Salem’s Lot is the third screen adaptation of Stephen King’s second published novel. The previous adaptations were released 1979 and 2004 respectively and there are many fans of both adaptations and generations that read the book when it first came out. So how does this new 2024 Salem’s Lot hold up? Unfortunately not very well at all. The big problem lies in the execution of the film.
This was supposed to have been a theatrical release that was shelved indefinitely until finally being released to MAX. This was a wise choice since Salem’s Lot (2024) would not have held up well at all. The main problems are the film is less than two hours and thus what you get here is a kind of Cliff’s Notes light take on it that relies too much on the viewer’s familiarity with the story and it’s characters to fill in the blanks. Thus on it’s own character motivations are lost. Everyone and everything feels flat and underdeveloped.
The reason’s why the Author visits the town and his history with it are completely vague at best. One character goes from being tormented briefly by a bully to becoming “a fearless vampire hunter” on the drop of a dime and it is almost laughable. Other characters that hold emotional weight in the previous adaptations and the novel simply react superficially on what the script tells them too and their fates as a result lose their gravitas. In one case it is almost criminal.
About the only thing the film does well is in the atmosphere and makeup effects. Still the previous versions were and still hold up to varying degrees quite well. So in the end Salem’s Lot (2024) is best left buried if you have no familiarity with the story and if you do then be prepared for an anemic telling that falls short on the drama in favor of speed running to a finished line that feels clumsy, somewhat unresolved and certainly not earned since it relies one one’s prior knowledge of the story rather than develop it successfully on it’s own.
Salem’s Lot debuts on October 3, 2024 streaming on MAX.
(C) Copyright 2024 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
