Stephen King's 2024 Vampire Horror Movie Is Blowing Up On Max

Stephen King's "Salem's Lot," a tale of vampires invading a small New England town, is beloved by horror fans. A mash-up of "Dracula" and "Peyton Place," it was the second novel King published, and when people look back at the master of horror's bibliography, they often hold "Salem's Lot" in high regard (I included it among my round-up of the 10 Best Stephen King novels right here). King's novel was adapted as a TV miniseries twice: once in 1979, helmed by "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" mastermind Tobe Hooper, and again in 2004 on TNT. The Hooper version is a favorite of genre fans, while most people dislike the TNT adaptation (although I'll be brave and admit I think it's not so bad!). 

After only appearing in TV form for so many years, a feature film adaptation of "Salem's Lot" was finally announced in 2019, with "Annabelle Comes Home" filmmaker Gary Dauberman tasked to write and direct the movie. When the project was announced, Stephen King movies were experiencing a bit of a renaissance, thanks to the box office success of 2017's "It" (a King film Dauberman co-wrote). Unfortunately, the film had a rough road to the screen, and never made it to theaters. After initially being set for theatrical release in 2022, Warner Bros. pushed the film to 2023, then removed it from their release calendar entirely. Then, earlier this year, WB revealed the movie would skip theaters entirely and go directly to Max. Now, the film version of "Salem's Lot" is finally streaming on Max, and despite not-so-great reviews, it's proving to be a hit for the streaming service. 

I'm a big Stephen King nerd, so I was annoyed when Warner Bros. kept delaying the movie, and I was excited to finally see it. Sadly, the film itself left me pretty cold. As I wrote in my review, the film feels rushed and lacks the character development that's key to making a Stephen King story work. Dauberman has admitted in interviews that the adaptation had a much longer original cut, so I'm sure that has something to do with the rushed nature of the final film. 

While reviews for "Salem's Lot" might not be great, viewers are still checking the movie out. According to Flix Patrol, a site that monitors streaming data, "Salem's Lot" is the number 2 most popular movie on HBO in the United States (coming in at number 1 is the thriller "Caddo Lake"). This begs the question: if "Salem's Lot" is a hit on Max, would it have been a hit in theaters, too? That's really hard to say. While I am all for the theatrical experience, people these days are more inclined to watch something at home than they are to venture out to a movie theater. Watching "Salem's Lot" from the comfort of you couch is a lot easier (and cheaper) than heading to the multiplex. So just because "Salem's Lot" is doing well on streaming doesn't mean it would pop off the same way on the big screen.