The New Film Adaptation of Stephen King's SALEM'S LOT Will Include a Change to the Ending
Warner Bros. and New Line's new adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot is a film that I’ve been very excited about since I saw the first trailer at CinemaCon a couple of years ago.
I was really impressed by the footage, but unfortunately, we will not be given the opportunity to watch the movie on the big screen because Warner Bros. opted to release it on Max.
Entertainment Weekly recently did a piece on the film and revealed that the final showdown between Ben Mears and his allies and ancient vampire Kurt Barlow and his undead servants will play out differently than it does in the source material.
It’s explained: "This Salem's Lot also feels, in some ways, like an action movie to both stars. The final sequence, in particular, is a climactic event that plays out at a drive-in movie theater. It's not how King's novel ends, but the scene allowed Lewis Pullman and Makenzie Leigh learn stunts.
“'My body was broken after,' Pullman remarks. 'I really, really enjoyed throwing my body around and learning from our stunt doubles how the whole process works,' Leigh says. 'I had no trial by fire in terms of...' She laughs because, again, she's making puns."
At the end of King’s story, Ben Mears and young Mark Petrie are the only survivors after destroying Barlow in the Marsten House and they drive away as a fire consumes the town.
Now, it still sounds like that will happen based on Leigh‘s “pun”. Now, Leigh's character, Susan Norton, does return as a vampire in the divisive epilogue, she had been "killed-off" prior to these events.
It will be interesting to see how big of a departure the ending will be. But, there’s nothing new about changing things when adapting books into films.
I kinda like the idea of a battle taking place at a drive-in movie! That’s a fun setting!
In case you missed it, you can check out a clip from the movie here.
The story follows author Ben Mears, “a man who returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book only to discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a vampire, leading him to band together with a ragtag group that will fight the evil presence.”
Director Gary Dauberman talked about the film in an interview, saying: “You could do a very dry version of this movie, but that’s just not my personality. It’s trying to ride that wave’s ups and downs.
“You’re having fun with it, and then you can have a scare, and then you’re having fun again. Hopefully it feels like a complete ride at the end.”
When previously talking about the movie, Pullman said: "Gary Dauberman, the director, is really keen on doing justice to the book. But also, the previous adaptation was a two-parter, because it's such a hefty book and there are so many different moving parts and so many characters.
“So there are some parts where Gary had to press and find what was really at the heart of the movie to keep in, but for the most part, he's really true to the book and keeping a lot of the original dialogue in there. He's a Stephen King hound dog so he doesn't wanna do Stephen dirty."
He added: "So I think it's in good hands, Gary's a really smart guy who has a keen eye for things. I think, not just lean on the jump scares, but lean on the more conceptual and visual things that, rather than a shock that fades out of your body in the next five minutes, something that's more visual, like an imprint that burnt into your retinas as a disturbing image that you'll wake up in the middle of the night that you can't shake out of your head."
King has seen the movie, and he was impressed with it, saying: "It feels like a horror movie version of slow-burn movies like THE GREAT ESCAPE. It builds very well.
“There are diversions from the book I don't agree with, but on the whole, faithful. Best scene: Danny Glick in the hospital, trying to claw down a blood bag. The Glick scene could have been directed by John Carpenter in his prime."
I’ve also got a few new photos for you to check out.
