|
|
SALEM'S LOT
Director: Gary Dauberman Cast: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Jordan Preston Carter, Alfre Woodard, Pilou Asbęk, John Benjamin Hickey, William Sadler, Spencer Treat Clark, Alexander Ward MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:53 Release Date: 10/3/24 (Max) |
|
Review by Mark Dujsik | October 2, 2024 When the works of Stephen King are eventually taught in high schools (as great authors should be), many a lazy student will fail homework assignments by watching writer/director Gary Dauberman's Salem's Lot in lieu of reading the book. As an adaptation of the author's second book (one of his best, too, by the way), Dauberman's version probably isn't worth discussing as an adaptation. The film takes the basic setup, a clever variation on the most famous vampire story, and the broad outline of King's tale in terms of characters and plotting, but it transforms those elements into its own craftily entertaining riff on the source material. The foundational idea remains: What would happen if an Eastern European vampire tried to establish a colony in contemporary, small-town America circa the 1970s, instead of in Victorian London? Dauberman's screenplay cuts right to that conceit, as the vampire's familiar Richard Straker (Pilou Asbęk) arranges the delivery of fragile package to an old, derelict house on a hill on the outskirts of the Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot. The delivery men accidentally drop the large crate, revealing that whatever's inside is packed with earth, and soon enough, various people around town begin disappearing or dying of an anemia-like condition. It's amusing that the local school's English teacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp) is the first one to catch on to the unlikely possibility that a vampire has arrived in town, probably because he has heard this story before, and it's funnier that Mark (Jordan Preston Carter), the new kid in town, arrives at the same conclusion, because he has read enough comic books about vampires to assemble a whole list of rules for their behavior and ways to combat them. In theory, the real protagonist here is Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), a semi-successful author who grew up in the Lot, as it's affectionately called by locals, until his parents were killed in a car crash when he was only 9. The first sign that Dauberman isn't going for a straightforward adaptation of King's novel might be the fact that Ben feels like a third wheel in his own homecoming narrative, researching his parents' deaths and being curious as to why someone would buy that old house standing like a haunted structure above the rest of the town. He also starts a romance with the very pretty and plucky Susan (Makenzie Leigh), who has enough personality to make the book's hero feel as if he's not even a wheel driving forward the story's momentum. Indeed, he is overshadowed by the rest of the cast of eventual vampire hunters, with John Benjamin Hickey's flawed but faithful priest and Alfre Woodard's Dr. Cody, who can't deny the seemingly impossible existence of vampires when a dead body resurrects right in front of her in the morgue, rounding out the party. Sure, Dauberman has mostly evaded the Americana-infused iteration of a Gothic horror tale from the source material, leaning more into sequences of terror and action once the vampire and its infected host of other blood-suckers get to work. Even so, the film has its moments of encroaching dread, such as when two kids walk home through the woods, observed from afar as silhouettes against a two-toned backdrop of a twilit sky, and our first brief glimpse of the mysterious new owner of the house on the hill. The thing, viewed through the obstruction of a closed sack, stalks down a staircase, holding a candelabra and oozing menace with its unhurried gait. By the way, the look of the key monster, played by the towering presence of Alexander Ward, is obviously inspired by the undead creature's depiction in Tobe Hooper's 1979 TV miniseries version of King's novel. If Dauberman is going to steal, this is the appropriate type of homage/creative thievery, because the sudden appearance of the head vampire here is almost as frightening as in that previous version. The plot does become a series of encounters with various vampiric fiends in darkened rooms, cellars, and streets. The vampire-hunting crew use holy water (with Mark filling a travel mug from a baptismal font for one expedition) and crosses, which illuminate a fiery glow in the blood-suckers' presence. One moment, which gets to the core of both the humor and waste-no-time attitude of the film, has a cornered trio trying to make do with what's available, which amounts to tongue depressors, some tape, and impromptu incantations. There's also a climactic locale that's too inspired to give away here. The mechanics of the final showdown, though, are too smart not to note, as the surviving members of the team discover makeshift coffins and have to deal with a certain structure that blocks out the sun before it completely sets. By then, the film has firmly established its self-aware sense of humor and Dauberman's ability to concoct a sequence that uses the locale, the specifics of that location, and the characters' quick-thinking, no-nonsense tactics. The finale feels like a culmination of the film's not-too-serious tone, momentum, and situational innovation. This isn't King's story as he wrote it, but Salem's Lot charts its own course, devising a fast-paced ride of sorts through the basics of the novel's premise, characters, and plot beats but with a dedication to creating its own tone and stakes, while repeatedly finding ways to up them. It's wicked fun in its own way, and that, of course, is the only thing that really matters. Copyright © 2024 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
Buy Related Products
|
(for
bloody violence and language)
