‘Salem’s Lot-2024

Director Gary Dauberman

Starring Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh

Scott’s Review #1,537

Reviewed June 13, 2026

Grade: B-

Another attempt at resurrecting the well-known and scary 1975 Stephen King novel ‘Salem’s Lot results in a mediocre affair.

This is a shame because the novel, as well as Pet Semetary, scared the bejeezus out of me as a nerdy teen craving escapism.

The best ‘revival’ of ‘Salem’s Lot was a wonderful 1979 television miniseries that spanned nearly three hours. It lent credence to delving deeper into the robust and complex characters King created.

For a deep horror extravaganza, this is necessary.

Still, the 2024 offering of ‘Salem’s Lot is a watered-down approach to the original story, which it pairs with repeating glossy elements that were once extremely frightening and imaginative.

There’s little to no character development and a tepid romantic storyline that ultimately goes nowhere.

Overall, Stephen King doesn’t have a whole lot of luck with big-screen adaptations of his works. Carrie (1976) and The Shining (1980) are the two best, in my opinion.

Author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) returns to his childhood home, Jerusalem’s Lot (or Salem’s Lot), in search of inspiration for his next book, only to discover that his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire.

Gradually, most of the townspeople succumb to vampirism, explained later, because the town has no life anyway.

At the same time, Ben, his burgeoning love interest, Susan (Mackenzie Leigh), Doctor Cody (Alfre Woodard), schoolteacher Mark (Bill Camp), and eleven-year-old Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) must race against time to stop the madness from overtaking their beloved town.

As with many modern horror films, the first half of ‘Salem’s Lot is better than the second.

Pullman, son of famous actor Bill Pullman, and facially a dead ringer, is compelling in the lead role. An intelligent author, he returns to his hometown for inspiration, also recalling a horrific accident that killed both his parents.

He meets several interesting, on the surface anyway, characters, like the schoolteacher, the sheriff, and Susan, who, despite reading his last novel, doesn’t realize at first that Ben is the author.

Ben and Susan have a potential romance and a cool banter that envelops the audience. But that’s as far as we get with the pairing.

It’s peculiar that director Gary Dauberman keeps the time period in the mid-1970s for the automobiles featured, but little else is reminiscent of fifty years ago.

The characters all look very modern, from the hairstyles to the clothes, especially given the addition of a black female doctor and a prominent black family.

Kudos for the diversity, but it’s highly doubtful this would exist in a small rural town in the 1970s, especially not without a redneck or two around to cause chaos.

A fantastic sequence in the novel and miniseries, when pasty-faced schoolkid Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) is sacrificed, and returns to hover outside his pal Mark’s bedroom window, is neither thrilling nor scary. Instead, Mark casually casts Danny aside and runs to tell on him.

The villains also underwhelm.

Straker (Pilou Asbæk), a strange man from somewhere in Europe who opens an antique store in town and moves into the long-abandoned Marsten House, is scarcely featured and certainly not enough to get to know the character at all.

His vampire master, Kurt Barlow, who plans to create a vampire colony, is featured even less. He waits in a coffin in the basement of the house and snarls once or twice.

Nonetheless, the kills are fun if not unsurprising. Once benevolent characters turn into vampires and attempt to bite others.

The wackiest, probably unintentionally, is watching Susan’s mother bite her and later wield a shotgun to shoot anyone who has not turned.

But we don’t feel sorry for the victims because we never really knew them well enough to begin with. The quiet pacing is something the novel and the miniseries did exceptionally well.

By the conclusion, what started as a film with frightening potential turns into cheesy glowing crosses that sometimes work and sometimes don’t, and the character is reduced to saying a prayer in the hopes that the vampire won’t bite her.

‘Salem’s Lot (2024) is a rather tepid film with little to differentiate it from many other genre films and a weak effort in the many incarnations of King’s excellent book.