Max Salem's Lot Review - Beyond The Stream

Status: Released

Release Date: 2024-10-03

Salem's Lot

Horror

Mystery

What is Salem’s Lot about?

Author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine (also known as Salem’s Lot) for research on his latest book. As a child, he had a bad experience in the long abandoned Marsten House providing inspiration for his new book. After twenty-five years away, much of the town is still the same. However, a strange man, R.T. Straker (Pilou Asbæk) sets up shop in town and moves into the Marsten House.

After a child goes missing, strange things begin to happen. Along with Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard) and Matt Burke (Bill Camp), they discover the residents are being turned into vampires. As a result, he vows to stop the undead and save the town.

Salem’s Lot Review

Having read the novel and watching the 1979 mini-series, I was looking forward to this film. However, I was a little disappointed. The studio took a 3 hour movie and condensed it into almost 2 hours. As a result, a lot of the character development for the towns people was taken away. So when things begin to happen to them, you really didn’t care. On the other hand, I did appreciate that the main vampire was still the same.

At the same time, some of the makeup for the vampires was not good. For example, when Danny Glick goes to the window of Mark Petrie to persuade him to open the window, it almost looks comical. For some reason, the scene reminded me of the 2010 film, Legion. In particular the scene when Tyrese Gibson’s character is attacked by the old lady. After she dies, he says “The bitch just walked on the ceiling. She ain’t staying in her.” I couldn’t help but to image him walking in the room behind Mark and saying, “The boy is floating outside on the second floor. He ain’t coming in here.”

All that aside, the best part of the film is Jordan Preston Carter. I loved his character Mark. My favorite part was when he burst into the church with his backpack full of stakes walking to get holy water. He walked with authority, you could tell he was ready to take care of business. All he needed to say was, “I don’t know about you, but I’m about to take care of some vampire.” Whenever he was on the scene, Carter did a fantastic job.

Other than that, the film was just okay. While there are remnants of the book such as the main vampire, it just fell a little short me. However, it’s still worth watch to see Jordan Preston Carter as Mark Petrie.

Currently, you can Salem’s Lot on Max or Max on Prime Video. In addition, you can watch the original 1979 version and Return to Salem’s Lot on Max as well.