‘Salem’s Lot
It was in the year 1710 that the town of Jerusalem’s Lot was founded in Maine, and while it may never have thrived or expanded it quietly endured, a safe and unremarkable retreat in the lush woods of the American north east, turning gold in the early fall when novelist Ben Mears returned from New York town twenty years after the death of his parents to research his home town and its people, particularly the sinister Marsten House which sat upon the hill, dominating his childhood memories.
Regarded by some as an outsider despite having been born in “the Lot,” Ben is not the only newcomer, the Marsten House having stood empty and neglected for forty years but now let to Richard Straker, a slightly eccentric European, who with his reclusive partner Kurt Barlow has opened an antique store on the main street through the town, bringing with them a trail of blood which has crossed oceans…
Based on the 1975 novel by Stephen King and wisely not updated from that era, ‘Salem’s Lot is written and directed by Annabelle Comes Home’s Gary Dauberman, the four hundred pages of the complex novel of the history of the town and its downfall as seen through the eyes of a tangled web of tragic witnesses presented as a faithful but unimaginative synopsis remarkable for the expedience with which it leaps forward, backstory filled in by the librarian who doubles as town gossip and characters introduced and dying in the same scene.
The credits and opening scene establishing then repeating the specific arrangements for the delivery of a wooden crate after dark, the early emergence of the monstrous Barlow concluding the following scene the film is upside down with revelations in place before narrator Mears (Lewis Pullman, borderline lifeless even as he first arrives in the town which harbours death) makes his first appearance; the vampire is out of the box before any atmosphere is developed or kinship with the characters exists, and he is far less unique or disturbing than his cousin The Vourdalak.
With Straker (Pilou Asbæk) barely seen past his introduction, to have the story told from his point of view would have been a bold choice, but instead the focus moves to Ben as he is lured for a sunset date at the drive-in by Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh) who carries a singular expression of confusion through the entire film, perhaps making her a good match for his own limited range, confessing he writes about others because he has nothing to say for himself, the supporting ensemble of Bill Camp, Alfre Woodard, William Sadler and Debra Christofferson more interesting than the bland leads.
Dauberman avoiding imitating Tobe Hooper’s 1979 adaptation, his substitution for the iconic window scene which scarred a whole generation is worthless and his glowing crosses which inexplicably dim at inconvenient moments are unintentionally hilarious, yet when abandoning the established narrative to run in a new direction in the final act the film suddenly becomes more urgent and engaging, but with eleven year old Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) displaying more initiative than the adults who stand around gormlessly rather than taking action as the sun sets with unnatural rapidity they remain so wilfully incompetent that there is a sense that ‘Salem’s Lot might have worked better had it been presented as a comedy.
‘Salem’s Lot is currently on general release
