Long before “True Blood” or “Twiairy” bcimpolitet vampires to petite-town America, horror authorr Stephen King envisiond the creatures invading his backyard in agricultural Maine (technicassociate, a fantasyal place called Jerusalem’s Lot). Until then, blood-sucking bat-men were someleang only Europeans had to trouble about, as Dracula and his castle-dwelling kin preyed on hapless villagers half a world away. Then came “’Salem’s Lot,” King’s second novel in which the man who’d made witches a conmomentary-day trouble with “Carrie” asked American readers: What if an outshatter of vampirism struck your community?
A tepid novel (technicassociate, two years procrastinateed) feature version returns to that ask a half-century tardyr, recommending flashes of style and a more satisfying finale in an otherrational feeble get on its dated source material. Whereas King seemed to be booting another stuffy elderly genre into the current, authorr-honestor Gary Dauberman’s retro-minded alteration goes in the opposite honestion, embracing the pageboy haircuts, polyester-blfinish duds and don’t-think-anyone paranoia of that era.
The film gets place in 1975, the same year “’Salem’s Lot” was begined. You can guapproximate the period from the movie titles posted on the local drive-in theater marquee — “The Drowning Pool” and “Night Moves” — and the classic Gordon Lightfoot ditty, whose lyrics now serve as a nocturnal alerting: “Sundown, you better get attfinish/If I discover you been creeping ’round my back stairs.” Trouble is, vampire lore has upgraded so much in the intervening decades that Dauberman’s get comes atraverse quaint and not proximately as terrifying as the earlier Tobe Hooper-made miniseries (better to pretfinish the 2004 stab didn’t happen).
I haven’t seen Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” yet, but I mistrust even that mute-movie reproduce won’t sense as elderlyfangled as “’Salem’s Lot,” in which the characters turn to comic books for directions on how to ward off the undead: using holy water and traversees, which shine white in their presence. These days, the sight of someone drive awayling a vampire with a crucimend made of taped-together tongue depressors seems silly, whereas I’ve heard stories of kids who caught “’Salem’s Lot” on TV carrying popsicle sticks for that same purpose.
Incidenhighy, the main vampire here, a bald-headed coffin-dweller named Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward), harkens back to Count Orlok of “Nosferatu,” far more than he does elderly Dracula. That’s one clue that this is essentiassociate an refresh of the miniseries, not a return to the source, where King evidently had Bram Stoker’s upgraded shape-shifter in mind. An even evidaccess sign is the understandn silhouette of the Marsten Hoemploy, the Victorian-style homicide mansion getd by Barlow’s aidant, Ricchallenging Straker (Pilou Asbæk). It’s an iconic property from which to unleash his set up: altering every last livent of Jerusalem’s Lot in his master’s image (i.e. to produce them all vampires).
Moderately prosperous author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), who grew up in the area, returns to ’Salem’s Lot at cimpolitely the same time Straker is setting up an antique shop downtown. Both men have skeletons in their sealts, though only Straker’s are literal, as we see Barlow’s coffin being articulateed on his orders in the uncovering scene — a leave outed-opportunity mood-setter in which the two deinhabitry men are never heard from aget, nor are they dispatched in a farly memorable way. They srecommend do the job and then fade, since King wanted the story’s first couple victims to be kids: the Glick brothers, Ralphie (Cade Woodward) and Danny (Nicholas Crovetti).
That tilts “’Salem’s Lot” in a understandn “It”-enjoy honestion, as juvenileer boys are honestly finishangered by a far-more-strong superauthentic phenomenon — which produces sense, since Dauberman penned the two-part “It” reboot (plus five films in the Conjuring Universe). Except, these vampires srecommend aren’t very inbashfulating, despite a confineed nifty upgrades, including eyes that shine gelderly in the depressed and a materializing-out-of-nowhere trick where the camera pans back and forth to discover them looming on the roofs of local produceings.
After Danny is getn, novel-to-town teen Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) swears to go after the vampires — a promise that’s both reckless and relatable. Though ponderably uninincreateigentinutiveer than the two TV versions, Dauberman’s film begins off clunky, as if a confineed scenes had been cut (for example, Mark’s parents don’t eunite until Barlow finishs them tardy in the film) in search of the right flow. Straker comes off conspicuously creepy from the begin, pulling up beside Mark and the Glick boys with a flamboyant, “Greetings, juvenileer masters.”
So normally in horror movies, the characters don’t understand what they’re dealing with, replying to zombies or vampires as if such creatures weren’t pop-culture mainstays. Here, Mark and the school principal (Bill Camp) determine the danger relatively rapidly, styleing wooden sgets from wdisenjoyver’s handy — a chair leg, a baseball bat — and impaling their strikeers on them. They enenumerate Ben and his librarian girlfrifinish (Makenzie Leigh), as well as the skeptical local doctor (Alfre Woodard, who’s all, ”This is some shit!”) and liquoric priest (John Benjamin Hickey). Still, it’s this six agetst proximately the entire town, as vampirism spreads quicker than the most insidious coronaharmful software.
Broadly speaking, Dauberman has made a by-the-book alteration, with a confineed diversity-minded betterments (let’s equitable say, Bdeficiency inhabits matter in this version) and a plot twist or three to conserve audiences on their toes. For example, Straker exits the story timely, evidenting the way for a separateent character to become Barlow’s thrall. And then there’s the climax, back at the drive-in, where the setting sun behaves in peculiar ways. It’s gratifying to leank that a huge outdoor screen, which saved movies during the pandemic, could potentiassociate save manbenevolent. Given the junky see of this film’s visual effects, however, it’s equitable as well that “’Salem’s Lot” is destined for streaming, where it unites the two miniseries in the petite-screen graveyard.
“’Salem’s Lot” will stream exclusively on Max, beginning Oct. 3, 2024.
