Ben Mears returns to his hometown but soon discovers the town’s dark secret: the community is slowly becoming a village of vampires.

Directors Mikael Salomon Starring Rob Lowe, Andre Braugher, Donald Sutherland

The list of Stephen King short stories and novels (and everything in between) that have been adapted onscreen could fill the space of an abridged dictionary. Several more onscreen projects are in the works, too. There are not quite that many Salem’s Lot adaptations, but damn, there are a few. In 1979, Tobe Hooper directed the CBS miniseries, and in 2004, Rob Lowe, Rutger Hower, and Donald Sutherland appeared in a miniseries for TNT. A third version, helmed by Gary Dauberman (of the recent IT films and Annabelle Comes Home), was expected to be the first theatrical version of the tale.

The apparently finished film from New Line Cinema, however, somehow fell off the theatrical agenda for distributor Warner Bros. Pictures. That silence became so notable that King recently addressed the matter in an unvarnished manner. “Between you and me,” the horror maestro wrote on Twitter. “I’ve seen the new SALEM’S LOT and it’s quite good. Old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff. Not sure why WB is holding it back; not like it’s embarrassing, or anything. Who knows. I just write the f*cking things.”

It appears that King’s declaration might have brought results (because the film will indeed surface), unless the timing is sheer coincidence. What can we expect from the impending Salem’s Lot movie?

Plot

Warner Brothers Discovery announced this week that the New Line film will not head into theaters but, instead, will premiere on Max as a streaming film. (That’s much better news than it never seeing the light of day or even ending up like the Coyote Vs. Acme fiasco.) Finally, the King tale will be able to spook an entirely new generation onscreen, and even better: James Wan’s Atomic Monster is onboard for executive producing duties.

The source material, of course, is King’s 1975 novel (his second book), in which an author, Ben Mears, hopes to find inspiration for another book in his hometown (Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine) and experiences much more than he bargained for. As in, the place is vamping out.

Previously, both miniseries versions of the tale were well received on TV, and details on how much this film will tweak the subject matter remain relatively vague. King, however, has not only expressed his satisfaction with the project, but last fall, he declared of the then-“shelved” film that it “is muscular and involving. It has the feel of ‘Old Hollywood,’ when a film was given a chance to draw a breath before getting to business. When attention spans were longer, in other words.” He added, “It feels like a horror movie version of slow-burn movies like THE GREAT ESCAPE. It builds very well. There are diversions from the book I don’t agree with, but on the whole, faithful.”

Given Warner Bros.’ relatively recent slow burn in HBO’s The Outsider series, that bodes well for the same with Salem’s Lot. Additionally, Dauberman and the rest of the producing team are well versed in effectively scaring the hell out of people, and King promised that a key scene “could have been directed by John Carpenter in his prime,” so we must trust the process.

Ben Mears, a writer, has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine after 25 years to try to write his next novel. He quickly becomes friends with high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate with ambitions of leaving town. Ben has returned to “the Lot” to write a book about the long-abandoned Marsten House, where he had a bad experience as a child when he saw a hanging ghost. He learns that the house—the former home of Depression-era hitman Hubert “Hubie” Marsten—has been purchased by Kurt Barlow, ostensibly an Austrian immigrant who has arrived in the Lot to open an antique furniture store. Barlow is supposedly on an extended buying trip; only his business partner, Richard Straker, is seen in public. The truth, however, is that Barlow is an ancient vampire and Straker is his human familiar.

The duo’s arrival coincides with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the death of his 12-year-old brother, Danny, who becomes the town’s first vampire turned by Barlow. Barlow also turns town dump custodian Dud Rogers and telephone repairman Corey Bryant. Danny turns other locals into vampires, including the graveyard digger, Mike Ryerson; a newborn baby, Randy McDougall; a man named Jack Griffen; and Danny’s mother, Marjorie. Danny fails to turn his classmate Mark Petrie, who resists him by holding a plastic cross in Danny’s face. To fight the spread of the new vampires, Ben and Susan are joined by Matt Burke and his doctor, Jimmy Cody, along with Mark and the local priest, Father Callahan. Susan is captured by Barlow, who turns her. She is eventually staked through the heart by Ben.

When Father Callahan and Mark go to Mark’s parents’ house to explain the danger that the family is in, the power is suddenly cut off and Barlow appears. After killing Mark’s parents, Barlow takes the boy hostage. Callahan pulls out his cross in an attempt to drive him off, and it works until Barlow challenges him to throw the cross away. Callahan, not having faith enough to do so, is soon overwhelmed by Barlow, who forces Callahan to drink his blood, making him “unclean”. When Callahan tries to re-enter his church, he receives an electric shock, preventing him from going inside. Defeated, Callahan leaves Jerusalem’s Lot.

Matt suffers a fatal heart attack while Jimmy is killed when he falls from a rigged staircase and is impaled by knives set up by the vampires. Ben and Mark destroy Barlow, but are lucky to escape with their lives and are forced to leave the town to the now-leaderless vampires. Ben returns the following day to retrieve and bury the bodies of Mark’s parents and Jimmy Cody in a clearing behind the Petrie residence. The novel’s prologue, which is set shortly after the end of the story proper, describes Ben and Mark’s flight across the country to a seaside town in Mexico, where they attempt to recover from their ordeal. Mark is received into the Catholic Church by a friendly local priest and confesses for the first time what they have experienced. An epilogue reveals the two return to the town a year later, intending to renew the battle. Ben, knowing that there are too many hiding places for the vampires, starts a brush fire in the nearby woods with the intent of destroying the town.

Background