WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Salem’s Lot (2024).
In the world of horror, it doesn’t get much scarier than vampires. There’s just something so creepy about a malevolent night creature lurking outside your window in the dead of night, persuading you to let him come in. One of the most unnerving examples of this horrific trope occurs in Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot.
Adapted from Stephen King’s sophomore novel, the 1979 TV miniseries explores an idyllic Maine town as it falls into the clutches of a powerful vampire. One of the first to transition into a bloodsucking fiend, young Ralphie Glick (Ronnie Scribner) hovers outside his brother’s moonlit bedroom window with glowing and strangely persuasive eyes. It’s an iconic image that still has the power to petrify four decades later.
Gary Dauberman’s new adaptation remakes Hooper’s film with nods to King’s original text. Where the ‘79 miniseries was slow and contemplative, Dauberman’s film is fast and salacious, trading the secrets of a troubled town for ferocious vampires who rip through flesh and bathe in blood. While your mileage may vary based on your affection for King’s original novel, there’s no doubt that Dauberman’s film is a fast-paced and often terrifying version of this classic story.
In fact, the best elements of Salem’s Lot (2024) lie in its bounty of bone-chilling horror set pieces.
In the Cellar
The film begins on an ominous note. After directions from the sinister R.T. Straker (Pilou Asbæk), we see two delivery men pull up to the basement of the Marsten House. This infamous mansion sits at the top of a high hill and was once home to a notorious child murderer. But regardless of what horrors this frightening manor holds, our first destination is the house’s dark cellar. Delivery man Hank (Mike Kaz) nervously opens the heavy storm doors and peers down into a shadowy cavern. His partner Royal (Timothy John Smith) backs the truck up to the mouth of this entrance, bathing the scene in a sinister, red glow.
The two men bring a heavy crate–supposedly containing a dresser–down the stairs. Nervous to be in this “haunted” house, the jittery men drop the large box, revealing dirt inside. But as the crate begins to creak open on its own, they flee and slam the cellar doors, leaving us in darkness. We glimpse a pale, bald head, bat-like ears, and malevolent eyes slowly emerging from the crate. This scene takes place later in King’s novel, but Dauberman uses it to open his film, immediately establishing a dark and foreboding atmosphere while introducing us to a hideous vampire.
In the Woods
One of the most petrifying chapters in King’s beloved novel follows a ghostly figure lurking in the woods. Danny Glick and his younger brother Ralphie are walking home from a friend’s house via a path through the moonlit forest when a ghostly figure comes into view. King leaves this creature in the shadows and cuts to a dazed Danny emerging from the path with little memory of what has just happened. The literary Ralphie Glick disappears without a trace and only a bundle of blood-soaked clothes in the Marsten House basement hints at his unimaginable fate.
Expanding on Hooper’s own variation, Dauberman fills in the terrifying details. His Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) and Ralphie (Cade Woodward) walk through the growing dark in silhouette against the leafless trees. The sinister Straker appears behind them and snatches Danny away with barely a sound. Moments later, we see the vampire’s familiar dragging a burlap sack into the Marsten House. Ralphie screams inside it as Straker consoles him with the honor of becoming the Master’s first victim. Hundreds of candles suddenly extinguish in the decaying manor as Straker calls to his master, Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward).
Our perspective then shifts to the frightened young child inside the bag. Through holes in the frayed burlap, Ralphie spies not only Straker’s growing fear, but a shadowy figure descending the stairs. The doomed boy’s screams echo through the town as Barlow goes in for the kill. We don’t see Ralphie’s actual demise, but blood splattering on Straker’s face implies an unspeakably violent end. In this early scene, Dauberman exploits one of horror’s long-standing taboos: brutally killing a cinematic kid. Not only do we see the monster through his victim’s eyes, Dauberman’s creative framing provides the perfect backdrop to introduce the cruelty of both primary villains, while reminding us that no one is safe in Salem’s Lot.
At the Window
Shortly after this devastating murder, Dauberman gives us an equally horrifying death for the older Glick boy. One week later, Danny is lying in bed when he hears a strange sound from outside his window. Notes from the harmonica Ralphie was playing when he was abducted float in over the misty moonlight. Hoping his brother has finally returned, Danny rushes outside, but sees no one there. He finds the harmonica lying at his feet as the backyard seesaw slowly descends. As he creeps closer, still looking for Ralphie, a hand grabs him from above and lifts him into the night sky.
Next, we see the sickly child awaken his mother claiming to feel sick. In the hospital, Danny is diagnosed with pernicious anemia and given a blood transfusion. He awakens and complains that he is thirsty while reaching for the hanging bag of blood. While his mother searches for a nurse, Danny rips into the bag and begins squeezing the red, viscous fluid into his mouth. His mother returns to find the boy lying dead with blood covering his face and chest, followed immediately by a heart-wrenching funeral. While this segment follows the bones of King’s original story, much of this chapter is Dauberman’s invention. It’s a rapid, but powerful series of events that sets the town’s ultimate demise in motion while delivering a second death for the poor Glick family.
In the Grave
We barely get a moment to breathe before Dauberman pulls us into the next horrific set piece. Gravedigger Mike Ryerson (Spencer Treat Clark) has fallen asleep during Danny’s funeral and come to his senses well after sunset. The camera lingers on his child-sized coffin as Mike begins slowly covering it with dirt. He’s startled to hear banging and pleas for help coming from inside the box and jumps into the grave to rescue the child he believes has been buried alive. But when Mike opens the lid, Danny’s body is lying undisturbed on the coffin’s satin lining. Confused, he returns to his work as Danny stealthily rises from the hole in the ground. A moment later, the young vampire rushes at Mike with glowing red eyes and extended fangs, knocking him back into the grave.
Both King and Hooper place this scene earlier in the day as the sun slowly sets on an unnerving graveyard. Dauberman’s version adds to the creepy ambiance by setting the scene under a sinister moon and lingering on Mike’s growing unease, bringing to life one of King’s most harrowing passages.
In the Morgue
Compounding the tragedy, Marjorie Glick soon follows her son in vampiric death. While her body lays in a neighboring morgue, a small team of would-be vampire hunters hold a vigil to see if she will rise from the dead. Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard) checks the corpse while Ben (Lewis Pullman) and Susan (Makenzie Leigh) wonder how they will defend themselves should she reanimate in front of their eyes. As sunset nears, Marjorie’s slipper suddenly falls to the floor. Her arm begins to flail as she calls for her sons. Still covered in a gossamer sheet, Marjorie slowly sits up and turns to face the horrified observers. Dr. Cody wields a cross hastily made from tongue depressors as Ben and Susan cower behind her, but the moment the clumsy talisman falls apart, the newborn vampire lurches forward.
Ben grasps the sheet still covering Marjorie’s face and holds it just inches from Dr. Cody’s neck. The screaming doctor stabs her with a scalpel, horrified to see that the wounds produce no blood. When Susan finally finishes making another cross, they burn it into Marjorie’s skin and she disappears in the middle of the room. This scene plays out mostly like King’s novel (while adding Susan to the chaotic mix), but Dauberman injects his own visual flair. The flimsy sheet provides just a hint of coverage while allowing us to see the nightmarish creature beneath. This Marjorie is also much faster and stronger, managing to sink her teeth into Dr. Cody’s neck despite Ben’s attempts to hold her back.
Outside the Church
As in King’s novel, Dr. Cody is able to heal the vampire’s bite by quickly washing it out. Dauberman adds a rabies shot to this treatment, possibly nodding to another of King’s early novels. This sets a dangerous precedent that Ben tries to employ when Susan is bitten at the behest of her mother, Ann (Debra Christofferson), who has become Barlow’s new familiar. Ben races the bleeding young woman to the church and begs Dr. Cody to administer the same medicine that saved her own life. But Susan writhes on the floor of the holy building, proof that it’s already too late. Fully transitioning, she bolts out into the night with Ben hot on her heels. He loses her in the moonlit street, but quickly realizes that he’s now surrounded by vampires.
Dr. Cody tosses him a stake the instant Mike Ryerson pulls him up into the air and a moment later, both men slam to the ground. Ben has staked Mike midair and the gravedigger-turned-vampire now lies dead just outside the chapel door. This scene is unique to Dauberman’s adaptation, not only injecting the story with thrilling action, but setting up an all new climax as the town’s few remaining humans square off against a horde of powerful vampires.
At the Drive-In
Pulling elements from King’s additional texts and some from his own autobiographical writing, Dauberman sets the film’s final act at the Salem’s Lot drive-in. It’s local tradition to congregate here each weekend and now the town’s vampires have gathered their cars on the expansive lawn while sleeping the daylight hours away in their trunks. As the sun sets, Dauberman shows a visual line of safety moving through the field as his heroes scramble to stay in the light. Vampires begin opening their trunks and crawling out into the growing dusk as the sun sets behind the massive drive-in screen. Mark (Jordan Preston Carter) runs for cover while Ben attempts to fight them off, but quickly finds himself overwhelmed and pulled back into the shadows. Complicating their escape, Ann Norton attempts to pick them off with a shotgun, murdering Dr. Cody before she can drive a stake through Susan’s heart. As the undead creatures swarm Ben, Mark drives a borrowed car through the screen’s supports then into Ann herself. The giant boards crash down onto the cars, flooding the parking lot with sunlight and causing the exposed vampires to burst into flames.
Now the town’s only survivors, Ben and Mark locate Barlow’s coffin and begin trying to pry it open. But as the sun rapidly sets, the head vampire bursts out and into the air, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of dust. The frightened vampire hunters take cover in the drive-in’s abandoned concession stand where an undead Susan lies in wait. After a brutal fight, Ben stakes his former lover and watches her die a second time. Meanwhile, Mark has scrambled under the collapsed drive-in screen while Barlow attempts to puncture the makeshift roof. Grabbing hold of his shirt, Barlow is lifting Mark toward a hole in the planks and his own deadly fangs when a stake plunges through his mouth from the back of his head. A moment later, we see Ben through the gaping wound, standing over the master vampire on top of the roof. He then stakes Barlow again through the heart, putting an end to the vampiric plague that has decimated the town.
This is admittedly nothing like King’s original conclusion, but it does have its own quirky charm. Dauberman has created an original climax that still feels like it fits into King’s expansive universe and concluded the story with an action-packed set piece. Constant listeners will likely be all over the map with this new adaptation. Some will admire the director’s wild swings and fresh takes on the material, while others will long for the character driven heart of the 1975 novel. However, Dauberman has created several impressive action horror sequences that succeed in creating a world filled with terrifying vampires.
Salem’s Lot is now streaming only on Max.
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