Salem’s Lot Star Teases the Terror of New Stephen King Adaptation

The Stephen King novel ‘Salem’s Lot was brought to life as a two-part event back in 1979, with filmmaker Gary Dauberman recently helming a new take on the material starring Lewis Pullman. The actor recently weighed in on what fans can expect from the experience, teasing that Dauberman was less interested in delivering fans jump scares that evoke an immediate response and then get over and more interested in delivering long-lasting imagery that will haunt a viewer’s memory for much longer than they anticipated. The new Salem’s Lot doesn’t currently have a release date.

“It’s a scary thing doing these remakes, man. It’s like, this and [Top Gun: Maverick], there’s such pressure, it’s a hard concoction to conjure up to make it successful,” Pullman recalled to ComicBook.com. “But 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 continued, “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.”

The film was initially slated to premiere in theaters last year, only to get delayed to early next year, though the film has since been pulled from the Warner Bros. release schedule.

Stephen King’s website describes the story, “Author Ben Mears returns to ‘Salem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead.”

In the meantime, audiences can see Pullman in Top Gun: Maverick.

In the film, “After more than 30 years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. Training a detachment of graduates for a special assignment, Maverick must confront the ghosts of his past and his deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who choose to fly it.”

Top Gun: Maverick is out now on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD. Stay tuned for details on the release of Salem’s Lot.

Are you looking forward to the new adaptation? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!