Salem's Lot (2024)
Be careful what you invite inside.
It’s the month of spooks! You know what that means? It means I have a free license to force people into watching horror movies with me and they can’t complain! There’s some pretty good flicks coming out this month on digital that I look forward to - not all just child-traumatizing pure horror either, some have comedy in them too! We’ll cross those cursed bridges when we get there though, tonight we get something that’s ultra scary - a remake! As is the way of literary adaptations, one version is never enough and tonight we get to see if any improvements were made - tonight we check out a new take on a Stephen King reading that might suck the blood right out of you - tonight we visit Salem’s Lot.
I’m not familiar with the book - in fact, I have yet to read any King books to date, although I did come dangerously close once. That said, I have consumed a whole lot the movies based on his stuff, including the original version of tonight’s flick. There’s certainly some differences here, but I can’t remember them too strongly as it was a long while ago I saw it, so unfortunately after getting you all hyped for “he might be able to compare something for a change” I have to let you down. This time around the core is the same though - established writer returns home to do a little soul searching and get some inspiration for his next writing project, and ends up knee deep in vampires. It’s a slow start to the vampires - as a matter of fact, so slow it goes back further than anyone would even guess really - but when they start going it’s a tidal wave. Numerous folks are finding out about them through rather unfortunate means, and eventually a small band - including a kid with some major guts - decide to make a stand. The question is, as always though, will anyone make it or will the vampire menace consumer not just the town but the world?
Actors are pretty good here. I think some might get varying mileage out of the youngest ones - i mean, they do a fine enough job that it’s not detracting from the story, but it’s also a bit hard to take them at face fright if they are suddenly some glowing-eyed creature of the night. That said, our main kid comes off plenty cool enough as intended - probably cooler than most the adults if I’m being honest - so it’s not like they don’t at least somewhat pull their acting weight. The adults don’t do a horrible job, although I also wouldn’t really say that anyone feels particularly like they blew it out of the park either. If someone told me it was a made-for-tv movie, I’d say it’s pretty impressive depending on what era tv movie we were using for standards, but despite it being handled mostly well there’s still some times in there when an actor or two feels like perhaps they didn’t quite know what they wanted to do with their character. That might sound harsher than it’s intended - none of the jobs here are bad really, but some can be a bit campy feeling and oddly enough that feels pretty fitting for a King-based movie to me.
The characters are here as well, somewhat along for the ride like the rest of us. At least the main three are given some level of building up when it comes to backstory - even if it’s largely just dialogue in a tell rather than show situation. I feel like the actors bring the given role of a character to life - be it a sheriff who doesn’t care and should probably have been retired a while ago, or a ballsy kid who will do it all himself if he has to. There’s a romance in there, and it has a very rom-com style kick off at the start of the movie, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s ever the point of the movie even though it doesn’t feel super horrible forced (although you could argue it doesn’t feel needed either). It’s funny, since most the time you’ll be rooting more for the kid than anyone else in the runtime. Do some folks make dumb moves? Yeah, but we can’t blame characters for that given how people act in the real world.
Classic writer looking ot find themselves in Maine.
It’s not quite modern, but it falls largely into the same trope when it comes to costumes. The most outlandish you’ll get is the main vampire, whose largely relegated (smartly) to quick glances and just out of focus quick shots. He’s certainly got that classic Nosferatu appearance to him that helps sell the outlandish creature compared to the super regular everyday other characters. Everything ends up feeling very mundane and regular - which considering the idea is this almost unearthly takeover of a town by this nefarious creature makes things work together quite well. There’s some various settings, some of which like the kidnapping scene are set up very nicely as far as shots go - but despite them all not being easily confused the set design and choices all end up also just feeling regular. Good for immersion - as long as you can jump the time gap.
Effects work is likewise not too over the top. Yes, there are vampire actions going on here, but most of it is pretty wisely off-screen to avoid over-saturating it and making it feel like the bog standard horror movie we have today where the violence is half the draw. We do get a bit more elaborate by the end when we really embrace the vampires towards the final act - but some blood splatter, quick shots of spooky ghoulish main vampire, and a whole lot of yellow radiating eyes will be what most the movie carries around. That what it is, I really dig both the glowing eyes and the way the crosses super-illuminate like some kind of lightsaber when the undead are around. The sun-light light ups are a bit hit or miss in looks, largely passable but not as impressive as some of the full-burn shots in movies I’ve seen elsewhere for whatever varied reason it might be. It’s a small flip side to the largely wonderful other effects - like vampires getting blown around by cross power and the likes in earlier scenes. We’ll call it a largely well done bag with a few outliers then.
Audio is fine. Balance is good, and I can once again confirm that yes there was music. There’s one song in it that I recognize (that’s book-ending the movie) but outside of that it all does it’s emotional service and disappears. Actors deliver their lines fine and for the most part the dialogue comes off feeling mostly natural. There some times when it’s a bit of an understatement to say the least, but it’s never something as overtly cringe-inducing like a youthful Anakin lamenting the existence of sand. For the thoughtful folks, I’m way out of my attention zone to really talk about it. I’m way more prone in something like this to pay attention to the setup and the vampire lore than I am to things about cops who shirk duties because they are too tired and close to retirement, school staff who don’t bother to attend to kids even if it’s a hostile situation, or priest who aren’t in the strongest of faiths unless that faith is in a drinking flask. Like, there’s probably a bunch of stuff here for someone if they really want it - I just wasn’t that person who really wanted it and diverted my attention elsewhere - like calilng things happening before they actually happened.
The future is the kids.
It’s been a while since i saw the first one, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this one is probably the better version of the two. Although yes I was calling stuff left and right as though I had already seen it ( although at this point, between all the other movies and the original I probably kind of have), I was also having a good amount of fun. I like when a movie doesn’t want to give too much of the monster too fast sometimes. The acting is pretty solid as is most the cinematic techniques. It’s fun to watch, and not too very frightening although that might be me more jaded to horror than an actual accurate statement. All in all, I’d say it’s a darn good start to one of my favorite months.