Salem’s Lot (2024) – review

Director: Gary Dauberman

Release Date: 2024

Contains spoilers

When I saw this reimagining of Salem’s Lot at the cinema I was somewhat disappointed, not in the film as a vampire horror as it does well in those stakes, but as a version of King’s book. It failed, to me, to capture the small town and its large cast of characters, who are the reason, to me, that the book is so effective.

I wrote my First Impression with a view to reviewing the film when it was released on physical media. In truth, having heard that the studio trimmed an hour off the theatrical release, I hoped it would be restored and we might get the characters reinstated. As it is, the film still hasn’t hit physical media (mostly) and so I recently picked up the Chinese release (I trust it is kosher), it isn’t restored but here is my review.

getting instruction

The film starts with Straker (Pilou Asbæk) instructing Hank Peters (Mike Kaz) to collect a large crate and deliver it to the Marsten House. It is here that we see the loss of characters. Hank is never named, nor is his helper Snowy (Timothy John Smith, Castle Rock). All we see of picking up the crate is them arriving at the Marsten House and carrying it in – no issues at pickup or transporting it – and the two characters play no further part. They get the crate in, dropping it at one point (the crate is meant to contain a dresser but dirt spills out). They leave, though Hank is nearly mesmerised, and then Barlow (Alexander Ward, American Horror Story: Hotel) emerges from the crate.

Lewis Pullman as Ben

Daylight, and Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), looks at the distant Marsten House. Local sheriff Gillespie (William Sadler, From Dusk till Dawn: the series & Living Among Us) approaches him and Mears explains he is sight-seeing. He is an author, he was local until he was nine (when his parents were killed and he was moved to family) and he promises Gillespie that he won’t cause trouble. He goes into town and the real estate office owned by Larry Crockett (Michael Steven Costello). Working there is Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), who is reading one of Ben’s books – she finds him familiar, not realising that it is from his author’s picture on the fly sleeve until Crockett has taken over the conversation. She directs Ben to Eva Miller (Marilyn Busch) and her boarding house. Again, here, we lose Crockett from this point and Weasel (the town drunk and Eva’s former paramour) we see for the briefest moment, top of the head only with one line of dialogue.

"say Uncle"

At school new kid Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) is being tied up by the Glicks, Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) and Ralphy (Cade Woodward), for an escapology trick when school bully Richie Boddin (Declan Lemerande) pushes Mark. He retaliates and makes him call Uncle (though he doesn’t release) and teacher Matt Burke (Bill Camp) intervenes – telling Mark off for not releasing when Boddin cried Uncle as they keep their word in the Lot. What was strange here was making Mark the new kid. Mark may have been the weird kid in other versions, but he wasn’t an outsider but in this he is. The film makes mention of Ben also being an outsider – though he is more the Prodigal Son. Vampires are outsiders, of course, hence needing invites and the film doesn’t explore deep enough to explain why the primary two vampire hunters are also coded outsiders.

shadow puppets

Ben has been, unsubtly, invited to the drive in – the place the whole town goes to – and ends up sat on a roof with Susan. Meanwhile the Glick boys have been at Mark’s and head home. A side-bar to mention the fact that Mark has a poster for the great blaxploitation film Sugar Hill on his wall. As the Glicks walk, a car pulls close and slows; it is driven by Straker, who offers them a lift. In response Danny refuses and guides his brother into the woods to get away from the strange man. It is a strange design choice to make the ensuing scene unreal, trees and characters in silhouette against a mostly blue background. This is like shadow puppets. Straker grabs Ralphie and takes him back to the Marsten House and gifts him to Barlow as a sacrifice (to cement his presence in the town).

revoked invitation

This is the start of the death (or undeath) of the town and the film cuts forward a week, with the search for Ralphie still ongoing. We get the death of Danny and him returning to get Mark and gravedigger Mike Ryserson (Spencer Treat Clark) found ill by Matt Burke, dying and returning for the teacher. What I want to discuss is the confused invitation rule. Mike enters Matt’s house as a vampire and presumably is using the invitation he got when he was already bitten and ill (and so part vampire). Matt revokes his invitation and it drives him out. Equally Danny visits Mark and Mark opens a window and Danny floats in. But there was no invitation – true he’d been there before but before being bitten. Perhaps non-verbal invitation (opening the window) was enough? Equally Barlow enters the Petrie’s house and there appears to have been no invitation (though perhaps being invited to the town, along with the sacrifice, sufficed?)

Danny triggers the cross

The scenes mentioned above highlight another way lore seemed off. When Danny is in Mark’s room, and Mark is backing away, a cross on a diorama lights up as the vampire draws near, Mark grabs it and burns Danny. It is very much the presence of the vampire, near the cross, that causes the cross to glow. When Barlow comes to the Petrie House, a cross held by Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) glows. However, it loses its glow as his faith wains – if faith is needed then the crosses would not be glowing simply because a vampire was near as the faith in the cross would, I imagine, need to be focused into it. Indeed two tongue depressors crossed, with conviction, don't work until taped and constructed to form a cross. Other lore involves vampires flying (they can’t stand on holy ground but can fly over it), a bite turns (pretty quickly in some cases, depending on what the film needs), staking or sunlight kills.

below the mortician's shroud

Beyond the inconsistent use of crosses/faith and invitation this is not a bad vampire film. It leans into horror and uses Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown neatly in the soundtrack. What I cannot call this is a decent version of Salem’s Lot. I get things can be changed from source material (indeed sometimes changing source material improves the experience) but this seemed to utterly lose the point, the cornucopia of townsfolk, their stories, are at the centre of the point of the tale. I still hope to see a 3-hour cut, of course that won’t cover all characters from the novel but could restore the small-town focus. 6 out of 10 as a vampire horror, but when you watch it divorce the book from your mind.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK