- Director: Gary Dauberman
- Screenplay: Gary Dauberman
- Cast: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Alfre Woodward, John Benjamin Hickey, Bill Camp, Spencer Treat Clark, William Sadler, Pilou Asbæk
- Cinematography: Michael Burgess
- Editing: Luke Ciarrocchi
- Score: Nathan Barr, Lisbeth Scott
- Genre: Supernatural horror
- Runtime: 113 minutes
A somewhat famous writer, Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), revisits the town in Maine which he grew up in order to spark some inspiration. Jerusalem’s Lot (the ‘Jeru’ having been worn away on the welcome sign) has that quintessential small-town America feel…except there’s a vampire on the loose. Mears and his band of two-dimensional friends have to defeat the bloodsucking beast, which resembles a CGI-ed Nosferatu. Henceforth, any attempt at crafting Mears’ emotional backstory is promptly disregarded in favour of battling vampires instead. The talented Alfre Woodard and Bill Camp, playing the local doctor and school teacher respectively, are wasted – reduced to spouting terrible lines of dialogue like a couple of suckers.
Every single vampire cliché you can think of is thrown around; wooden stakes through the heart, they’re allergic to sunlight, no reflection in the mirror etc.; I lost count of how many times I rolled my eyes. And the obvious jumpscares – even Stevie Wonder could’ve seen them coming.
Curiously, the movie was shot way back in 2021 and went through reshoots and years of postponed potential release dates. Maybe the producers saw the rough cut and thought ‘Oh god it’s so bad but people might forget we’re making it if we never release it.”. Perhaps they were trying to spare us from this cinematic slog. According to director Gary Dauberman, the initial edit lasted three hours before they (thankfully) chopped it down to 113 minutes. Bleeding hell…can you imagine?
I’d consider it to be one of the worst Stephen King book-to-film adaptations I’ve come across. ‘Salem’s Lot? A lot of tripe more like. Fangs for nothing!
My rating: 3 / 10
SilverScreen 