The new movie will give you nightmares

Salem Plot is one of Stephen King’s best books, and while the 1979 TV adaptation of Tobe Hooper’s miniseries is uneven, it does include one scene – of a young vampire trying to get into a friend’s house through a second-story bedroom window – that’s the stuff of nightmares. Writer-director Gary Dauberman’s new feature-length version of King’s classic story revives this iconic moment to lesser effect, if only because it lacks the eerie unnaturalness that made it so memorable. In most other respects, however, his film is a reasonably faithful and effective thriller, light, with no legitimate scares, but nuanced and unnerving.

Despite sitting on the shelf for two years (for reasons that make no sense considering the finished product), Salem Plotwhich will premiere on October 3 on the Max platform, is a sure fear of the town of Jerusalem’s Lot in Maine, whose streets are dominated by the terrifying gothic Marsten House. In 1976, two men carry a huge chest into a cobwebbed basement on behalf of Richard Straker (Pilou Asbæk), a newly arrived businessman opening an antiques shop. These terrified people will never learn the true contents of this box, but it is no secret that it contains Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward), a sinister vampire who, as it turns out, closely resembles Barlow Hooper’s predecessor: a pale, bald head, a mouth full of fangs, long, slender fingers with pointed nails, and eyes that glow in the dark.

Straker and Barlow’s arrival in “The Lot” coincides with the return of Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), a writer who lived there until he was nine. Ben has come to gather information about his new novel, although, as with his story, this motivation is weaker in Dauberman’s film than in King’s original. This condensation happens all the time Salem Plotand yet the director did a solid job of evoking the look and feel of sleepy 1970s New England towns, where milk was delivered to your door and children on bikes tossed newspapers onto front lawns. While it would be nice if everyone had not-so-modern hairstyles, the proceedings are appropriately inviting, and the bookendable segments of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” create a chilling and enveloping mood.

While looking for a room to rent, Ben meets real estate agency secretary Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), with whom he immediately develops a spark, as well as many other residents of the Lot. This includes elementary school teacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp), who is introduced overseeing a fight involving newcomer to town Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), who earns the respect and friendship of brothers Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) and Ralph Glick (Cade Woodward) when he resists a tyrant.

All the time Salem Plotthey are joined by additional characters, including Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodward), Sheriff Gillespie (William Sadler), and Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey), whose faith is almost as shaky as his hands when he goes too long without a glass of water. With the same efficiency that characterizes his plotting, Dauberman defines all of these players with short, bold brushstrokes, making them believable personalities rather than just stock types.

Straker is Barlow’s human “familiar” (i.e. servant), and he begins the process of restoring his master’s full power by kidnapping Ralph in a beautiful forest sequence of striking silhouettes against a darkening background. Dauberman and cinematographer Michael Burgess constantly find stylish ways to shoot their material (e.g. the quick shot from the opening Bible to the inside of a red jelly sandwich), using fog, mirrors and winding transitions to heighten the tension. The director tries to pace his chaos as patiently as possible, packing multiple stories into 113 minutes, and if this process comes at the expense of actual terror – and dilutes the arc of their despair – it also prevents things from dragging on.

Ralph’s disappearance is followed by the death of his sibling Danny. However, as gravedigger Mike Ryerson (Spencer Treat Clark) discovers, Danny is not so much dead as undead. One by one, Barlow and Straker turn the inhabitants of Lot into their blood-sucking minions, leaving Ben and his remaining survivors – initially Susan, Matthew, Dr. Cody, Father Callahan and Mark – to find a way to deal with this supernatural threat.

Salem Plot exists in a world where people know about vampires, so crucifixes, holy water and stakes quickly become weapons. Unfortunately, these instruments are not enough to prevent many of them from dying at the hands of Barlow and his hungry followers, who stalk Ben outside the local church and surround Mark in his treehouse, begging for the boy to “come play.”

These fatalities should have hit Ben and Mark much harder than they did here Salem Plot— a byproduct of the fact that Dauberman has no time to dwell on the emotional turmoil and sadness of his characters. This makes the movie more than a little shallow. Still, it makes up for it (somewhat) with ominous set pieces, including a finale set in a drive-in theater where the bill advertises a double feature Sinking pool AND Night movementsand where countless dormant cars became coffins for their nocturnal owners. Pullman doesn’t make much of an impression as Ben, but he’s useful enough as a de facto hero. On the other hand, Camp and Woodard are such charismatic and endearing characters that Matthew and Dr. Cody prove to be the most interesting of the many centers of attention in the entire saga.

Salem Plot consistently comes across as an interpretation of King’s volume in SparkNotes, merely hinting at some of its undercurrents, such as the view (expressed by Sheriff Gillespie) that Lot is susceptible to Barlow’s evil because he already has one proverbial foot in the grave. Moreover, perhaps the film’s greatest flaw is that, while failing to pause to breathe and deepen its portrayal of Ben and his compatriots, it fails to deliver a climactic emotional shock. Still, it is a formally elegant affair, full of memorable images and faces, including Barlow, who materializes from the shadows like a demon with red eyes and a jaw capable of expanding to monstrously large sizes. As with many details of the film, it is fascinating and well-constructed, although seen too briefly to leave an indelible mark.