Salem’s Lot Actor Teases Upcoming Stephen King Max Adaptation
A lot is coming to Max in October for audiences to sink their teeth into, but the latest feature-length adaptation of Stephen King’s beloved novel, Salem’s Lot, is certainly at the top. The movie has been in the works for more than four years, with director Gary Dauberman attached at the helm. Now, one of the film’s stars, Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick), is breaking down the leader’s approach to the story, explaining that the filmmaker focused on the multitude of layers that went into driving the horrific story home.
Horror In A Small Town
Commenting on the “macro sociopolitical themes” found in Stephen King’s book of the same name, Lewis Pullman explained to Entertainment Weekly that Dauberman’s approach “was almost like, this is not a horror movie. This is a movie about a small town in America where something horrific happens.” As anyone who has read Salem’s Lot will know, the author spends plenty of time focusing on the quiet lives of the town’s residents before fully digging into the brutal terror that lies in the dark.
King has always had a knack for drawing readers into the personalities of his characters, but Salem’s Lot is on a completely different level. One could compare it to the way George R.R. Martin tells his story in the collection known as A Song of Ice and Fire, where he dedicates each chapter to a different character’s perspective. Through this, readers – or, in the case of the movie, viewers – really get to know every member of the community living in Jerusalem’s Lot.
A Different Take On Vampires
Lewis Pullman also teases the vampire aspect of Gary Dauberman’s take on Salem’s Lot, adding that the director is “trying to also rekindle the fire of mystique about vampires.” Pointing to modern culture and the way that we think of the bloodsucking undead these days, he continued, “They’ve shifted in many different ways over the last couple of decades in terms of pop culture. I think Gary really wanted to return back to this very mysterious, almost mythological lens on them.”
A Writer In Search Of Inspiration
In Salem’s Lot, Lewis Pullman stars as Ben Mears, a writer who returns to the town where he spent a solid chunk of his childhood, searching for some inspiration from a house where a traumatic event occurred. In a small town like the Lot, Ben’s return doesn’t go unnoticed, but he’s not the only fresh face drawing attention. Two strange men have blown into the village and settled inside the old spooky house on top of the hill.
Strange Men In A Strange Town
While one of the men, Richard Striker (Pilou Asbæk), can be seen tending to the pair’s newly opened antique shop, the other, Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward), is only a name that the people of Salem’s Lot can’t put a face to. When folks from the town begin to go missing one by one, it’s clear that there’s something sinister at play. With the help of a ragtag group of community members, Ben Mears strikes out to stop the monsters before they devour the entire village.
Salem’s Lot Is Finally On Its Way
Salem’s Lot has been in production hell since filming wrapped more than two years ago. The horror flick was initially set for a release in September 2022 before bouncing further in the future to April 2023. After losing its release date to Evil Dead Rise, the production set its sights on an October 2023 drop, with Warner Bros. moving it from the big screen to its streamer service, Max.
Then, the discussion about Salem’s Lot went almost as quiet as the titular town, with its release date coming and going and still no premiere. Finally, last spring, Max confirmed that the movie would eventually land on the platform, with a solidified date of October 3 finally set.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
