26/27
Featured in Half in the Bag: Top 10 Horror Movies (2024) Part 1 (2024)
Tale
An author returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot to find inspiration for his next book, only to discover that the townspeople are being attacked by a bloodthirsty vampire. Writer Gary Dauberman told Den of Geek in June 2019 that his goal with the new version of Salem’s Lot is to make vampires scary again. He wants to get rid of the sexier, more romantic undead that have infected pop culture for the better part of the last quarter century, thanks to everything from Interview with the Vampire to Twilight to The Vampire Diaries. When Ben is reading old newspapers on microfilm in the library the headline is “DUI’s Local Couple”. The sheet was allegedly printed in 1956, at a time when the term “DUI” was not in use..
This new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic “Salem’s Lot” is a missed opportunity
Sundown Written and Performed by Gordon Lightfoot Courtesy of Warner Records Warner Music Group Film & TV licensing. It is now well known that this film was the victim of studio interference, both from WB and producer James Wan. The result is a mediocre, bland and lifeless product King’s strength has always been his focus on the human element – characters and how their relationships shape the narrative and give his stories an emotional core. None of that exists here, from what’s left it seems like director Dauberman had an idea of how to tell the story while staying true to the source material. His directorial approach is simple, almost naive, but it could have worked for such a story.
Cody) delivering a performance above the rest
However, any semblance of life has been snuffed out (probably in the cutting room), meaning that I " not a movie." The pace is so brisk that it becomes annoying, you can’t care about the one-dimensional characters who exist more as narrative devices than real people. The visual style doesn’t help either, as it’s visually reminiscent of The Conjuring series, a slick, sterilized horror aimed at the masses. The few character-driven moments seem crafted for efficiency, with the most basic framing, blocking and composition rather than attempts to convey real emotion, with Alfre Woodard (Dr. Makenzie Leigh (Susan), John Benjamin Hickey (Father Callahan) and Lewis Pullman (Ben Mears), in that order, do their best with the material. The younger actors are fine, but everyone else…
not so much
A performance or two is even laughably bad when the characters seem one-dimensional despite the actors. Despite best efforts, it seems fitting that the main antagonist cannot even be described as such. Its only noticeable feature seems to be “Bleaarrggghh” With virtually no blood or gore and most of the violence happening off-camera out of nowhere, the film devolves into a dull, pointless and pointless “action-packed”. finale (keep an eye out for the day racing along at a pace that matches the plot). The sequence is sub-par CGI and one of the most anticlimactic endings I can remember, but the production values are clearly there.
Looking for something else to add to your watchlist?
Even if it’s never going to be a masterpiece, there was an opportunity to make an emotionally moving film with a topical theme about a small American town’s fear of the “outsider.” you’re left with a muscular, bloated portion of nothing.. See which movies and TV shows are streaming this month.