Max has announced that the movie Salem's Lot Mystery, based on the second novel published by Stephen King, will arrive on the platform in October, by the hand of the team responsible for the horror franchises IT and Expediente Warren, just in time for Halloween.

While waiting for viewers to see the result of the adaptation for themselves, they can approach it knowing in advance that it has the approval of the author of the work.

"Between you and me, Twitter, I've seen the new 'Salem's Lot' and it's quite good," wrote Stephen King in February on the X social network. "It's old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff."

Stephen King's Vampires

The story follows Ben Mears, a novelist who 20 years ago entered the Marsten house on a childhood dare and saw something that still haunts his nightmares. Now, as an established writer, he returns to his childhood town seeking inspiration for his next book.

There, in that quiet place where nothing extraordinary ever happened, he discovers that a series of strange events are taking place in his hometown, with its inhabitants starting to disappear in mysterious ways and rumors spreading about the presence of vampires.

It stars Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick) as Ben Mears. The cast also includes Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbaek, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler.

Gary Dauberman, who has a close relationship with Warner Bros. as a writer for the studio's It movies and several Annabelle films, has handled the direction and screenplay.

The Novel's Inspirations

As King has explained, corruption in the U.S. government in the 1970s was an important factor in inspiring this story. "I wrote Salem's Lot Mystery during the period when we learned about Ellsberg's undoing, the White House tapes, suspicions, the ominous relationship between the CIA and Gordon Liddy...," said the author in the essay On Becoming a Brand Name published in 1980.

"This novel has something to do with my own disillusionment and the resulting fear for the future," he pointed out. "In a way, it's more like Invasion of the Body Snatchers than it is like Dracula. The fear here seems to be that the Government has taken over everyone." 

In addition to political disillusionment and Dracula by Bram Stoker, King has also acknowledged and cited influences for writing this work such as The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Peyton Place by Grace Metalious.

Previous adaptations of Salem's Lot include a two-part miniseries by CBS in 1979 and a TNT limited series in 2004 starring Rob Lowe.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence