Stephen King Really Likes That Salem's Lot Movie Warner Bros. Made And Still Hasn't Released
Where the hell is "Salem's Lot"? No, I'm not asking for the location of the cursed vampire town — like most Stephen King settings, it's in Maine, of course! I mean, where the hell is the new film adaptation of King's novel? You might not know this, but there's a brand new completed film adaptation of King's book just sitting on the shelves over at Warner Bros. The flick, helmed by Gary Dauberman, was supposed to arrive in 2022 before it was pushed back to 2023. Then it was pulled entirely. Now, a rumor has surfaced that the film will be skipping theaters altogether and going straight to the streaming service Max. As Variety reported, this decision "is not a reflection of the film's quality but is due to the fact that the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike has created a growing need for Max content." Sure, fine, but why has the film been delayed so long to begin with?
We don't know. But Stephen King, being Stephen King, was able to see the film, and he just took to Twitter (or X, as buffoons now call it) to share some praise for the flick. To be fair, King is not exactly impartial, and he also has some weird taste when it comes to movies (he tweeted praise for the Warner Bros. pic "The Flash" earlier this year, and we all know how that movie turned out). Still, the master of horror is helping to hype up the film that I, for one, would really like to see.
John Carpenter in his prime
"Salem's Lot" was King's second published novel, and tells the story of an author who returns to his childhood hometown just as a series of strange deaths start occurring. The deaths are the result of vampires, and soon, many of the residents of Salem's Lot are being turned into the bloodsucking undead. It's up to the author and a band of vampire hunters to save the day, or die trying.
The new film adaptation was due out on September 9, 2022, but now it has no release date at all. But according to Stephen King, it's a film worth seeing. "The Warner Bros remake of SALEM'S LOT, currently shelved, is muscular and involving," King wrote on Twitter. "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." And if all that wasn't enough to get you excited, the author even stated that one scene in the film feels like it "could have been directed by John Carpenter in his prime."
Just release it already
So again I ask: why has this film been shelved? King's tweets might give us some clues — it sounds like the adaptation is a slow-burn rather than a more mainstream horror flick full of jumpscares. And perhaps that made some folks at WB nervous. Of course, there's also the chance that the film just isn't very good. The studio infamously shelved their "Batgirl" movie due to quality concerns, so it's not farfetched to assume they're taking a similar approach to "Salem's Lot." But the recent report that the film is headed to Max suggests that maybe, just maybe, we're finally going to get to see this thing.
But when? It would've been a good idea for Warners to have it ready for Halloween, but Halloween is (sadly) over. Would a horror movie about vampires work in the holiday season? Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that I'd really like to see this for myself. "Salem's Lot" was previously adapted into a miniseries in 1979, and then another miniseries in 2004. This will be the first feature film adaptation. The new take on "Salem's Lot" stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbæk, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler. Fingers crossed that Warner Bros. announces what the hell they're doing with the movie soon.