That would be 'Salem's Lot, the first ever film version of Stephen King's sophomore novel, following the two miniseries from 1979 and 2004. This was completed a few years ago, but Warner Brothers sat on it for several reasons, before they finally let it out on (HBO)Max earlier this month. It at least gives me a reason to watch the streaming service, other than the occasional old film. Let's finally see how it is.
Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) is a somewhat famous novelist who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot to research his next book. He falls for Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), one of the few locals who likes him, while he directs his attention to a local spooky mansion. The mansion is now owned by Richard Straker (Pilou Asbæk), an antiques dealer whose business partner is the barely seen Kurt Barlow. Nothing to worry about, right?
Barlow (Alexander Ward) is actually a vampire, who plots to induct the entirety of ‘Salem’s Lot into his ranks. He and Straker get the ball rolling when they abduct local boy Ralph Glick (Cade Woodward) and induct his brother, Danny (Nicholas Crovetti). A few residents, young Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) and his teacher, Mr. Burke (Bill Camp), quickly realize what’s happening, and go vampire hunting. Ben and Susan are brought along the hunt with the skeptical Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard) and the troubled Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey). It’s up to them to stop Barlow and his Coven from spreading beyond The Lot’s city limits.
Gary Dauberman, writer of both IT movies, writes and directs this film as well. He starts off rather well as we see two moving guys haul in Barlow's coffin into his cellar. At one point, the taillights of the moving truck illuminate the cellar in red, which perfectly symbolizes the impending doom. The oncoming vampire apocalypse makes its later scenes of smalltown life a bit eerie to watch. So, what's the problem?
It's the pacing. It takes quite a while before the Glick brothers are attacked, then a while longer before Danny inducts gravedigger Mike (Spencer Treat Clark). The rest of the town's induction mostly happens off-screen, with a few admittedly eerie montages showing the emptying town. We don't get time to know a lot of these characters, particularly Floyd Tibbits (Kellan Rhude), Susan's ex, before they become vampires or plain dead. A character we do know is Sheriff Gillespire (William Sadler), who admits in his first scene that he doesn't like to work, and who tries to get out of dodge when things go south. "He wasn't much help," Cody says when his corpse crashes through a church window.
Let's get to the vampire hunters. Ben and Susan share good chemistry, with a highlight being the scene where they and Dr. Cody scramble to improvise a cross to ward off the Glicks' vampirized mom. Individually, they're mostly adequate people, which I blame a bit on the pacing. Dr. Cody's arc from skeptic to believer is quite compelling, as is Father Callahan's struggle with his own crisis of faith. Mr. Burke spends so long with the clearly vampirized Mike that one will think he's next, which makes it impressive when he goes vampire hunting the second it clicks. Unfortunately, he does get vampirized later on, but at least you can't accuse him of holding the idiot ball. The MVP is Mark, who is so astoundingly genre savvy that he puts together his own hunting plan immediately after he wards off Vampire Danny. It's extremely cathartic when he dispatches not only Straker, but most of the town.
These vampire hunters deal with some formidable villains. Barlow has very little screentime, but when he does appear, you'll believe it's bad news. Whether it's him hypnotizing someone from off-camera or looming over the Drive-In where the final battle takes place, Barlow asserts himself as The Dreaded. He's monstrous in every sense of the word, while Straker, his Renfield, is disturbing in how casually evil he is. That even goes away when he abducts Ralph; what makes that scene creepier is that the Glicks and Straker are all rendered in silhouettes. That we barely know the human townsfolks doesn't make it less creepy when the vampirized townsfolks converge on Ben. If I haven't made it clear, the villains benefit greatly from Michael Burgess's cinematography a lot.
The technical work is pretty good, too. When vampires near, not only do crosses glow, but they literally blow the Nosferatu away! The latter part is a bit over-the-top, but cool, as are the Vampires flying away in smoke. The Vampire designs are perfectly eerie, and I sometimes can't tell if it was done mostly with makeup or CGI. Obviously, the glowing eyes are CGI, as are the blank eyes of the hypnotized humans, and both effects are well done. There is some great editing by Luke Ciarrocchi, and an unforgettable score by Nathan Barr & Lisbeth Scott. The only real technical misstep is the credit sequence, as the red text is sometimes illegible with the montage.
I've seen quite a few reviews wondering why this wasn't a miniseries. I can imagine part of the reason why is that it's been done, twice. If you're in the mood to watch 'Salem's Lot on a time budget, then this version will do nicely. It's got plenty of jump scares, humor, and across its 113 minutes, over an hour shorter than either miniseries. It's a shame about the pacing, though. But at least the 1979 miniseries is on (HBO)Max if you want the time commitment. I don't have the time commitment, myself, as I've got quite a few reviews to finish for this month. The first one starts in over an hour, so Tick Tock. That's it for now.
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