Salem’s Lot
Hey everyone and Welcome, today we will be talking about the film Salems Lot. Fun Fact, I went to a screening of this movie in 2022 which is about 2 years before it officially came out and shockingly not much has changed since then. This film came out in 2024 and stars Lewis Pullman, Alfre Woodard, and Jordan Preston Carter and was directed by Gary Dauberman. So without further ado let’s get right into it.
Salems Lot tells the story of Ben Mears who returns to his hometown Jerusalems Lot to write a book and learn more about his family accident and stumbles across some vampires attempting to take over.
Salem’s Lot is a horror Vampire movie based on a Stephen King novel. It has similar vibes to Dr. Sleep, IT, or Fright Night.
Stephen King adaptions are always exciting for me so I knew I wanted to watch this and even more exciting is that it has vampires. The movie isn’t perfect but it’s fun and I was entertained for the majority of it. If you’re wondering why it’s called Salems Lot, well it is short for Jerusalems Lot.
Lewis Pullman leads this movie as Ben Mears, an author whose books seem to be popular but get mixed reviews. We learn that his family was killed and he’s doing research as to why this happened and the way that this comes up in the story makes it seem like Vampires had something to do with it but then they just stop talking about it. I think Lewis did a great job with the character but I feel like the character was the main character but also not because he didn’t actually seem interested in stopping the vampires til his girlfriend was turned, and he was about to run away. I feel like his character was useful but if they wanted a main character they needed to make him stand out more and give us a reason as to why we should care about his role in stopping the vampires. I will say on a positive note he does kill his fair share of vampires and one of my favorites is when one grabs him and takes him in the sky and he stabs them and uses his body as a cushion to fall on.
Jordan Preston Carter plays Mark and he seems more like the main character than Ben and I was rooting for him because he wasn’t afraid to stand up to bullies. He has some of the more substantial moments in the film that you would think Ben has since they pushed Ben as the main character. Mark is very adamant about getting rid of the vampires, does research on how to get rid of them, and is the first one to start to figure out some of their weaknesses. This kid was not afraid to stand up for what he believed in and tried his best to defend the people he loved but you know sometimes people don’t listen to kids and in this situation that didn’t work in their favor. When he gets kidnapped he knocks out Straker and I assume kills him which shocked me and later he does the same thing to his friend who attempts to kill him. I feel like he needed the adults for physical strength but he was really holding his own throughout the movie.
Straker is a mysterious man throughout the movie and we know he does Barlow’s bidding but he doesn’t have almost any lines. It feels like there was more to his character but it was cut out.
Alfre Woodard plays Dr. Cody and I feel like if there was a character who mirrored how I would be feeling it’s her. She goes through a denial phase but once she gets proof she quickly switches into survival mode using her knowledge to help her survive. She made me laugh because her reactions to stuff were always like what have you all gotten me involved with. I was sad that she died in the end but I love how she was smart and gave some good suggestions on how to handle things and helped the story move forward. She also proved that a vampire bite doesn’t mean you will automatically get turned which I wish was explored more.
This movie introduces us to vampire lore which is cool but most of it isn’t new and a lot of the time they never mention the why which doesn’t deter but could have made it stand out more. We see the vampires constantly in the shadows or avoiding sunlight, we see the cross being used as a weapon and it glows like it has superpowers, that vampires can control people, vampires have to be invited in and that invitation can be revoked, they have a familiar or human who can operate in the sunlight and protect their resting bodies, eyes glow yellow, and of course turning people into vampires with a bite. One cool scene was the teacher being nice and letting someone in and we know he is a vampire then the teacher closes the window and as he drops the window down the guy’s eyes change from normal to glowing yellow. It is shown how vampires survive and repopulate by drinking blood which brings up a question, the reason the vampire Barlow chose Salem’s lot is because it’s a dead town but if you turn everyone into a vampire what will they eat? Barlow seems to be an exception to some of the rules and I did wonder if it was all the rules or just some. I think some of the characteristics and motives of these vampires that were introduced just made me have more questions instead of answering the ones I already had.
Barlow is like the big bad vampire in this movie and they hint at him for some time and by the end of the movie they give him more screen time to prove he’s stronger than the other vampires but I feel like he should have gotten more time on screen. He is the one leading this takeover of this town and if there was a villain of sorts or an entity to really be scared of it’s him but his presence in the film is so minimal that when he comes on screen you don’t care or you care and want to learn more and then he is gone. The humans often were discussing motives and reasoning behind things and it would have been nice to get more info from his perspective about what he really wanted. He has a guy Straker who does his bidding in the day and he gets killed and is just never mentioned again. I get the mysteriousness behind the vampire and building suspense but I feel like they forgot to make the viewer feel like Barlow was important.
The film starts off with a kid getting kidnapped by Straker and being fed to the vampire Barlow. In the kidnapping scene, the lighting looked so weird as if they clearly were not outside. This kind of sets things in motion and has everyone on high alert until people start going missing one by one. It was cool to see how one person’s change can create a domino effect and how you can use the relationships that people have to turn more people.
My favorite part of this movie was Dr. Cody because I felt like she was saying what I was thinking and she was smart. Like in these stressful situations, there are always things people forget but she would be there to remind us that hey it’s getting dark, or hey if that cross starts lighting up while you are tryna save someone, they are already gone. She also added a comedic element to this film and was just overall a great addition to the movie.
Salem’s Lot is a fun movie, but the story spends so much time slowly exploring vampire lore that it seems to forget that you might also need more character development. The movie is a great idea in my mind, but the execution fell apart in some aspects. I do, however, love a horror vampire movie, and it has a great cast.
