There is, finally, a trailer for Max's Salem's Lot

It’s been a long road to Salem’s Lot, but there’s finally a trailer for Gary Dauberman’s Stephen King adaptation. The film, which stars Lewis Pullman and Alfre Woodard, was filmed back in 2021. For years, neither King nor even Dauberman knew what was going on with it, but now audiences everywhere will at last be able to watch the film themselves when it streams on Max, starting October 3.   

Per the synopsis, Salem’s Lot follows “Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), a successful writer who moves back to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot to write his next novel, inspired by an experience he had in an abandoned house in the town. His arrival coincides with the purchase of the house by Kurt Barlow (William Sadler), an ancient vampire using his human familiar Richard Straker (Pilou Asbæk) to turn the citizens of the town. As more and more locals are transformed into vampires, Mears and his human allies are trapped in a fight for their lives.” The film also stars Makenzie Leigh as Ben’s love interest Susan Norton; Bill Camp as high school teacher Matthew Burke; Woodard as Dr. Cody; Spencer Treat Clark as gravedigger Mike Ryerson; and John Benjamin Hickey as the town priest Father Callahan.

The trailer is appropriately spooky—and indeed, so far “not embarrassing,” as King previously noted.  The vamps’ haunting, glowing eyes, a lasting image of the 1979 miniseries, are preserved here, but the trailer also hints at brand-new scares. You can’t go wrong with the creepy echo of a child’s laugh! Why this movie is being rebranded as a “streaming original” rather than theatrical release is anyone’s guess, especially since it flies in the face of Warner Bros. Discovery’s stated goal to “fully embrace theatrical.” But at least it’s getting released at all instead of written off for taxes or memory holed out of malice, so horror fans and King aficionados can enjoy something new for Halloween.