The horror season is finally here, with the latest version of Stephen King’s 1975 vampire novel salem lot Thanks to the new version on Max, it was finally invited into the family. io9 had the opportunity to interview writer and director Gary Dauberman, a regular in the horror genre with extensive experience. call the universe (especially annabell and nun series), and his screenplay it and Chapter 2——On how he approached the adaptation, his love of drive-in theaters, what he’s working on next, and more.
Cheryl Eddy, io9: salem lot It was originally intended to be released in theaters. From your perspective, what was the journey like for it to finally become a streaming version on Max?
Gary Dauberman: It’s like being a passenger in a car, you’re blindfolded, you don’t know where your destination is, and you feel like you’re going to hit a wall at any moment. And the car was driving on a bumpy road. I’m glad people are finally seeing it [but] That’s how I felt—full of anxiety, fear, and depression.
io9: The original book is the size of a doorstop. What were your criteria when you were deciding which elements to inherit from the book and which to change and make your own?
Dauberman: As you said, the book is very thick for the most part. One of my favorite things about King is how he inhabited his towns, whether it was Castle Rock, Derry or Jerusalem Lot, with very real characters who each felt like they could be the protagonist of another story . I think the biggest challenge I faced was really deciding – “Okay, his story can’t be told. Her story can’t be told. Who do I need to focus on to turn this into a digestible, single piece of entertainment?” It’s about really crystallizing that into a core story element, a core character, while hopefully still feeling like there might be other stories happening off-screen that inform our main storyline.
That’s really the biggest challenge and the same challenge that I have it. But I was gratified to find that audiences were really tolerant of things we couldn’t explore for the most part. So I feel like I have more freedom to do it because itI was so anxious, “Oh my gosh, we didn’t do this, we didn’t do this.” I felt a little more comfortable doing that because I felt like we got away with it it.
io9: Certain elements feel de-emphasized in this version of the story, particularly the history of the Masten House and the backstory of Ben Mills associated with it. Why would you want to withdraw this?
Dauberman: Well, the Masten House is in the movie, so you do have that beacon of evil.
io9: There’s definitely some backstory in the opening credits, with a few little lines here and there. But in the book, there’s a lot more detail about who lived there before and things like that.
Dauberman: So I shot that. I have that. But you have to decide what you want to say. It became, ‘Is this a ghost story or a vampire story?’ It became, ‘Does this muddy the water a little bit for the audience?’ The Masten House plays a big role in Ben’s past , because he had such an experience as a child, he quickly believed in vampires. Part of that history is something that appears in dialogue and movies. But it was one of those – you know, Masten House was a character and one of those characters that I had to weaken a little bit in order to tell other stories.
io9: I’m curious why we didn’t have Ben explain that when he was a kid, he walked into the house and had this experience. That’s one thing I really miss.
Dauberman: Understood. Yes. Yes.
io9: Like it, salem lot It has been adapted before. Have you considered the choices you made with previous adaptations?
Dauberman: I don’t think too much about it because I feel like if everyone listened to the same story – if 10 people listened to the same story, we would get 10 different versions of the story. So I don’t really think about it. I was definitely like, you know, for the ’79 version, I know Pilou [Asbæk, who plays Straker] I really liked that about James Mason, so we repeated that. Apparently Barlow preferred the ’79 version to the book version. So that has an impact, but they don’t realize, “I like the way they’re doing it, so I’m going to do it.” You know, it informs decisions, but it’s not, if that makes sense, All reasons for the decision.
io9: You added a drive-in theater to your production, which I think worked really well. What was the inspiration there?
Dauberman: Well, I do enjoy driving in. My wife is from Portland, Maine, so we spend a lot of time in Maine and there are still things like drive-in theaters. But really, it comes down to trying to find a place – and I really want our leads to be able to face a bunch of vampires. I thought about communities and places where people would gather on the weekends, which in that era wasn’t necessarily church. It was refreshing to go to the drive-in theater to see a movie because it was my church, a movie theater. So I wanted to try this element.
In the book, they go door to door killing vampires. I thought, okay, I have to condense this… it would be cool if they were all together [at this one location] … When I think about that set piece and the sun going down and stuff like that, I get really excited because I’ve never seen anything like that before. That’s how it happened.
io9: Beyond that, can you talk about how your version approaches the 1970s setting?
Dauberman: I love working in the 1970s. I was born in 1977, but I love this atmosphere. I love the texture of it, I love the music of it. I don’t know why, but it felt like a great setting for a horror movie, but it’s also the time period in which the book takes place, which was also very important to me. I have no interest in modern versions of this story. I felt like that was a story that was going to happen. what i want to do [the book’s setting was].
It’s funny because there are places in Maine and places like Maine that still feel like they’re from the ’50s. It feels like whatever time period this town was settled or whatever, it’s frozen in there. I think this is very interesting. That’s why I gave Straker a bit of a ’70s look; it feels a bit removed from the locals and townsfolk who are a bit obsessed with this foreigner.
io9: In any vampire story, the “rules” (if you will) are slightly different. Obviously the book gave you some guidance, but how did you decide what to include in the film, especially the glowing cross? I don’t know if I’ve seen this before.
Dauberman: I haven’t seen that before, which is why I use it. In his book he mentions the color of God’s light on the cross. I was like, this is cool. I try to think about how to tell stories of faith and belief in a visual way. I thought about the light and power that the cross radiates. I don’t want to just, you know, the vampire frown, take a step back, take a step back and not look at the cross, because I feel like we’ve seen this before.
io9: I love how you use comic books. This reminds me a little lost boy.
Dauberman: lost boy Probably my favorite vampire movie. This is one of my favorite horror movies. I absolutely loved it, I loved that it was funny and scary at the same time. I think there are definitely a few areas where this movie was influenced.
io9: after salem lot You have Train to Busan Remastered version and until dawn adapt, and gargoyle Live action series. How does the adaptation inspire you as a writer/filmmaker compared to the original story?
Dauberman: You know, I think about this a lot. I wouldn’t choose one or the other; I absolutely love original stories. But it’s also hard to make original films these days, and I love when people do that. I find myself telling a lot of original stories under the guise of IP, whether annabell story or nun … gargoyle is an animated series that I love and I know people my age love it too. I hope people are the same age as my son, 14, 15, and I hope they enjoy it too. You know, introduce them to the animated series. Also, I’m excited about the live-action version. I think that’s really cool. I think today’s audiences will really enjoy it.
until dawn——I don’t know what I can say until dawn …but this is an original story and is expanding the story and more until dawn. This is part of the larger puzzle of the movie. So it’s not just about making games. We don’t want to do that. If we were just playing games, I’d be like, “I just want to go home and play games,” you know what I mean? I don’t want to sit there and watch something I play at home. So my approach to video games is this: How can I make it different and make it feel like an additional element to the story rather than just being the story.
and Train to Busan is one of my favorite horror movies; Timo [Tjahjanto] I love being a director. I’m just excited about it. But I also see it as – well, I think that’s the answer for the future. But again I try to sometimes think of adaptation as more than just a straight “one to one”. More importantly, how could I expand the story or make it feel like it existed alongside something that was already there?
salem lot Max will arrive on October 3rd.
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