By John Powell – Binge News

While Carrie may have strapped a rocket to the career of Stephen King it was ‘Salem’s Lot that quickly made him a household name. Lot was King’s modern homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and those spooky haunted house books that inspired him like The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. In the novelization we don’t even encounter the bloodsucker Kurt Barlow until well into the book. Up until then, the Marsten House in which Barlow and his thrall Richard Straker live, is actually the main antagonist or villain haunting writer Ben Mears and symbolizing that the small town of ‘Salem’s Lot is rotten to the core, a theme that runs throughout much of King’s work. Small towns appear at first to be idyllic, quaint and welcoming but if you dig below the surface you will often find ugly perhaps even evil secrets. It is why ‘Salem’s Lot is the perfect place for a vampire plague to spread like wildfire.

With the new adaption from James Wan ( Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring franchises) and Gary Dauberman (writer of the Annabelle movies, The Nun and It Parts 1 and 2) debuting on HBO Max this week, this marks the third time King’s book has been adapted for the screen. It has also spawned one sequel A Return to ‘Salem’s Lot written and directed by Larry Cohen (The Stuff, Q: The Winged Serpent, It’s Alive). Here’s a look at them all.

‘Salem’s Lot (1979)

The original adaption was a television series directed by Tobe Hooper of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame for CBS. Because it was made for television it has no gore to speak of and relies on its eerie atmosphere to frighten viewers. Writer Ben Mears (David Soul) returns to his childhood hometown to write a book about the infamous Marsten House. At the same time Mears pulls into a town a new antique shop opens. The owners have also recently purchased the object of Mears’ obsession. At present, the intimidating yet worldly Richard Straker (James Mason) is doing all the “heavy lifting” getting the shop and Marsten House ready while his partner Kurt Barlow is “away on business”.

With the arrival of these strangers children, tweens start disappearing. Mears and Straker become persons of interest to the local authorities. Mears rounds up and leads Stephen King’s very first ragtag band of monster hunters as they slowly uncover the undead virus that is enticing and corrupting people, some who weren’t that innocent to begin with. All eyes are on James Mason who you would think literally has ice water running through his veins as Straker and Soul portrays the flawed everyman, the returning hero, outsider the town desperately needs in its bid to survive.

Barlow’s Nosferatu-inspired special effects by Jack H. Young transformed Reggie Nalder and the rest of the cast into vampires who are far more primal, savage and imposing than the image casual fans had of Dracula and the like at the time. Unlike the novel though, Barlow doesn’t utter a single word throughout the entire series, something that frustrated Stephen King at the time as his Barlow not only uses his supernatural powers to seduce the townsfolk but also his magnetic charm in his novel. Producer Richard Kobritz though thought all of the vampires would be more frightening if they didn’t speak at all because then there wouldn’t be comparisons to Bela Lugosi’s Dracula which had been parodied to death by seventies and eighties.

The TV series will always be remembered for one scene and that is of an infected Danny Glick floating outside Mark Petrie’s window asking to be let in. The series was shocking and frightening for a television mini-series at the time and still stands as one of the best King adaptions even though many of the subplots and supporting characters were done away with due to time and creative constraints.

Where To Watch: Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO Max.

‘Salem’s Lot (2004)

Like its 1979 predecessor ‘Salem’s Lot 2004 was also mini series created for television, TNT by Warner Brothers. In this version, a rugged and edgy Rob Lowe is Ben Mears, Rutger Hauer is a more stylish Kurt Barlow, who like his character in the book actually speaks unlike his counterpart in the first television series. Donald Sutherland was Richard Straker but his portrayal was more madcap in contrast to James Mason’s cold and sophisticated Straker. What binds things together though is James Cromwell as Father Callahan, who has a more enhanced, crucial role in this series than Hooper’s series.

This gritter version also introduces some characters and grim situations which were not in the 1979 series. In Tobe Hooper’s version, the town was a pretty decent place brought to ruin by the vampire infestation. In 2004, Salem’s Lot is already a raging inferno of cruelty and sin. It doesn’t take much at all to stoke the fire and burn everything to the ground.

The town is full of assholes. Larry Crockett, who is having an affair with Bonnie Sawyer in the first movie is even more vile here. He is sexually abusing his teenage daughter Ruth. Bus driver Charlie Rhodes is a nasty piece of work who keeps awful pictures in his glove compartment. Even Eva Prunier who runs the boarding house Mears stays at has a dark past. If that wasn’t enough there is the child/baby abuse storyline from the novel involving trailer park couple Roy and Sandy McDougall. Salem’s Lot is a cesspool even before Mears returns to pen his Marsten House opus.

2004 is just as creepy though just in different ways. Hauer’s chilling voice alone is so perfect as the seductive and ruthless Barlow. The vampires can be prim, proper and refined at times and then scurry along walls and ceilings hunting in packs like the feral animals they are. More than Hooper’s version you get a real sense of the town not just being contaminated with the undead but human prey being converted, assimilated into the vampire cult, community.

Where To Watch: Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO Max.

A Return to ‘Salem’s Lot (1987)

Just like all of Rob Zombie’s appalling awful Halloween movies this sequel should never have been made. It so incredibly cringe from the very start that it takes the indominable will and focus of Michael Myers to continue watching past the opening.

Cold-blooded anthropologist Joe Weber (Michael Moriarty) is summoned back to the United States to deal with is rebellious, brat of a son (Ricky Addison Reed as Jeremy Weber) whom he hasn’t seen in like a zillion years. How rebellious is Ricky? When Joe meets him at the airport he is dressed like James Crockett from Miami Vice complete with loafers and no socks. As it turns out, Jeremy is just a loud mouth punk with very bad fashion sense, which itself is scarier than anything in this movie.

More good news, bad news for Joe is that his aunt had died leaving her house, property to him. The only catch is that it is located in…Dun dun duuun!…You guessed it! The bustling town of ‘Salem’s Lot! Father and son are greeted with many cold shoulders from the locals and we are treated to a lot of bad acting when they arrive.

It doesn’t take long for the duo to deduce that the town is now a vampire colony who claim to only feed on cattle. Yeah, right. If you believe that I have a wonderful house in Amityville I want to sell you.

Despite that troubling information which is sure to drive down property values Joe decides to stay and renovate his dilapidated property while Jeremy yearns to join the undead legion, much to dad’s dismay. This of course leads to a silly showdown between Joe and Salem’s blood-suckers for Jeremy’s soul. It is as stupid as it sounds and not stupid in a fun, B-Movie kind of way either.

The acting, the special effects and the plot are all as anemic as any vampire’s victim. You just know you are in trouble when the Barlow-like vampire in the movie poster (or at that time video box cover) doesn’t even appear in the movie and actually looks better and scarier than the rubbery, ridiculous mess in the film.

Where To Watch: Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO Max.

‘Salem’s Lot (2024)

Why-o-why do modern filmmakers feel the need to change and alter stories to the point that they are almost unrecognizable from the source material? There is a big difference between putting your stamp on something and taking someone’s characters and just putting them into your own story. Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House is a case in point. His adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s book was Hill House in name only. It had virtually nothing to do with the source material. The same can be said for Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot. Dauberman has made all manner of alterations to what is a great story, one of King’s best. The changes he made are absolutely moronic as well…more on that later. Why screw with things for the sake of screwing with things? Manga serves as the inspiration for anime all the time. The anime usually doesn’t deviate too much at all from the manga. Why? People want to see the same story, the same moments, the same characters, the same themes depicted in one medium and then another. Instead of adding to a brand’s legacy these goofs are taking someone else’s brand, intellectual property, exploiting the name, the history and the notoriety for their own gain.

The most ridiculous thing about this iteration is that Ben Mears becomes a supporting character in what should be his story. In the second half of the movie it is Jordan Preston Carter as Mark Petrie, a tween, becomes the lead vampire hunter doing all the dirty work including entering the Marsten House all on his own to face-off against  Kurt Barlow. As if that idea doesn’t evoke enough snickers, Mears is depicted as a bumbling moron who even needs to be saved by his love interest Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh). This shift in focus changes and ruins everything. We want ‘Salem’s Lot not Monster Squad.

Combine that with vampirism being cured by…I kid you not…a timely rabies shot, crosses that glow when used against the bloodsuckers, the veins in Barlow’s head pulse as he is feasting, all the hokey dialogue, etc, you have an unintentional parody of a vampire movie.

There is a reason why ‘Salem’s Lot has never been made into a stand-alone movie in the past. There is too much going on, too many characters to cram into a single movie. Dauberman’s worst decision is to omit a lot of the characters whose actions represent the rot that is at ‘Salem’s Lot’s core. There is little to no characterization at all and that more than anything else drives a stake right through the heart of this film. Almost everyone is a cardboard cut out. The strangest variation is that teacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp) isn’t gay any more. In the book, Burke feels sorry for a former student, now an adult. He finds him feeling sick in a bar and brings him home to take care of him promising to bring him to the town’s doctor the next day. While that may seem strange to city-dwellers this makes perfect sense to anyone who grew up in a small town. The student is of course a newly turned vampire and he plays on Burke’s attraction to him once they are alone. King portrays Burke as an anchor for the other characters, an older, wiser, more grounded mentor. Why was Burke scared straight by Dauberman? No idea.

The climax is shifted to a drive-in movie theater instead of the Marsten House. The vampires and their master Barlow are dealt with as if the vampire hunters are on a clock. They are both dispatched without much effort. It is as if everyone had grown weary and just wanted to wrap things up. The finale is so rushed that we are disappointed and stunned considering all of the build-up to get to it.

‘Salem’s Lot does have its moments. There is a shocking scene with a blood bag. The infamous ‘window scene’ makes a welcome return. The kidnapping of a child is disturbing. There is a ominous scene in a morgue and in a tree house. Dauberman has a knack for developing an unearthly atmosphere. Here, he borrows heavily from Dario Argento and Mario Bava giving Salem’s Lot a pale green, blue, muted palette in which reds, especially blood, stand out. It is a cool effect that creates a cool atmosphere. That atmosphere is the true star of the film.

‘Salem’s Lot was supposed to receive a theatrical release but was dumped on HBO Max instead. Now, we know why. Everything that made King’s story so great has been exorcised making Dauberman’s Lot nothing more than a shallow, run-of-the-mill vampire movie. Nothing beyond the atmosphere stands out. Nothing at all.

Where To Watch: HBO Max.