The new Salem’s Lot is yet another disappointing adaptation of a Stephen King story or novel in a long list of them. I feel more often not they get Stephen King wrong. Many of the reasons are the same for these failures and the most prominent being that they didn’t stay true to the original source material, and where they veered away and did their own thing is where the plot went awry. This is particularly true with the ending of the movie. Spoiler alerts present so if you don’t want to get spoiled skip the next part and for that matter skip the movie. It’s not worth watching.
The folks behind this movie had this brilliant idea that the vampires, including Barlow the head vampire who has been alive for centuries, would all stay in the trunks of cars at a drive in movie theater during the day instead of this massive mansion that could be protected and fortified as is done in the novel. This is stupendously absurd. All it would take is someone to go during the day to the drive in movie theater with a crowbar, pop open the trunks of the cars (including the one Barlow was in), and kill all the vampires. And the brilliant protagonists thought it would be a good idea to this just as the sun was setting. It’s not believable that a vampire could have lived centuries and be so idiotic. In addition, the dialogue and much of the movie was just cheesy. This was a weak adaptation that is not worth your time.
