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Review of Stephen King's latest film adaptation, Salem's Lot

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  Hello boys and girls and welcome to the concession stand here on the KB radio network. I am your host Kevin Reed and welcome everybody to the review. of the latest Stephen King adaptation Salem's Lot which is a supernatural horror film and this is a remake I guess of the 1979 miniseries that came out back then uh I I didn't realize this is crazy but I didn't realize I had never seen that miniseries granted it came out the year I was born so obviously I didn't catch it when it was originally broadcast but I thought I had seen it and then I remembered well they made another one uh the return to Salem's lot I think I remember seeing that and I think that's where I got twisted up at but in my mind I'm thinking that I saw the original and so I went into this you know with the mind frame let's see how it stacks up and i think about 10 minutes in i was like wait i didn't see the original it just don't it clicked it was like you didn't you didn't see it kevin and so i went into this pretty blind and that's good in a lot of cases because your expectations aren't high you know you're going into it with fresh eyes in a fresh uh perspective you know don't have this grandiose soul uh performance that uh a new actor has to live up to and so on and so forth so it's good to go into things as if it's fresh brand new this film stars lewis pullman who is the son of bill pullman if you don't know who bill pullman is he's been in a slew of films in his career but one of the most notable uh roles that he had he was the president in independence day Yes, that's Bill Pullman, and this is his son. And you will know it's his son. He looks like him, and in some cases even talks like him. But he stars in this film. Mackenzie Lee, Alfie Woodard, who I didn't even know was in this movie, also stars along with Lewis Pullman. And the plot of Salem's Lot centers on a writer who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot. in search of inspiration only to discover the presence of a vampire yeah people it's october you know what it is it is uh it's horror season uh of course i said stephen king in the first place so you know what it is stephen king adaptations um how many stephen king out of to honest be honest with yourself how many stephen king adaptations can you really sit back and say they got it right not too many and i thought about that too after i finished watching this film i like you know they really haven't knocked them out the park with the exception of a few you know a few of them it it chapter one was pretty good chapter two was all right but it wasn't as good as the first uh there's a couple of them spread out there that i'm blanking on right now but i know it i can say it uh was the best Salem's Lot Salem's Lot wasn't that bad it wasn't that good either but it wasn't that bad this this was a film that was filmed back in 2021 it was announced in 2019 but it was filmed in 2021 and I had to look it up I remember it being announced but I had to look it up after I watched the film because they have a young actor in this film you that's in a tv show that i watch currently and he's older you know he's he's much older well not much but he you know you can tell he's growing he hit puberty and so i'm like is that him how old is this movie i thought this was a new release but yeah i'm like yeah they really they put this on the shelf and when i looked it up like yeah it was filmed in 2021 they had some additional reshoots in 2022 and it's just been sitting there since then for two years and finally uh they released it on max you know it didn't get a theatrical release and my honest opinion that was the right decision uh not because of the quality of the film per se it just it just feels like a tv movie and and to say that this is a remake of a tv miniseries it makes sense um it's it's very tv-ish other than the fact that there's there is blood uh Not so much gore, but there is blood in this film. Some really brutal kills, I would say, involving children, might I add. But it's not a gory, rip people apart type movie. It's none of that. But it just feels TV-ish when you think about the scale of the movie. It just... didn't look the actor but i will say i did enjoy the movie for what it was it wasn't horrible i actually think this film is is very watchable and rewatchable to be honest with you it's it's good the performances are good only one really stood out to me but uh overall it it was it was good performances the story was the story uh you You know a vampire in this small town, you know, it's really not that complicated my problems with the film I Said it was good performances, but they were very mid there was some mid performances here it namely Louis Paul Pullman, I couldn't get his name out Louis Pullman who's the lead here? He plays been the writer here, and just, I couldn't believe him, you know, I just couldn't get behind him as the lead, and, you know, this is nobody's fault but my own, you know, in my mind, I'm thinking ahead, you know, with Lewis Pullman, because he's cast, actually, he's filmed the movie, he plays Century in the MCU, in the upcoming Thunderbolts film. and that's a very deep character century in the comics and so if he's playing him you know in the way he has this kind of laid-back uh demeanor it's not it doesn't really coincide with that character but as far as this character who we're talking about today uh it's still it just it's too laid-back to me and when you think about it you his dad's the same way his dad has the same acting style he doesn't get angry you know you you rarely see bill pullman angry in a film you know he has that same tone same demeanor it's crazy and he passed that on to his son lewis pullman has that same has the same mannerisms uh there are some scenes where he's kind of you know frantic when vampires are chasing him and whatever but other than that it's when he's supposed to be the lead and driving the story along it just didn't really work for me uh but the mvp of this film the one who saves this film for me it as the best performance is a actor named jordan preston carter he plays mark the young kid the young black kid in it And no saying that is weird, but he's the only black kid in the movie. But he is the MVP of this movie. He is Blade. This was like the origin story of Blade. He is Blade. The dude saved the movie. He was so good from beginning to end. I loved his character. His character was the only one that I felt was kind of flushed out. and that was uh uh written well and i i just i gravitated to him you know because he was he was about his business man he stood on business as the kids would stay he he was a beast in this movie loved him he saved the movie for me the vampires in this movie uh they were all right i i love when they were in the background when they were in the shadows you know that was real creepy that was scary i just Standing on the roofs of buildings and stuff like that. That was real creepy. And so they did a good job with that but when they had to confront them uh they didn't really they weren't too much of a threat to me they were kind of vanquished a little easily throughout the film to me and they they ended that i mean it is a stephen king uh film at least uh based on a stephen king uh novel We all know that Stephen King does not know how to end his story. He doesn't know how to end them. And it translates into the films. And the same thing here. They ended it. It was an ending. It was just like a, it just ended, you know? It was like going down a dead-end street, going 100 miles per hour, and you just slammed into the brick wall. That was it. You just trip over, you know? Get out the car. That's it. You know, it was just boom is old and Yeah without spoiling anything yet. I'm trying to dance around it. Yeah the end just I didn't like the I Didn't like how we got a resolution to this Problem and I'll just leave it at that. It was Dumb to me real dumb, but there were some good scenes in this movie. There was some I mean it was set up well the first act and a half were really good really really good and once we started discovering what was going on in the town it got kind of messy and that's very very disappointing because that's the meat of the movie you know but the setup was perfect it just couldn't quite execute it properly but overall i would say it is a watchable film if you're a fan of stephen king films if you're a fan of vampire films this is a good this is a good watch i honestly i honestly do recommend it salem's lot which is currently on max for your viewing pleasure just in time for halloween gets a letter grade of a c plus yeah it was decent slightly above that slightly above but uh you that's just one man's opinion i would love to know yours and have you checked out salem's lot do you remember watching the original i was gonna watch the original and kind of do a double feature uh review and review the original and this uh updated version but the original is close to three and a half hours long because it was a miniseries so i'll i didn't have the time but i do have i do plan to watch it I do plan to go back and watch it and see, compare the two. And now that I've seen this one, I want to see how the 1979 version was. But I would love to know what are your thoughts of Salem's Lot. Email the show, kbradiopodcast at gmail.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. Don't forget to subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel on YouTube and like this. video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iheart radio wherever you are currently listening to the concession stand here on the keb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this review of salem's lot i am so excited this month because it is it is october it's halloween i love horrible and we have a slew of horror movies coming down the pike in the next few weeks and i can't wait want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you all be blessed