Lengthy earlier than “True Blood” or “Twilight” introduced vampires to small-town America, horror author Stephen King imagined the creatures invading his yard in rural Maine (technically, a fictional place referred to as Jerusalem’s Lot). Till then, blood-sucking bat-men had been one thing solely Europeans needed to fear about, as Dracula and his castle-dwelling kin preyed on hapless villagers half a world away. Then got here “’Salem’s Lot,” King’s second novel by which the person who’d made witches a modern-day concern with “Carrie” requested American readers: What if an outbreak of vampirism struck your group? A tepid new (technically, two years delayed) characteristic model returns to that query a half-century later, providing flashes of fashion and a extra satisfying finale in an in any other case weak tackle its dated supply materials.
Whereas King gave the impression to be kicking one other stuffy outdated style into the current, writer-director Gary Dauberman’s retro-minded adaptation goes in the other way, embracing the pageboy haircuts, polyester-blend duds and don’t-trust-anyone paranoia of that period. The movie takes place in 1975, the identical yr “’Salem’s Lot” was printed. You’ll be able to guestimate the interval from the film titles posted on the native drive-in theater marquee — “The Drowning Pool” and “Night time Strikes” — and the basic Gordon Lightfoot ditty, whose lyrics now function a nocturnal warning.
