In his novel ‘Salem Must Burn’, bestselling author Stephen King focuses on one of the most classic horror characters of all time: the vampire. Film adaptations of the novel were released in 1979 and 2004, with the next one due in 2022 – but so far, Annabelle 3 director Gary Dauberman’s adaptation has not seen the light of day.
The theatrical release date of “Salem’s Lot“, as the film and book were originally titled, was postponed several times during this period – and ultimately canceled completely. Since then, horror fans have been wondering what will happen to the film, which has been filming since 2021. There was widespread concern, not only among fans but also industry experts, that Warner’s “Burn Must Salem” could suffer a similar fate as, say, “Batgirl,” which was completely trashed by Warner, or currently “Coyote vs. ACME ”, which we will probably never see either.
Stephen King himself was also slowly growing impatient and spoke on X (formerly Twitter) a few weeks ago. and made the question very public: Why is “Salem Must Burn” being withheld? It couldn’t be the quality, he saw the film and it was good. Now we finally have the long-awaited answer as to when and where the vampire horror will be released, at least in the US.
‘Salem Must Burn’ is coming in 2024
Because now a rumor has come true that we reported about at the end of 2023: ‘Salem Must Burn’ will no longer be coming to cinemas in North America, but directly to the streaming service Max and is scheduled for release in 2024. according to industry magazine sources probably in the fourth quarter, so between October and December 2024. But what it will look like in Germany is a completely different story: Max is not available in this country. Either another service will take action, or Warner will give the horror movie an international theatrical release.
Behind “Burn Must Salem” is director Gary Dauberman, a Stephen King expert who co-wrote the scripts for the mega-successful two-part films “IT” and “IT Chapter 2.” He also wrote the script for “Salem”. As a producer he is a genre king James Wan (“Conjuring”, “Saw”) on board.
“Salem Must Burn” is about Ben Mears, who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, where he has terrible memories of his youth. Soon his worst fears come true: the place is controlled by a vampire.
“Top Gun 2” star Lewis Pullman will play the lead role of Ben Mears, while other roles will be taken by Alfre Woodard, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Spencer Treat Clark, Pilou Asbæk and John Benjamin Hickey.