Long before “True Blood” and “Twilight” brought vampires to small-town America, horror author Stephen King lived in his home in rural Maine (technically in a fictional place called Jerusalem’s Lot). I was imagining that monster invading my backyard. Until then, vampire bats were something only Europeans had to worry about, as Dracula and his castle-dwelling relatives preyed on hapless villagers on the other side of the world. Next came Dr. King’s second novel, “Salem’s Lot,” in which King, who had made witches a modern concern with “Carrie,” asked his American readers:
The slimy new (technically two years late) feature-length version returns to that question half a century later, offering flashes of style and a more satisfying finale in a weaker interpretation of the dated source material. Director King seemed to be trying to bring another stuffy old genre into the modern era, but writer/director Gary Dauberman’s retro-minded adaptation goes in the opposite direction, with pageboy hair. He borrowed from the haircut, polyester-blend clunky hairstyles, and the “trust no one” paranoia of the time. .
The film is set in 1975, the same year that Salem’s Lot was published. From the movie titles “Drowning Pool” and “Night Moves” posted on local drive-in theater marquees, to the classic Gordon Lightfoot song whose lyrics are now used as a nocturnal warning. You can guess the era. You’d better be careful/if I catch you creeping around my back stairs. The problem is that vampire legends have evolved so much over the last few decades that Dauberman’s take on Dauberman is old-fashioned and less scary than the early miniseries created by Tobe Hooper (without the 2004 stabbing). It would be better to do so).
I haven’t seen Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu yet, but even its silent film remake doesn’t seem as dated as Salem’s Lot, whose characters turn to comic books for instructions on how to avoid evil spirits. I don’t think you will feel it. Undead: Uses holy water and a cross, and glows white in front of it. The image of someone repelling vampires with a cross taped to a tongue depressor seems ridiculous these days, but kids who watched “Salem’s Lot” on TV used popsicle sticks for the same purpose. I’ve heard of someone having one.
Incidentally, the main vampire here, a bald coffin-dweller named Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward), is much more reminiscent of Count Orlok from “Nosferatu” than the old Dracula. This is one clue that this is essentially an update of the miniseries, rather than a return to the source material, and that King clearly had Bram Stoker’s sophisticated shapeshifters in mind. An even clearer sign is the familiar silhouette of Marsten House, a Victorian murder mansion acquired by Barlow’s assistant Richard Straker (Pilou Asbaek). It is a symbolic quality that unleashes his plan, which is to transform every last resident of Jerusalem’s Lot into the likeness of their master (i.e., turn them all into vampires).
Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), a moderately successful writer who grew up in the area, returns to Salem’s Lot at about the same time Straker sets up an antiques store downtown. They both have skeletons in their closets, but when we see Barlow’s coffin being carried away on his orders in the opening scene, it literally only belongs to Straker, but this feels like a missed opportunity. I never heard back from the two delivery guys at the manufacturer, and I never heard from them again. They were dispatched in a memorable way. Dr. King wanted his children to be the Glick brothers, Ralphie (Cade Woodward) and Danny (Nicholas Crovetti), who will be the first victims of this story, so they just go on a mission. It just disappears.
This tilts “Salem’s Lot” in a familiar “It”-like direction, where the boys are directly endangered by a much more powerful supernatural phenomenon – Dauberman’s two-part “It”-like direction. ” This makes sense since we are writing a reboot version. 5 movies in the Conjuring universe). However, these vampires have some nifty upgrades, such as eyes that glow gold in the dark and a trick where the camera pans back and forth to find a vampire looming on the roof of a building, materializing out of nowhere. Despite this, it’s not at all intimidating. local building.
After Danny is taken away, Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), a new teenager in town, vows to go after the vampires — a reckless but relatable promise. Although considerably shorter than the two television versions, Dauberman’s film starts out awkwardly, as if some scenes were cut in search of proper flow (for example, Mark’s parents are killed by Barlow later in the film). does not appear until then). Straker seems particularly creepy from the beginning, walking up to Mark and the Glick boys and greeting them with a flamboyant “Hello, young masters.”
In horror movies, characters often have no idea what they’re dealing with and react to zombies and vampires as if they’re not part of mainstream pop culture. Here, Mark and the principal (Bill Camp) become aware of the threat relatively quickly and use whatever objects they have at hand, such as chair legs and baseball bats, to create a wooden stake and use it to impale the attackers. They include Ben and his librarian girlfriend (Makenzie Lee), as well as a skeptical local doctor (Alfre Woodard, “This is crap!”) and an alcoholic priest (John Benjamin Hickey). cooperate. Still, bloodsucking spreads faster than even the most insidious coronavirus, so that’s six people for almost the entire town.
Broadly speaking, Dauberman has made a few improvements to account for diversity (let’s just say Black Lives Matter in this version) and a plot twist or two to keep the audience on their toes. We are adapting it exactly as the original work, with some additions. For example, Straker exits the story early, paving the way for another character to fall in love with Barlow. And the climax returns to the drive-in, where the setting sun moves strangely. It’s nice to think that the giant outdoor screens that saved movies during the pandemic could save humanity. But given the junky look of the film’s visual effects, it’s equally fitting that “Salem’s Lot” is set to be streamed, joining two miniseries in the small screen graveyard.
“Salem’s Lot” will stream exclusively on Max starting October 3, 2024.
