It was barely even 24 hours ago that word filtered out on the current status of the long-delayed Salem’s Lot remake, with the troubled adaptation of the Stephen King classic reportedly in line to skip theaters and debut exclusively on streaming.
While that’s hardly ideal considering that both horror and its iconic creator are more than enough to generate decent business at the box office, it’s a damn sight better than nothing after the do-over was delayed twice and then removed from the calendar altogether to run the risk of falling into purgatory.
Having already been the subject of a miniseries, a sequel to that miniseries, and then a remake that was also a miniseries, heading back to Salem’s Lot yet again realistically needs to avoid the pitfalls of many recent reinventions of established King stories to dodge the familiar traps of returning to the well.
Fortunately for anybody who remains on the fence about whether or not it justifies its existence, the man himself has come forward to pass judgement.
King does admit that he isn’t entirely won over by the deviations from the source material, but at least he isn’t actively disavowing it, either.
In even higher praise, King notes that Gary Dauberman has crafted one scene in particular that the titan of terror deems worthy of being comparable to John Carpenter in his prime, which is quite the endorsement.
Of course, King gave a thumbs-up to Pet Sematary: Bloodlines and that turned out to be one of the worst-reviewed takes on his back catalogue ever, so maybe it’s best to reserve judgement on Salem’s Lot until it gets a release date and then meets it.