#salems lot spoilers

[whumpypepsigal]

'Salem’s Lot (2024): “You all right?”

[creatchie8]

By FAR my favorite line in Salem's Lot 2024 is when Ben is arguing in the church trying to save Susan but Dr. Cody pulls out the stake and Ben goes, "No, are you fucking kidding me?" The way he's just so taken out of it and is truly like, WTF?? This is my second time watching it and both times I CACKLED SO HARD

[m-o-o-n-thatspellsblog]

me waiting for a post credit scene where it shows father callahan inexplicably alive and getting on a bus: 🤡🤡🤡

[petcr3]

we're in the BASEMENT ALREADY???

[lukaskyle]

TJ MIKELOGAN's HALLOWEEN 2024 EVENT Day 7 ‣ Vampires

'SALEM'S LOT 2024, dir. Gary Dauberman

[delopsia]

Please do not repost without credit 📚

[lewmagoo]

hello????

[michaelwheelerdefiodental]

Hawkins🤝Jerusalem's Lot, Season 5 Theory:

To start, Jerusalem's Lot is a town from Stephen King novel, Salem's Lot. It's a peaceful town that had some tragic events on it past, and it's used by a force of evil to do his evil deeds. By this resume, we can notice some similarities with Hawkins from Stranger Things, and now i will go deep into them (i know Salem's Lot came before Stranger Things👌).

Creel House and Marsten House

Murders happened in both of these houses. Hubie Marsten killed his spouse and himself on the Marsten House, later on a vampire named Kurt Balow buyed this house and used it as his base. Henry Creel (Vecna) lived on the Creel House with his parents and sister, after having contact with a evil force from another dimension he decided to kill all of his family.

Both houses are described as having some evil force behind it, even before the main villain starts to live there. The Marsten House was known as house with a malign presence, Hubie Marsten was a suspect from killing 4 teenagers before he killed himself and his wife when he lived there, and if i remember correctly, some people suspected he was possessed, just like what some people said about Henry's father after he was accused of killing his family. The Creel House had a evil presence behind it too, the Mindflayer because he was connected to Henry, and Henry himself after having most control of his powers. For it to be possible to Vecna and the whole Upside Down come to Hawkins it was necessary four kills ,and Henry tested his powers by killing his family, and as it was mentioned Hubie Marsten killed 4 teenagers years before Kurt Barlow came to Salem's Lot, and it was mentioned in the books that after he killed his family the house spiritual presence got way worse.

The Henchmans, The Lower Vampires, and The Flayed:

Approximately 30 years after both accidents, an evil force used each house as their bases. Kurt Barlow alongside with his henchman Richard Straker used the Marsten House to hid himself from the sunlight, while he killed and devoured some people and transformed others. Vecna and the Mindflayer had two henchmans, Will on season 2 and Billy on season 3. Billy as a henchman was the most similar to Richard, both were charming and strong. They were necessary to make sacrifices to their masters, so they could walk freely on the human world/town. Richard killed a little boy as a offer to make it possible to Kurt Barlow walk freely on Salem's Lot, Billy kidnapped and give people for the Mindflayer/Henry to possess, and helped them to track Eleven and took her power, so they could finally open gates. At the end both of them died by the hand of their masters for not having no use for them anymore.

The Vampires and The Flayed are people with a artificial charisma, even though they're being kind you can see their true intention, because they have weird manners. They seem to only obey their master and nobody else, both are sadistics and like to play with the emotions of people they're hunting.

The Town Folks

Both towns are apparently good to live and with respectful citizens, but it is a lie. On the chapters about the city in Salem's Lot book it's shows that these people hide their sins and bruises using a facade that only show their acceptable side, the same as Hawkins citizens as it's showed to us after Vecna use his power to enter peoples minds. Couples that are falling apart, husbands that beat their wifes, parents that don't love their children and punish them, resentful old people that enjoy the suffering of others.

Kurt Barlow and Henry Creel (Season 5 Speculation)

(Kurt Barlow artwork by devilkais on deviantart)

Excluding the famous horrific look of Kurt Barlow on the movies, in the books he is described as a charming and hot old man using an elegant suit, just like Henry on these paparazzi pics from season 5.

Kurt Barlow uses his looks and powers to lure people, Henry uses his powers to lure people too, and now with this new look it's already confirmed that he will lure Holly, and i find it believable that he will use it with others citizens of Hawkins, it would be a waste to only use it with Holly. After lure these people, he could infect them with some Upside Down virus that probably came from those weird plants from the BTS pics. There's paparazzi pics of a women with something inside her head, like a creature, it could be the work of Henry. In Salem's Lot book, the city would get progressively empty, nobody in the streets, "people" only appeared by night to hunt humans, and it's already known that there will be kids being captured by the military, so the rest of the adults being captured and infected by Henry until there's almost no human in the town streets would be pretty much probable.

Henry could convince people that aren't infected yet that all of this is the gang fault, and focus mainly on blaming all of this on Will.

How this would contribute to the season plot

It's already clear that this season will have a lot of religious themes, and what is more dangerous than a charismatic and good looking guy using this to convince people from a small town to chase their outcast citizens? It already happened on season 4 with Jason, a blonde good looking guy that has his ways with words, putting all the town against Eddie and The Hellfire Club. Just imagine a scene where the gang is trying to make the church people understand that Will and themselves aren't the bad guys and suddenly Henry came from the front door and make everybody believe they are in fact the bad guys.

When we think about this as the weird kids being chased by crazy religious people it is already scary, but imagine what is about to happen after they discover about Will and Robin little secret, or even about Vickie or Mike, it can be a very good plot about the hate and intolerance those people had and still has for gay people. For me it would be very dissapoint if they don't use Henry influence to fuck with all these people heads.

[bobfloydsbabe]

I need Ben Mears to fuck me senseless while I pull his hair

[whumpypepsigal]

'Salem’s Lot (2024): “Run, Mark, run!”

[collinsportmaine]

I finally saw the new version of Salem’s Lot (available on Max). Overall, I liked it. Even tho it departs the most from the original book, it may be the best of the three adaptations.

The cast was good. I particularly liked Louis Pullman as Ben Mears. David Soul in the 1979 TV original had too much of an action hero vibe (when cast, he had just come off a 4 year stint on Starsky and Hutch). Rob Lowe in the 2004 remake was too much of a pretty boy. Louis Pullman came across as an Everyman who fell into a nightmare.

I also liked school teacher Matthew Burke, played by Bill Camp. His death came as a bit of a shock but of course he decided to go to the haunted house alone, just before sunset!

I thought Jordan Preston Carter as junior vampire hunter Mark Petrie was terrific. He had a kid vibe but probably somewhere on the autism spectrum. I loved that he was so determined to keep his promise to Danny Glick.

In the original novel, the vampire Barlow is initially described as charming, distinguished but unsettling. In other words a modern day Dracula. I was glad the 2024 version followed the lead of the 1979 version, making Barlow a creepy Nosferatu style vampire. Although 1979’s Reggie Nalter is more memorable that Alexander Ward’s 2024 version. Was Ward’s appearance enhanced with CGI?

Speaking of vampires, the vampire transformation were done well. I particularly liked Majorie Glick in the hospital morgue. First one shoe falls off, then an arm drops down, and she sits up eerily. And we don’t see what she looks like - we just see the sheet pulled tight against her face and fangs.

Although the glowing crosses were a bit over the top, the effect looked cool and I liked how violently the vampires were thrown back when confronted with one.

One of the biggest changes from the novel was the climax at the drive-in movie theater. With all the townspeople sleeping during the day in the trunks of their cars, it was a good way to get them all together in one place. In the novel Mike and Mark had to go house to house to flush them out… then later burn Salem’s Lot down to make sure they got all of them.

Despite my praise, I can see why the movie was delayed and not released in theaters. With no “name” stars it seemed to fit better in a TV format. This version definitely felt like it would have been rated PG13. Frankly the 2024 Salems Lot needed more blood… lots more blood.

[thebusytypewriter]

Arin: "I heard there's two main characters. One's a girl, one's a boy."

Me: uh oh

Arin: "Who do you want?"

Dan: "Maybe I'll be the male protagonist."

Me: UH OH

...

Kaede: "I'm the protagonist of this crazy story."

Dan: "Nevermind, I guess there's one protagonist."

Me: all clear :)

[ulfhrafnx]

the sexual tension between myself and the glow in the dark eyes of the vampires in the new sale.m’s l.ot movie.

[lukaskyle]

'SALEM'S LOT (2024) dir. Gary Dauberman

[delopsia]

Oh, what I'd give to knock on a door and for him to open it 😔 Please do not repost without credit 💡

[lewmagoo]

spoiler-y thoughts ahead

i loved salem’s lot but it suffered because they cut out some crucial parts due to time constraints and other factors (and perhaps questionable creative choices lmao) i’m sure. it would have been much better as a miniseries! here are some things i really missed:

they should have actually shown ben writing. all we got was him saying “i’m a writer” and nothing more. at least one or two scenes of him writing on his typewriter would’ve been nice.

along that same vein i would’ve liked to see more pushback from the town at his presence. only a couple people were suspicious of him. there needed to be a little bit more tension rising over the stranger in town.

they did not expand enough on him and susan’s romance. it felt like they were just friends instead of love interests. i don’t even think we got a kissing scene? only thing they did was hint at them having sex bc susan was in his room in her bra lol. in the book their romance wasn’t that groundbreaking, and it wasn’t the sole focus, but it was there. i wasn’t expecting it to be the sole focus of the movie either but there should’ve been more than we got.

in the book, matt is one of my favorite characters. i think the casting of bill camp was absolutely perfect for him! but once again they did not expand on him much. his ending sort of just fell flat, when it could have had a much more emotional impact. i will say, i did love the scene where he meets his end, barlow turning on the light behind him was so good.

straker was nowhere near as threatening of a presence as he needed to be. the actor didn’t have much to work with as it was, but he just felt like a random side character rather than barlow’s faithful servant. the scene of him going after ralphie was great though, it’s one of the best scenes in the entire movie i think

i also wish they would have emphasized ben’s connection to the marsten house. they didn’t explain why he was interested in renting it so it just felt super random that he would inquire about it at the real estate office. i was hoping we’d get flashbacks to him going inside it as a kid and why he was traumatized by it. but alas.

still speaking of ben, i didn’t mind that they changed his backstory to him losing his parents in an accident instead of his wife, however, i think him being a widower added more depth to his character in the book. it’s not that much of an issue, because i understand why they changed it, it works better in the film. however i do wish there had been at least a flashback or two of him losing his parents because it would have added more to his character.

father callahan’s end was nowhere near as intense as it should have been. like he was dead in all of five seconds. some more psychological torture and taunting from barlow would have been cool, but alas.

and then there’s the ending. i loved the drive in scene, it was so good. however it felt very anticlimactic. which, to be fair, the book’s ending was also anticlimactic. i think barlow’s death was not nearly as dramatic as it should have been. even the book made more of a show out of it than the movie did. he at least should have screamed and crumpled to dust or something, lmaooo.

the actors were also very limited in what they were given to work with. i didn’t find myself connected to any of them. i wasn’t really emotional over anyone’s deaths. i didn’t know anything about them other than the fact that they were fighting vampires, and therefore i had no stakes (no pun intended) in any of them. i will say i did enjoy lewis and makenzie’s chemistry! they were fun to watch.

all in all, i really did enjoy this movie, and i can see myself starting a tradition of rewatching it every october. but it’s just a shame that first of all, the movie was shelved for so long, and the creative minds behind it were limited by the running time and other factors.