Salem's Lot is regarded by many as one of Stephen King's best - and, perhaps more importantly, most terrifying - novels, which is why the new adaptation currently streaming on Max simply didn't cut it for the majority of fans and critics.
The movie follows the basic premise, but does not flesh out the main characters enough and is seriously lacking in scares and gore (pretty much every kill takes place off-screen) despite the R rating. It also leaves out some major story elements, including Ben Mears' childhood connection to the Marsten House, which is the source of evil that attracts Kurt Barlow and Richard Straker in the book.
During an interview with Den of Geek, director Gary Dauberman revealed that his original version of the movie was three hours, and one of the things he ultimately decided to cut was an opening sequence with a young Ben sneaking into the house and encountering the ghost of child-killing gangster Hubie Marsten.
“My first cut was about three hours. There’s a lot left out. My first draft of the script is 180-odd pages or something because you’re trying to include everything. And a lot of it has to do with a lot of the secondary characters and stuff that I spoke about. So it was sad to see that stuff go, but it’s like a necessary evil.”
“In the book, Ben sneaks into the Marsten House, and he sees the ghost of Hubert Marsten," he continued. “I shot that and it used to open the movie, but it seemed to muddy the waters for audiences; the ghost story within the vampire story. To me, it’s so important because it’s why Ben believes the vampire stuff, but we’re not telling that story, so that was the hardest thing to cut because I love the sequence.”
With any luck, a longer version of the movie will be made available on Blu-ray at some point.
“Haunted by an incident from his childhood, author Ben Mears returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book, only to discover the town is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire and his loyal servant.”
The cast includes Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, John Benjamin Hickey, Nicholas Crovetti, Jordan Preston Carter, William Sadler, Spencer Treat Clark, Cade Woodward, Debra Christofferson, and Pilou Asbaek.
Dauberman’s creative team on Salem’s Lot includes director of photography Michael Burgess (Annabelle Comes Home, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It), production designer Marc Fisichella (Ma, The Maze Runner), editor Luke Ciarrocchi (Glass, Split), composers Nathan Barr (The House with a Clock in Its Walls, The Great) and Lisbeth Scott (American Son, Tumble Leaf), costume designer Virginia Johnson (The New Mutants, Mile 22), and first assistant director Jeffrey “JP“ Wetzel (Malignant, Annabelle Comes Home).