A new adaptation of horror master Stephen King's 1975 novel, "Salem's Lot," debuted on Max on Thursday to largely mixed reviews, with many online arguing that the reboot doesn't hold a candle to its literary and cinematic predecessors.
Directed by Gary Dauberman — who served as a screenwriter for "The Nun" and "It" — the latest iteration of "Salem's Lot" stars Lewis Pullman as Ben Mears, an author who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot looking for writing fodder, only to find that a number of townspeople are transforming into vampires. The novel was previously adapted in 1979 and 2004 for separate miniseries, the latter of which saw lead performances from Rob Lowe and Donald Sutherland.
Given Dauberman's background writing for horror films, it comes as a surprise that the latest iteration of "Salem's Lot" was panned by a significant amount of King fans. Some claimed that the lack of theatrical release was a strong indication of the movie's lackluster quality. "Five minutes into the new 'Salem’s Lot' and I can see why it went straight to streaming," one X/Twitter user wrote. "Woof. it’s just terrible flat digital cinematography that’s become the hallmark of cheap modern movies. Also bad acting, writing and the sound sounds cheap and hollow."
"'Salem's Lot' 2024 is so bad. No wonder why they didn't want to release it. I didn't expect much but holy s**t," another user tweeted. "People better stop complaints about the 2004 miniseries now. Not a single scene was scary to me, or even creepy. They also didn't use the stairs trap scene for some reason."
Variety's chief film critic, Peter Debruge, affirmed the criticism percolating on social media with his review of "Salem's Lot," published on Thursday. While Debruge complimented the movie's attempts at diversity and its assortment of plot twists, he called out the "junky look of this film’s visual effects," a seemingly irredeemable quality that he claimed rendered "Salem's Lot" "destined for streaming, where it joins the two miniseries in the small-screen graveyard."
Other social media users criticized the garbled plotline. One X/Twitter user argued, "It feels like a string of scenes continuously forgetting about essential characters, relegating much of their development offscreen. Whatever reason there is to get engaged in any of this is sucked out dry."
While one viewer took to X/Twitter to credit "Salem's Lot"'s "effective moments" and sense of "camp," they ultimately concluded that "the story is simply too rushed and truncated to work well."
"Characters aren't really established, so it's hard to care. A pity as there is promise here, killed by years of excessive cutting I suspect," they added.
"Salem's Lot" is streaming now on Max.
