SALEM's LOT (2024) Review.

 

Now streaming on MAX (Formerly known as HBO/MAX), the 2024 adaptation of the Stephen King classic novel of Salem’s Lot stars Lewis Pullman, Mackenzie Leigh, and Jordan Preston and comes from the mind of Director Gary Dauberman (Anabelle Comes Home). Once slated for release in 2022, Warner Bros. pretty much shelved the film along with several other notable features during COVID and it seemed doomed to never see the light of day. But MAX announced earlier this year that it would finally come to streaming and the question remains- is it worth the wait?

Yes.

Setting the film in the same year as the novel, Dauberman manages to capture the soul of the story while not making it feel like a retread of prior adaptations. Ben Mears (Pullman) is a writer who returns to the small town of Jerusalem’s Lot. Around the same time new Antiques’ dealers Straker and Barlow come to the town and begin to spread the vampiric curse to the other residents. Stephen King’s novel went deep into the soul of a small town becoming insular and wasting away, the idyllic exterior hiding the rot within as the residents struggle with infidelity, addiction, and abuse. It’s no wonder that the story centrally revolves around its’ “outsiders” and how that rot threatens to consume them.

The film moves much more quickly than the original novel, however- we don’t dwell on the side characters or their fates. That is to say that while the film starts off being rather true to the King novel itself, it actually comes into it’s own when it starts to stray from the source and begins to tell it’s own tale. There is also a large degree of influence from the 1979 adaptation, specifically with the design of the vampire Barlow. The film is bloody, atmospheric, and delivers a good number of jolts and frights.

But it’s not entirely satisfying, either. While most of the performances are well done, including terrific turns from William Sadler as the town Constable and Alfre Woodard as Dr. Cody- there are some performances that fall short. Specifically, Mackenzie Leigh as Susan seems a little forced. The pacing is often a little too quick, though much I feel was cut for the sake of time rather than allowing some moments to breathe. It seems to have been cut a little too much for comfort and the results fall only a little short.

Still, the film is a high recommend and I sincerely wish it could have gotten a theatrical release- the truth is that this film could have had a decent life at the cinema and probably seen some decent numbers if WB hadn’t decided to cash in on a bunch of tax write-offs during COVID and it’s own management shake-up. 

7 out of 10

Top Ten Movies of 2023 (My Opinion)

 Here is my top ten list of the past year. I know it's a little late and my blog is all but dead, but I thought I would post it all the same. Life is out of control and I just don't devote the time I used to in order to promote the films, music, books, or experiences I used to love as much. I never really wanted to be some typical "review person" and looked to be more honest than I have been entertaining- but enough whinging and cringing, let's get to the list. 

10. Cocaine Bear:  An oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converge in a Georgia forest where a 500-pound black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine. Fun, frolicing, violent, and goofy. Worth the time in the theater and will probably be a cult hit in years to come.

9. Last Voyage of the Demeter: Inspired by the brief chapter in Dracula, this story follows a crew as they unwittingly carry the vamiric count aboard their ship and become victims to his thirst.

8. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - It's been done before. It's been done very badly. A feature length film based on the vague idea of Dngeons & Dragons, a sy-fy channel follow up- none of it based on he world building of any particular setting, but it had dragons and magic and thieves and all that jazz. And it had the enigmatically intense and bizarre performance from Jeremy Irons... But this is NOT that movie. From all the trailers, it felt like a formulaicwith the current Marvel formula. It delivered on all the appropriate fronts and was a great popcorn muncher of a film. 

7. Silent Night: John Woo's return to the American audience with fantastic storytelling technique that required no dialogue and still told a brutal and effective morality tale on the costs of revenge and grief. 

6. Sisu: A gold miner goes on a Nazi killing spree at the tail end of WW2. 

5. Thanksgiving: Eli Roth's "Slasher" film about the title holiday. Good old fashioned gruesome fun. 

4 Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One- One of the most fun experiences I had in the theater and a true to form espionage tale with the Impossible Mission Force led by Tom Cruise 

3. John Wick Chapter 4- Each of the John Wick films introduces a new motif with a nod to certain action films and sub-genres... this was "Once Upon A Time..." and widened the Wick Universe with some interesting twists and a pitch perfect villain. 

2. Oppenheimer: The biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the Atomic Bomb and much more. 

1. Godzilla Minus One: The film that left me in tears- the most appropriate and insightful look into post war Japan, the effects of grief, trauma, and PTSD- the heroic efforts of Japan's people to unite for themselves and solve proplems independently of it's Government. An absolutely perfect film.