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'Salem's Lot (2024)

  • ️Thu Sep 12 2024

'Salem's Lot (2024) (Film)

They used to tell stories about this place.

'Salem's Lot is a 2024 American supernatural horror film based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Stephen King. Written and directed by Gary Dauberman (Annabelle Comes Home) and produced by James Wan, it stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbæk, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler.

Writer Ben Mears (Pullman) returns to his childhood hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine to discover that it is being terrorized by horrific, ancient forces, and must team up with a ragtag group of townspeople to put an end to it. The film premiered on Max on October 3, 2024, with a theatrical release set for the United Kingdom and Ireland on October 11.

Previews: Trailer

'Salem's Lot includes examples of the following:

  • Adaptational Job Change: Susan is an aspiring real estate agent rather than an artist.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: In both the novel and the film Ralphie Glick's murder is a sacrifice to hallow the ground before the arrival of Barlow, however in the film these events occur in the opposite order.
  • Adaptational Villainy: In the original novel, Susan's mother Ann was somewhat controlling but basically a good person who just didn't accept that her daughter had her own plans. Here Ann becomes Barlow's new servant after Straker's death, to the extent that she kills Cody with a shotgun and nearly kills Ben and Mark while still being human, forcing Mark to hit Ann with a car while she is trying to shoot Ben.
  • Advertising by Association: Per the trailer, “From the creator of The Conjuring Universe and the producer of IT.”
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Every vampire is a savage, monstrous predator upon turning, no exception.
  • Ancient Evil: Barlow is implied to be so ancient he's lost his human features, a corruption and monstrous force of darkness.
  • Badass Adorable: Mark is an eleven (and three quarters) year-old, who faces down the Vampire threat without flinching and is the one most dedicated to stopping them especially once his parents become victims as well at Barlow's personal oversight. He's bar none the most efficient cast member at handling them and winds up with the majority of the on-screen kills of the film, staking Danny personally despite an attempted surprise attack, burning most of the townsfolk with sunlight, and running over Ann when she's advancing on Ben with a shotgun. Despite the size and weight difference, he surprises Straker with a antique metal cane to the head after successfully escaping his restraints, messily caving in the living human's skull, and is utterly nonchalant when recounting this to the others afterwards, merely noting that there was no other way for him to survive. By the Final Battle, Barlow pays more attention to him than the adult Ben, implied to be because the Elder Vampire sincerely recognises him as the more challenging adversary.
  • Death by Adaptation:
    • Parkins in this version is killed after he tries to flee town.
    • Father Callahan once again dies in this adaptation despite surviving in the book.
    • In the book, despite killing Barlow, the vampires he created unfortunately do not revert, forcing Ben and Mark to flee the doomed town and leave it to the small horde of turned vampires, forcing themselves to be content with the fact that, absent Barlow's driving ambition, the vampires "should" stay in their home town. At the end, they return a year later to burn down the town and deprive the vampires of their lairs, though the short story One for the Road, set two years after the events of the novel, has the vampires still prowling the burned-out remains of Jerusalem's Lot, with the residents of the surrounding towns living in unspoken fear, wearing religious symbols for protection and never venturing near the area. In this film, thanks to their decision to have their "coffins" be the trunks of the town's cars all piled up in the nearby open-air theatre, Mark is able to single-handily destroy the majority of the vampires on the spot, driving one of the cars through the supporting posts of the viewing screen whilst they're converging on Ben, causing it to fall and burn the townsfolk with the setting sun, leading to a slightly-less depressing ending.
  • Detect Evil; Crosses literally glow in the presence of vampires.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Ben and Susan, along with a vampire-skeptical Dr Cody, are waiting with the recently-deceased Marjorie Glick's body in the morgue to verify if Matt's claims of vampires is true or not, only for Ben to realise that none of them thought through what to do if she did actually rise from the dead as a blood-craving beast. Conceding the point, Dr Cody goes to get some medical sticks to form a makeshift cross with at which point the sun falls low enough for Marjorie to animate, forcing them to rapidly complete the cross before she comes to her senses enough to attack them.
  • Dies Differently in Adaptation:
    • Susan still becomes a vampire, but is bitten by Floyd Tibbets rather that Barlow himself. Later on, rather than Ben staking Susan in her coffin during their patrol of the town, he stakes her during the final battle when she's one of the few vampires to survive Mark's mass sunlight exposure.
    • Matt Burke is turned by Barlow and staked by Ben rather than succumbing to a heart attack, as in the novel.
    • Dr. Cody is killed via shotgun blast by Susan's mom instead of falling onto the knives trap in the stairs that Barlow set up. The film teases this by having them about to ascend up the stairs to verify if Straker's body is still up there after Father Callahan is hesitant to do so, only to be lured away when the basement door to Barlow's resting spot opens up for the group instead.
    • All the vampirised townsfolk evidently burned up in the setting sunlight at the movie theatre, once Mark breaks through the supporting posts holding up the viewing screen so that the setting sun can strike them. Whilst their fate varies throughout the adaptations (ranging from surviving overall in the book, to stalking and hunting Mark and Ben through the US, Mexico and Central America in the 1979 adaptation, and being gradually picked off by the older Mark and Ben in the 2004 version), this is the first time they're all destroyed at once during the initial vampire infestation.
  • Evil Stole My Faith: Poor Father Callahan has a hard time keeping his faith with the darkness all around the Lot, but the vampires destroy it utterly and he cannot fight back against Barlow when it counts.
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: When the surviving hunters fail to find the vampires in their old homes after the latest night, Ben notices the lack of cars on the street and realises that the vampires are all at the drive-in movie theatre, using the boots of their cars as "coffins".
  • Holy Burns Evil: Holy ground and symbols of faith, powered by actual faith, can hurt and even kill the vampires.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: During the final battle, Barlow is staked first through the mouth when Ben attacks him from behind while Barlow is focused on Mark, and once Barlow has turned to face him Ben rams the sign declaring 'SHOW BEGINS AT SUNDOWN' through Barlow's heart.
  • Looks Like Orlok: Barlow is tall, hairless, and clearly inhuman, owing more to his 1979 miniseries counterpart than the literary one.
  • Mirror Scare: Somewhat Subverted. The vampires cannot be reflected in mirrors, but they're Genre Savvy enough to exploit this, distracting the heroes towards the reflective surfaces whilst they approach directly behind them, "invisible" in their line-of-sight for a sneak attack when they turn around. Danny draws Mark's attention towards a bloodstain on a mirror when he's exploring Barlow and Stracker's antique shop, only for Mark to have been expecting an attack and successfully impale him in the heart before he can be bitten. Susan's vampirism is due to a successful use of this, with her being distracted by a conversation with her mother whilst a vampirised Floyd Tibbets approaches her from behind. Whilst Ben was keeping an eye on Susan from the adjacent room after Ann insisted he leave to speak to her, he couldn't see something was wrong until Susan started convulsing in the reflection from her invisible assailant.
  • Must Be Invited: Utilised at various points; most notably, while Mark's parents are killed when a vampire tricks his father into letting them in, Mark is able to hide in his treehouse overnight despite being surrounded by his now-vampire schoolmates as the treehouse apparently qualifies as a residence.
  • Nerves of Steel: Despite his young age, Mark does not scare easily, allowing him to turn the tables against his attackers by being more level-headed and determined to fight back than they were expecting an eleven-year-old to be. Despite witnessing the gory deaths of his parents and Father Callahan at Barlow's hands, being chased by his vampirised former classmates and taking shelter inside his treehouse (which forces him to listen to their taunting throughout the entire night inches away from him), the experience does not leave Mark a traumatised mess, and in the morning, Ben finds he's already laid the bodies to rest as best he could and left them a note that he intends to find and kill the elder vampire as both revenge and to prevent any further tragedies.
  • Police Are Useless: Attempts to bring issues to the sheriff doesn't go well. He refuses to even try and fight back and flees, only to be caught at night and killed by the vampires.
  • Race Lift: Mark and Dr. Cody, both white in the book, are played by African-American actors Jordan Preston Carter and Alfre Woodard, respectively. Cody also undergoes a Gender Flip from male to female.
  • The Renfield: Straker, Barlow's human servant. After Mark kills him, Barlow replaces him with Susan's mother Ann.
  • Signs of Disrepair: The Entrance sign for Jerusalem’s Lot in the trailer is partially faded so that it reads "Salem’s Lot" (interestingly, the Departure sign has the name in full).
  • Staking the Loved One: Ben is forced to kill Susan when she becomes a vampire.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In general when the characters realize what's going on, they seem to want to frequently go alone or in vulnerable pairs or only get active in the late afternoon that gets several of them turned or killed. In particular, Sheriff Parkins only leaving town when it's ten minutes before sundown allows the vampires to catch and kill him before he can get far enough away.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Thanks to his young age, this happens multiple times to Mark, due to the vampiric forces assuming he'd be more panicked and easily-handled than he proves to be. Straker's death in particular is entirely due to this, as he never suspected Mark would not only free himself, but actually attack and kill him first before trying to escape the Barlow house. By the Final Battle, Barlow entirely averts this, focusing on facing Mark over the adult Ben, which in turn allows Ben to surprise Barlow with a stake through the head whilst he's too focused on Mark, the elder vampire having written him off as a threat entirely.
  • Utility Weapon: The crosses, improvised or otherwise, burn so brightly with holy light that some characters use them as emergency lightsources in dark spaces.
  • Vampire Child: Mark is asked by the vampirised Danny outside his window to be let inside. Following Barlow's personal attack on his parents and Father Callahan, whilst the elder vampire is focused on finishing off the adults, he allows Mark to flee, pursed by the vampirised children of the Lot. Mark manages to survive the night by hiding inside his treehouse, which counts as enough of a dwelling of his to extend the same protection against his pursuers despite the flimsiness of the fort, but does force Mark to spend the entire night listening to the taunts of his former classmates swarming around the exterior inches away from him.
  • Voice of the Legion: At one point, one of the vampires (specifically Marjorie Glick) speaks to a coroner in what sounds like two voices at once:

    “Danny, where are you? Answer me.”

  • Wooden Stake: Vampires are staked with the traditional wood, ranging from the protagonists having clearly carved the stakes in advance to Ben breaking a wooden chair-leg off during a fight with the vampire Susan.
  • You Killed My Father: Mark's issues with the vampires grow very personal after Barlow and his vampires kill his parents.