Knock on Wood

While three years is a long time to wait between production and release, it isn’t necessarily a bad omen for a movie. A continually unsure release plan, however, with a constant flip-flop from a theatrical to a streaming release, is never a good sign…but a theatrical premiere on the opening night of a respected genre film festival would indicate faith on the studio’s part. This uncertainty can only spell doom for the latest Stephen King film – the first-ever big-screen adaptation of his seminal vampire novel Salem’s Lot.

After two miniseries adaptations – one in 1979, directed by horror legend Tobe Hooper, and another in 2004 – a feature film rendition of Salem’s Lot was trapped in development hell for years before making it to production. But a glimmer of hope came when modern horror icon James Wan (creator of the Saw, Conjuring, and Insidious franchises) came on board as a producer, and his longtime collaborator Gary Dauberman (who wrote many of the Conjuring films, and made his directorial debut with 2019’s Annabelle Comes Home) attached as the writer, director, and executive producer. All signs should have pointed in the right direction.

I saw Salem’s Lot at its world premiere, on the opening night of the 2024 Beyond Fest, a genre-oriented film festival that attracts both diehard horror fans and cinemagoers just looking to have a good time. I’m afraid my experience at this premiere makes this movie impossible to rate objectively – it was one of the most energetic and reactive crowds I have ever been a part of at the cinema, and everyone there seemed perfectly adjusted to this movie’s wavelength. Unlike recent Stephen King adaptations like IT and Doctor Sleep, Salem’s Lot seems a lot more comfortable in the realm of dramatic ham and camp, and in fact relishes in its goofiness – that played very well in a sold-out theater with a crowd all too willing to laugh, jump, and applaud when appropriate. They read the movie’s vibe perfectly, but I fear it won’t play nearly as well when it hits Max next week.

A miscast Lewis Pullman (Lessons in Chemistry) plays protagonist Ben Mears, a writer who returns to his childhood home, the quiet New England town of (Jeru)salem’s lot, to do research for a new project. After Ben falls in love with Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh) and a series of disappearances and mysterious deaths rock the down, Ben and Susan team up with local schoolteacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp), doctor Cody (Alfre Woodard), and monster-obsessed middle-schooler Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) to defeat the bloodthirsty creatures victimizing the Lot.

Salem’s Lot is, by its very nature, a bleak and nihilistic story about losing faith and both the fear and inevitability of change. While King’s original tale empitomizes the Lot as a commentary on the rotten underbelly of suburban America, that symbolism is lost in Dauberman’s adaptation, abandoned in favor of sensational, crowd-pleasing excitement…which is not necessarily a bad thing. But it creates a distinct tonal clash; there’s no way Salem’s Lot can be a compelling human drama when it so clearly has chosen the bombastic monster movie path. It picks a lane, but oddly seems reluctant to stick to it before the final act.

There’s also something to be said about the reliance on modern horror sensibilities, especially on jump scares. Horror is inherently an atmospheric medium, and while Salem’s Lot does lean into the ethereal side of the genre (especially during this film’s version of the iconic window scene), it follows the Conjuring pattern of over-emphasizing loud noises to signify when the audience should be scared instead of creeping them out with the tension of the visuals. But hey, if they work, they work. I can’t argue with their efficacy. I jumped in my seat many times during the screening, but maybe I’m just a scaredy-cat.

Apart from my dislike of traditional jump scares, there is very little I didn’t like about Salem’s Lot. It’s burdened with exposition, almost all of it verbal – most of which is information about vampire mythology that we, as a culture, are blisteringly aware of. Bill Camp lends a healthy amount of gravitas and slightly softens the expositional blow, but it gets to be quite tedious, especially as information is continually repeated. The cast itself is good, although many of the side players are criminally underutilized (especially William Sadler and Pilou Asbæk), and Alexander Ward plays a marvelously creepy Kurt Barlow…although I’d give the stellar makeup job most of the credit there. Alfre Woodard is my MVP for her line deliveries alone.

I will reiterate that it’s disappointing to see this relegated to a streaming release…but then again, it’s all a matter of perspective. If I had seen this on Max, removed from the theatrical experience, I may think far less of it. It’s impossible to know for sure. Regardless, I have seen far worse horror movies get a full theatrical release and extensive marketing campaigns, so I will once again ask Warner Bros., why not this one? Why does Salem’s Lot deserve less? It’s packed with fun directing choices, and some kickass new set pieces that throw the movie into high gear in the final half hour.

I am not quite sure if Salem’s Lot is a good movie – my theatrical experience was too entertaining to dwell on objectivity – but I had a lot of fun with it. It’s been too long since I’ve read King’s novel to commend on whether it’s a good adaptation, but having just recently watched Hooper’s miniseries for the first time, Dauberman’s film streamlines the plot well enough, compressing it into a more condensed time frame that emphasizes the urgency of the situation. Audience mileage will vary, depending on your tolerance for silliness and love of scary, if not entirely serious, vampire action.

Salem’s Lot premieres on Max on October 3.