Dauberman came toSalems Lotwith his horror and Stephen King bona fides already in place too.
You spend time with everyone, from the local innkeeper to the disabled curmudgeon who runs the town dump.
And its the same test that Dauberman faced as well.
Theres so much great stuff.
Its like, what do you have to weed out?
he says when we sit down for a Zoom interview.
An audiences attention span only goes so long.
My first cut was about three hours, the filmmaker confirms.
Theres a lot left out.
My first draft of the script is 180-odd pages or something because youre trying to include everything.
So it was sad to see that stuff go, but its like a necessary evil.
I love all that, says Dauberman.
Those were the kind of scenes that we were not going to touch.
That was my approach to vampires here.
Its what the book is.
ItsDraculaset in small town America.
I wanted to be true to that spirit.
I kept going back to the 79 version, Dauberman says about his eventual solution.
I have a Barlow action figure from the 79 version and I kept going back to that.
It was a long journey, Dauberman tellsDen of Geekabout the films protracted road to release.
It was a dark journey, you know, mostly an unpleasant journey, just not knowing…
I just didnt know what was going on.
Discovery for holding up the release of the completed film while privately supporting its writer-director.
He was a light in a lot of dark.
I love the earnestness of it.
Its not filled with that kind of cynicism that sometimes we see today.
It feels classic to me and it felt classic even when it was written.
Salems Lot premieres on Max on Thursday, Oct. 3.
