniseries but it was low-browed again. Salem Lot was supposed to be acted out, and this would have been the first time that the story was acted out across images, but it got shelved for decades, and then Warner Bros decided to ax it and release the drama on Max.

If you’ve never read the book and never watched either previous version, in this latest adaptation of Salem’s Lot which stars Lewis Pullman, he plays the role of Ben Mears who goes back home after several years away. He looks forward to deriving ideas for his next novel but just after his arrival, there is a dark force that lurks around the town: a vampire who wants to possess Jerusalem’s Lot. However, this dark power slowly turns all the inhabitants into its followers and begins to turn into a bomb arguments are mounted. But most importantly, it is not only Mears’ application which is observed as a narrative We also have a youth storyline reminiscent of IT with Mark Petrie by Jordan Preston Carter. Mark has style maturity which is quite rare in someone his age and is quite good in the role though the character tends to be somewhat manipulative at his young age which makes the plot not only IT range possible translation to a dulpatsae situation with director Gary Dauberman who had written such a two part film.

Pullman started the year out on a high note with a great performance in Skincare, and the movie’s anchor keeps on doing great in whatever he does. The romance between him and Susan, played by Makenzie Leigh, achieves just the right degree of infatuation. I must say, I had high expectations for Bill Camp’s performance in such a prominent character since he has always been underappreciated. The additional acting is a bit more stiff-necked in places, with some annoying straight performances, whilst some people are just having a blast with it. Young Nicholas Crovetti is thought to have enjoyed getting to be the villain and it was fun. Regular King cast member William Sadler plays a police officer but it is a rather pointless part. Alfre Woodard appears to be more like ticking a box than actually adding to the story.

Despite several strong promising moments that harken back to classic horror, the builds sadly all lead to a remarkably unoriginal jump scare. And it’s one of those jump scares where the scene just abruptly cuts out. It indicates that there is no closure to any of the aforementioned moments built up for sustained long periods of time. This is disappointing because I was actively following the simplicity of the narrative. The CGI is somewhat excessive as every single horror component has been improved. There’s also Kurt Barlow, the lead vampire responsible for looking like a childhood ghost on Halloween with all his fake yellowing teeth and a dead face reminiscent of the classic Nosferatu. He also tends to have excessive amounts of light and his mask does not come off looking good in any shot. It is pretty underwhelming.

While some might argue that the romance between Susan and Ben has some potential, it is disappointing in the end. Not when it first threatens to blossom and the film turns into IT, changing gears to focus on the B-plot. There is no character development for any of them and the shuffling of all the narratives results in chaos. There’s just not enough time to explore any dramatic aspects, which begs the question, maybe the miniseries format is the ideal way to approach the content. The changes do not mean the film was ruined (the Drive-In Movie Theatre sequence was awesome) but how it was done was rather poor.

In the end, I was really let down by Salem’s Lot. This has been a film that has been kept under wraps for the better part of a decade and for very good reason. I came into this with the hope that they were finally going to be able to unlock the secrets of how to adapt this book. It just seems, however, that this still hasn’t happened hence I am fearful it never will. A simple tale of a vampire eradicating a small village must be just beyond the boundaries of a feature picture it seems. Perhaps in another twenty years, we will try again.

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