Stephen King has unleashed all kinds of things on us in his books: horror clowns, zombie cats, rabid Saint Bernards – and of course classic vampires, for example in ‘Salem Must Burn’. The novel was first adapted into a film in 1979 by none other than Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper. After a new adaptation in 2004 by Mikael Salomon, Gary Dauberman was in the director’s chair for the third time.
And that already in 2021: “Salem’s Lot“, as the book and movie were originally titled, was filmed two years ago in Massachusetts. Gary Dauberman already had experience with Stephen King material: he wrote the script for the mega-successful two-part ‘IT’ and ‘IT Chapter 2’, and then also the script for ‘Salem’. In terms of horror direction, he also had “Annabelle 3” to his name at the time. Because one of the producers brought along the makers of ‘Conjuring’ James Wan brought his horror expertise to the project.
‘Salem Must Burn’ was originally scheduled to launch in 2022
Warner Bros. developed the film for the cinema and planned a release in September 2022. As is known, nothing came of this, nor did a planned release in the spring of 2023. And now, ‘Salem Must Burn’ has completely disappeared from the studio’s theatrical release plan.
Now the industry magazine wants that learned from its sources, that “Salem Must Burn” will no longer be shown in theaters, but will instead be released directly on Warner’s streaming service Max. Information was given that all this back and forth with the film’s release had nothing to do with the quality of the film, but was in response to the actors’ strike currently taking place in Hollywood – Warner needs supplies for the streaming service, but no new content is moving forward at this time.
Also other Warner titles directly available for streaming?
According to this, “Salem Must Burn” is just one of many Warner titles that will therefore be moved from theaters to streaming. However, the Stephen King adaptation’s move to home theaters has not been officially confirmed by Warner – “No decision has yet been made on the film’s future release plans,” the magazine quotes a studio spokesperson.
There is currently no more theatrical release for “Burning Must Salem” in Germany. It remains to be seen if that will change again or if the film will end up on a streaming service in this country.
With ‘Salem Must Burn’, his second published novel after ‘Carrie’, but which he had already written before Stefan King of the Dracula myth. In the novel, a man named Ben Mears (played by Top Gun: Maverick star Lewis Pullman in Dauberman’s film) returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, where he has no fond childhood memories. Now he wants to face his fears there, but he must realize that the horrors of his youth are real: the city is ruled by a vampire…