Stephen King has lots of pleasant things to say about the new Salem’s Lot. Unfortunately, it’s still unclear when the rest of us will get to see it.
You may have read stories about Warner Bros’ troubled new adaptation of the vampire horror Salem’s Lot. It was only yesterday (on the 1st November, date fans) that we learned that its studio is even thinking about ditching plans to screen the film in cinemas.
The new Salem’s Lot has one vocal supporter, though, and that’s none other than Stephen King himself – author of the original 1975 novel.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), King expressed his admiration for the film, writing, “The Warner Bros remake of Salem’s Lot, currently shelved, is muscular and involving.”
He describes the film as having “the feel of ‘Old Hollywood’, when a film was given chance to draw a breath before getting to business. When attention spans were longer, in other words.”
Follow-up tweets continued to heap praise on the film. Although King wrote that “there are diversions from the book I don’t agree with,” he added that it was “on the whole, faithful.”
He was particularly keen on a scene on involving the character Danny Glick (played by Nicholas Crovetti in the new film) and a sequence in a hospital in which he is seen “trying to claw down a blood bag.”
“The Glick scene could have been directed by John Carpenter in his prime,” King wrote in a third tweet. Praise indeed.
The use of the phrase ‘currently shelved’ is an interesting one, given what’s publicly known at present. Although there was the report that Salem’s Lot might skip cinemas – and presumably appear on the company’s streaming platform, MAX, instead – this is the first suggestion we’ve seen that Warner Bros has considered abandoning its release altogether. Does King know something industry outsiders don’t, or is he simply mistaken?
Whatever the truth is, King’s enthusiasm for the film will surely count for something. Famously vocal when an adaptation of his work doesn’t meet his approval – just look at his reaction to Stanley Kubrick’s take on The Shining – King’s tweets may help the troubled Salem’s Lot’s fortunes at least a little.
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