New Salem's Lot movie demoted to streaming

The new version of Salem's Lot that was supposed to have a theatrical release is going straight to Max instead.... it will be streaming later this year (probably around Halloween)

Ive never seen the original so I guess Ill have to do that before seeing the new one

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It's out now if anyone wants to punish themselves. I watched it today. My review:

This feels like a bad tv movie. It looks cheap and ugly. Lewis Pullman falls flat in his performance, but that may be more to do with the way the character is written. Most of the characters are underdeveloped here and the actors don't have much to work with. Alfre Woodard does a decent job with her character and gives the best performance in the film. This isn't very enteraining or fun, although there are a couple cool looking moments.

For those interested, this is getting a cinema release here in the UK. October 11th I believe.

The WB machinery seems to be cranking out cinematic garbage with increasingly frightening regularity. That alone is way scarier than anything in this so-called movie, which went straight to streaming despite having once been scheduled for a theatrical release.

The 2-hour version that was unceremoniously dumped to streaming is reportedly a heavily edited cut of a much longer 3-hour version. It's hard to imagine what, if anything, could have been improved by an extra hour of material, given the available evidence.

The movie fails to be at all scary, despite having a pretty good and charismatic cast headed by Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh and Alfre Woodard, and some good locations (much of it was reportedly filmed in Ipswich, Massachusetts).

Don't be surprised if WB eventually coughs up a 3-hour version of this, should the present cut draw up even a teensy bit of interest. But also, don't expect it to be any good.

i guess i won't waste my time

Apparently it has been released theatrically in Ireland and England due to the fact Residents of the UK do not have access to Max due to due existing agreements inked between Warner Bros. and Sky ("the exclusive distributor of most HBO content" in the UK) that don't expire until late 2025