Finally, we get to see the third adaptation of King’s book Salem’s Lot. The first and best is the miniseries from 1979, then we got a second miniseries in 2004 and now it’s time for a third. This time it’s not a miniseries though but a movie even if it’s streamed on TV in most countries. The movie was ready in 2022 but for some, still unknown, reason it’s been sitting on a shelf for two years waiting for Warner to release it. There have been several release dates reported but they have all been moved. Until now. On October 3rd when it will stream on Max.

So, was it worth the wait? Well, yes and no. First, I want to say it was a correct decision to place it with Max instead of letting it go to the big screen. I think it will reach a much lager audience this way and personally I would have felt a bit disappointed if I’d spent money on an expensive ticket for this one. With that said though I also want to say that the movie isn’t as bad as I feared. Much of my fear of it being bad was from the fact that Warner sat on it for so long before finally releasing it. But maybe that was their tactic. Getting everyone’s hope and expectations down so low that we couldn’t possibly be disappointed when we saw it? Probably not but I don’t know.

Most of the movie is okey and most of the cast works. Lewis Pullman works as Ben Mears, William Sadler (who’s always great) works as Parkins Gillespie, Bill Camp works as Matthew Burke and John Benjamin Hickey really works as Father Callahan. Alfre Woodard is not working for me as Dr. Cody and Makenzie Leigh really don’t work for me as Susan Norton. Leigh overplays the role and feels totally wrong. I don’t know exactly how to explain it but it’s like she thinks she is in a different movie then everyone else. Her mindset feels off and all about her just feels wrong. It’s not the Susan that King created.

But the big question, how did Alexander Ward work as Kurt Barlow? It feels like they really wanted to go in the same direction as the miniseries from 1979 but at the same time as if they didn’t want to copy the look of Barlow from that movie. This resulted in a version of Barlow that looks pretty much the same as the 1979 version but not quite so blue…He passes the test but not much more. It is good though that they kept him in the shadows for as long as they did.

The plot from the book is there and it take place in the 70’s. And it works for most of the time. It’s a bit more colorful than I see the 70’s but it’s okey. Many of the key scenes (both from the book and miniseries) are there. A few are missing and those I really miss. I miss Ben being beaten up. I miss when Bonnies husband catches Bonnie and Larry. I do like the scene with Danny Glick outside Mark’s window. It’s very similar to the one from 1979 but it still looks nice.


It's a mix of good and bad but it feels like they want to eat the cake and keep it at the same time. Like they want to attract today’s teens but at the same time keep older fans like me who was actually around when the book was released. And that gives us a film that doesn’t really do either very good. And I really don’t care for the ending. I don’t like how they changed it. In the book it was scary but now that it’s in the drive-in and the vampires are using the trunks of the cars as their coffins and run really fast when their out of them it’s just silly. And when you consider the sun setting in different speed depending on what’s needed for a particular scene it’s just ridiculous.

But with all this, both good and bad, the movies biggest problem is that it’s just now scary. It’s a horror movie but it’s lacking the creepy scary feeling. Instead, it’s plain and flat. If anything, it’s more action than scary which is, in this case, wrong…very wrong.

The movie isn’t as bad as I feared but it’s not a particularly good movie either and it’s biggest problem is that it’s just not scary.