• Director: Gary Bauderman
• With: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, William Sadler, Jordan Preston Carter, Alfre Woodard, Vill Camp, Spencer Treat Clark, Nicholas Crovetti, John Benjamin Hickey, Pilou Asbæk, Alexander Ward, Debra Christofferson, Cade Woodward
• Music by: Nathan Barr & Lisbeth Scott
• Duration: 1h54
• Studio: New Line Cinema & Atomic Monster
• Platform: HBO Max
• Based on the novel by Stephen King
• Rating: 8,5/10

Review:

Ben Mears, a writer, returns to his hometown Jerusalem’s Lot aka The Lot, where he grew up until his parents died in a car crash. After all these years he returns to discover something has changed. The Marsten House, a huge house on top of the hill looking over town, has been sold after forty years. In the Marsten House, evil lives. It’s previous owner killed his family in it. And now it’s been bought by a new evil… one that might destroy Salem’s Lot!

At the same time Ben Mears is coming to town, a new antique store opens, Barlow and Straker. They are the ones who bought the Marsten House. Straker is the only one ever seen in the store however. He does enlist two guys to get a crate, which they have to drop off in the basement of the Marsten House.

Ben meets Susan Norton while looking for a place to live. While to get to know each other better, a kid from town disappears, Ralphie Glick. He was last with his brother Danny in the woods on their way home when he suddenly went missing. This is the beginning of the end for Salem’s Lot. All of a sudden people start to die and disappear. But at night it seems some of them come back, in a fog, demanding to be let in the houses and rooms of the other residents of The Lot. The streets of The Lot become emptier by the day… night!

It’s up to Ben, Susan, Dr. Cody, father Callahan and a kid named Mark Petrie, to stop the evil in this town. But will they be able to? Or will the night come quicker than they can act?

I may have a very controversial opinion about this movie… I got quite the negative comments and people weren’t very happy about the pace and the storytelling, based on what I saw online and on imdb.com but honestly… in my very personal opinion… this is thé best adaptation of this story so far! Barlow looks scary as hell (and making him talk, if only a few words or sentences, makes him more scary than any of the iterations before this movie!) and placing the story in 1975, the time the book was published, is just perfect for this movie. I loved Alfre Woodard and I think they couldn’t have picked a better actor to play Mark Petrie than Jordan Preston Carter.

So if anyone asks me what I thought about this… I will say, ‘Watch this!’. Last year I saw the 1979 tv miniseries again and although I loved that edition as well, this modern adaptation just feels better, scarier (those eyes!!!) and more up to date. So stop with the negative comments!

We had to wait a while before it was released, I think it should have gotten a fair shot at cinemas, and I had to add another streaming application to be able to watch it (it’s on HBO MAX) but it was worth it! (BTW, for those who loved It and It, Chapter Two… HBO Max is doing a prequel series called It, Welcome to Derry)

I ask of you, give this movie a fair chance… it’s classic Stephen King, with Barlow looking scarier, more menacing but still true to the original adaptation. And beware of those eyes… don’t invite them in your house and keep a crucifix close!

And that scene in the end, in the Drive-In… perfect for this movie! The only thing I thought needed to be done: end it like it ended in the book… burn Salem’s Lot!

One more thing… put the soundtrack by Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott on repeat! It’s earie AF!