Stephen King (And His Fans) Want to Know Why the New “Salem’s Lot” Hasn’t Been Released
Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot reboot isn’t coming out anytime soon, and King (and his fans) want to know why.
Why are we in the dark about this made-in-Massachusetts vampire movie?
(“Salem’s Lot” was filmed in Boston, Clinton, Ipswich, Princeton, and Sterling from September to December 2021, with post-production continuing into early 2022.)
First of all, I am the Annie Wilkes of Stephen King fans. Not the hobbling type, more like the #1 fan type.
The reason? I was born and bred on those horror stories, thanks to the questionable judgement of my mother, one Beverly Beckham.
Instead of reading us Bread and Jam with Frances, she opted for Stephen King’s “Night Shift.” And as the old saying goes, if you give a mouse Stephen King’s “Night Shift”, they’re going to want to read “The Stand”, “Carrie” and “It.”
I devoured the Maine-native’s books from adolescence on.
The film adaptations are hit or miss. “Shawshank Redemption”, “Stand By Me” and “Misery” are amazing. “Pet Sematary” and “Children of the Corn” – not so much.
But the OG “Salem’s Lot’ made-for-tv movie?
It MESSED ME UP. (In a good way.)
It was 1979. I was 7. And my Stephen-King crazed mother made the popcorn and we sat and watched this LITERAL horror show.
From RottenTomatoes.com:
“Based on the Stephen King novel, Ben Mears (David Soul) has returned to his hometown of Salem’s Lot to write a book about the supposedly haunted Marsten House that resides on a hill overlooking the small town. But when people around the Marsten House start dying mysteriously, Mears discovers that the owner of the mansion is actually a vampire who is turning them into an army of undead slaves.”
Let’s just say, things get wild. There’s creepy kids floating outside windows, scratching on the screens, asking to come in. I think I asked my parents to board up my windows.
ANYWAY. What is happening to Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot reboot?
Warner Bros. remade the thing and won’t release it, even though it was finished in 2021. This could be bad news for King, though, because the culprit here is Warner Brothers. They’ve already shelved two major films that were completely finished. “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs. Acme” and took tax write-offs.
Stephen King, however, is not happy.
In a Tweet, he described it as, quote, “Old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff.”
Between you and me, Twitter, I've seen the new SALEM'S LOT and it's quite good. Old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff. Not sure why WB is holding it back; not like it's embarrassing, or anything. Who knows. I just write the fucking things.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 19, 2024
Who is in the remake?
From Boston.com:
“Directed by Gary Dauberman (“It”), “Salem’s Lot” hews closely to the plot of King’s novel, following a writer named Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman, “Top Gun: Maverick”) who discovers that the residents of his childhood hometown (the fictional Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine) are turning into vampires.
Along with Pullman, “Salem’s Lot” co-stars Pilou Asbæk (“Game of Thrones”), Alfre Woodard (“12 Years A Slave”), Spencer Treat Clark (“Mystic River”), and Massachusetts native Bill Camp (“Joker”).”