Summary
- Warner Bros. Discovery announces Salem’s Lot will stream on Max this October after removal from theatrical release.
- Salem’s Lot hoped to replicate the success of the It franchise, with Gary Dauberman writing and directing the remake.
- Stephen King’s 1975 novel adaptation stars Lewis Pullman and revolves around a writer discovering vampires in his hometown.
The mystery of when we will see Gary Dauberman’s take on Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot has finally moved a step closer to being solved. After being removed from its slated theatrical release back in 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery announced in March this year that the film would instead be released as a Max exclusive. Now, despite some whispers that the new movie could still end up heading to cinemas, it has been revealed that it will now stream on Max this October.
Salem’s Lot was originally positioned by New Line/Warner Bros. to be a big horror player in the same way that the It franchise was a few years ago. That series cleared $1.1 billion across two entries, adapting King’s 1986 novel for the second time following the 1990 TV miniseries. The studio even brought on the co-writer of those films, Gary Dauberman, to pen, direct, and produce Salem’s Lot, likely hoping to achieve similar success.
Following WBD’s CEO David Zaslav’s comments that the company were looking to move away from streaming exclusives, and were instead focusing on theatrical releases, the decision to allow a big Stephen King movie to skip theaters seemed to be directly contradictory to this strategy.
Salem’s Lot Was Originally Set for a Theatrical Release
Salem’s Lot was originally set to debut during the Labor Day weekend slot of 2022, another space that proved successful for It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two, but it was suddenly pulled from the schedule amid reports that the film needed reshoots. The movie was then moved to April 2023 but was again pushed from that date, in favor of Evil Dead Rise. Following that announcement, the film remained undated until the news that it would be heading straight to streaming.
Related
Salem’s Lot Star Teases Lingering Terror to Come in New Stephen King Adaptation
The new big-screen version of Stephen King’s vampire novel Salem’s Lot is without a release date, but star Lewis Pullman has promised new terror.
Stephen King’s novel was released in 1975, and was previously adapted into a 1979 two-part miniseries directed by Tobe Hooper and a 2004 television miniseries directed by Mikael Solomon. The novel follows a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem’s Lot in Maine to discover that the residents are turning into vampires. When the 1979 miniseries premiered on CBS, it received positive reviews and gained a considerable cult following over the years. The movie’s iteration of the fearsome Mr. Barlow went on to become an iconic template for several future movie vampires.
The premise of the new film remains faithful to the story as it has been told before, with Ben Mears returning to his childhood home to find it being preyed upon by a vampire. This leads him to band together with a group of people in town to fight against it. The film stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbaek, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler.
