Salem’s Lot (2024), directed by Gary Dauberman, stars Lewis Pullman, Mackenzie Leigh, Jordan Preston Carter, Bill Camp, Alfre Woodard, John Benjamin Hickey, Spencer Treat Clark, Pilou Asbaek, William Sadler, Nicholas Crovetti, Debra Christofferson, Alexander Ward, Danielle Perry, and Cade Woodward. The film is an adaptation of the 1975 novel by Stephen King that follows Ben Mears (Pullman), a reasonably famous author who returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book. He soon strikes up a romance with local heartthrob, Susan Norton (Leigh), and everything seems to be going well. But when a child goes missing, locals immediately suspect Ben of the crime. Unfortunately for them, something much worse is brewing in the town of Salem’s Lot and it may just involve vampires. With the help of Pastor Callahan (Hickey), Dr. Cody (Woodard), and schoolteacher Matt Burke (Camp), Ben and Susan set out to save their town from a bloody fate. Along the way, they join forces with Mark Petrie (Carter), a local preteen intent on exacting vengeance against the vampires who killed his friend. 

Although the quality of the performances are all over the place, the core characters are mostly quite likable. I think this is due to the Stephen King source material. Yes, some of them display the more annoying Stephen King tropes, but these are also what make a Stephen King story feel distinctly his own. Although the characterizations are often simplified compared to the book, director Gary Dauberman does a good job conveying their general spirit. Lewis Pullman proves himself to be a capable leading man as Ben Mears, conveying a sense of coolness that I didn’t know he could achieve. I also thought his romantic chemistry with Mackenzie Leigh’s Susan (whose performance is hit-and-miss) was decently effective considering that it’s a somewhat derivative and cheesy subplot. Bill Camp is great as Matthew Burke and once again proves himself to be one of the most underrated actors working in Hollywood. There’s something likable about a schoolteacher who intends to protect his students inside as well as outside the classroom. Woodard and Hickey on the other hand are somewhat awkward in their delivery. It’s even worse for some of the younger cast who are at times laughably bad. Thankfully, Jordan Preston Carter as Mark Petrie, the most important of the child cast, gives a strong performance. He’s capable and proactive in a way that most child characters fail to be. However, there are moments when the character is almost too intelligent and capable to the point where he feels unrealistic. Rounding out my thoughts on the performances has to be this: Is it even a true Stephen King adaptation if William Sadler isn’t in the cast somewhere? I love that guy. 

If I had to explain it in one sentence, the film is essentially a consistently fun, but consistently imperfect B-movie. It often has a silly sense of humor, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me crack a grin. The thing is, this sense of humor doesn’t always gel with some of the more unforgiving elements of the story. The lack of cohesion likewise applies to the cinematography. Although individual scenes look great, they sometimes feel visually inconsistent from one to the next. This includes the 70s time period. Although the sets/props all feel accurate, there’s something about the visual style that still feels a bit too modern. What saves the visuals is that the director seems keen on providing creatively unique framing during kill sequences. In other words, it’s not always consistent but it does feel creative. 

Admittedly, the experience is a bit underwhelming in terms of scares, but it is action-packed and unafraid to brutally dispose of its main characters. This makes the scenes of tension a bit tedious, but they always resolve in a satisfying way. This all wraps up in a drive-in movie theater-set climax that feels unique for the genre. 

Overall, this a fun, old-school vampire flick that feels like something we’ve seen before, but not for a very long time. Like Abigail (2024), this movie doesn’t waste its time cementing their specific take on vampire lore. Instead, like the real world, the characters already know a ton about vampires simply due to pop-culture. This allows the film to focus on vampire action as opposed to vampire lore and is therefore much more fast-paced because of it. It’s generally a mixed bad experience on a critical level, but as a fan of the genre, I found it to be a lot of fun (although not very thematically deep like the book). Fans of the book will certainly find this to be a watered down version, but unless this was a miniseries, I’m not sure how a more faithful version would have been achieved. Trimming the fat of Stephen King’s novel makes sense even if it’s less complex. If you’re simply a fan of Stephen King movies and their general tone, I can’t see you being disappointed. That being said, it certainly isn’t high-brow entertainment. B-