Mike Flanagan’s Underrated $72M Horror From 5 Years Ago Subtly Follows Up Stephen King’s New Streaming Hit Movie - Made with Clipchamp
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00:00Max has a new streaming horror hit on its hands with the 2024 adaptation of Salem's
00:17Lot, which shares a subtle connection to Mike Flanagan's 2019 adaptation of Stephen King's
00:22book Doctor Sleep.
00:23Stephen King's books are known for often holding easter eggs, implicit links, or direct
00:28connections to his other stories, with many of his main set horror novels being related
00:32through references to characters and local events.
00:35One frequent source of connections for his stories is the location of Jerusalem's Lot,
00:39which is known to house various evil entities and supernatural beings.
00:43The Max original movie Salem's Lot, which became the streaming service's top-trending
00:47movie after its premiere, is the latest take on King's 1975 same-named book, which explores
00:53the titular town as it becomes overrun with vampires.
00:56Some of Salem's Lot's characters eventually appeared in other King stories, such as The
01:00Dark Tower, but other links to his universe are more subtle.
01:04For instance, while 2024's Salem's Lot movie doesn't address this link due to its earlier
01:09timeline, the titular location becomes important to the villainous True Knot cult in King's
01:13Doctor Sleep novel, which was adapted by Mike Flanagan in 2019.
01:17Doctor Sleep's vampiric True Knot cult has a safe haven in Jerusalem's Lot.
01:22The psychic vampires are one of the many evils that inhabit Salem's Lot.
01:26Developed by Rebecca Ferguson's villainous Rose the Hat in Doctor Sleep, the True Knot
01:29is a sinister cult from Stephen King's 2013 novel that murderously siphons the steam of
01:34children to make themselves powerful and youthful.
01:37The villains are considered shine vampires, as their shine-sucking powers and mode of
01:41killing operate similarly to a vampire sucking the blood from a human.
01:45The 2019 movie, which serves as a sequel to Stephen King's The Shining story, follows
01:49a grown-up Dan Danny Torrance as he battles the True Knot and tries to protect Abra, a
01:54powerful young girl with the shine.
01:56Though this reference isn't made clear in the 2019 film, Stephen King's Doctor Sleep
02:00book reveals that the True Knot has a safe haven in Salem's Lot.
02:04The 2024 Salem's Lot movie as well as King's 1975 novel frequently discuss the evils that
02:09have been attracted to the small town in Maine, so it makes sense that Doctor Sleep's vampire-like
02:14True Knot group would feel comfortable in a location already overrun by bloodsucking
02:18vampires.
02:19While it's unclear when the True Knot first came to Salem's Lot, it was seemingly after
02:23the events of the vampire Kurt Barlow's attack in 1975.
02:27Doctor Sleep doesn't actually venture into Jerusalem's Lot throughout its story, but
02:31the references to the area are a reminder of the many other evil supernatural forces
02:35that lurk throughout Stephen King's fictional universe.
02:38The 2019 movie largely takes place in New Hampshire before moving back to the Shining's
02:43Overlook Hotel in Colorado, so there isn't any known direct overlap between Danny, Rose
02:47the Hat, and the vampires of Salem's Lot.
02:50Still, it's likely that Rebecca Ferguson's Rose the Hat and her fellow True Knot members
02:54went there after the time of Salem's Lot's ending.
02:57Doctor Sleep's connection to Salem's Lot highlights a harsh reality about Mark and
03:01Ben's cut ending.
03:02Ben and Mark return to battle Salem's Lot's vampires a year later in the book.
03:07Mark Petrie, Jordan Preston Carter, and Ben Mears, Lewis Pullman, leave Jerusalem's Lot
03:12in a car in Salem's Lot, 2024, image via Max.
03:16Considering Doctor Sleep's book picks up nearly 40 years after Salem's Lot, with the
03:20movie adding another six years onto that, the True Knot's choice of location for their
03:24safe haven highlights a sad reality about the town.
03:27After Ben Mears and Mark Petrie escaped Salem's Lot, the town remained infested by vampires
03:32and evil entities, despite the fact that they successfully killed Kurt Barlow.
03:36Additionally, Jerusalem's Lot still being inhabited by vampires and the True Knot decades
03:40later is worse with the knowledge of the book's epilogue that was cut from 2024's Salem's
03:45Lot movied A.T.
03:46The End of King's 1975 novel, an epilogue reveals that Ben and Mark returned to Salem's
03:50Lot a year later.
03:52The duo decide to battle the vampires yet again, devising a plan to start a brush fire
03:56in the woods outside town, draw the vampires outside their hiding places, and kill as many
04:01of them remaining as they can.
04:03Subsequent Stephen King stories imply that Ben and Mark were successful in killing many
04:07of the vampires, but that some would always remain.
04:11Given the fact that Dr. Sleep's True Knot later established a safe haven, it's more
04:14upsetting that Ben and Mark's plan didn't work to truly keep evil out of Salem's Lot.
04:19Not only would bloodsucking vampires remain in town, but new evils like the psychic vampires
04:24would move in to join them, leaving Jerusalem's Lot a cursed location.
04:28Why Salem's Lot attracts so many evil groups and species?
04:31Salem's Lot has a dark history that predates the vampire attack.
04:35Salem's Lot characters looking up at the Mars 10 house.
04:38Even before Kurt Barlow arrives at Salem's Lot in the 2024 movie, it's established that
04:42the town has always been home to sinister events and evil forces.
04:46The town's attraction to evil forces is greatly symbolized by the Mars 10 house in Salem's
04:51Lot.
04:52The location was originally the home of former hitman Hubert Hubey Mars 10, who killed his
04:56wife before taking his own life many years before the movie's events.
05:00However, evil still finds comfort within those walls, and it's where Kurt Barlow chooses to
05:05reside and begin his vampiric terrors in 1975.
05:08From the time of its early colonization, Salem's Lot has had a history of cults, supernatural
05:13activities, occult interests, and mysterious events.
05:16In the late 1700s, a preacher found a book about the occult in town, which was followed
05:21by him and his followers mysteriously vanishing from Salem's Lot.
05:25It seems that the dark history of Salem's Lot and its unexplained supernatural occurrences
05:29have simply attracted evil forces as a location where groups like vampires and the true not
05:33can more freely engage with their sinister practices.
05:36Perhaps, some forces on its land even make their evil more powerful.
05:40Salem's Lot 2024 mirrors the darkest moment of Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep movie.
05:45Ralphie Glick's agonizing death is reminiscent of Bradley Trevor's in Doctor Sleep.
05:50In addition to the more direct connection of the true not having a safe haven in Jerusalem's
05:53Lot, Mike Flanagan's acclaimed Doctor Sleep movie and Gary Dauberman's Salem's Lot movie
05:58both feature gruesome child death scenes.
06:01Arguably the most difficult to watch scene in Doctor Sleep is the excruciating murder
06:05of Bradley Trevor, Jacob Tremblay, a young kid who was captured, tortured, and killed
06:09by the true not for his steam after his baseball game.
06:12The blood-curdling screams of Tremblay make the scene incredibly disturbing and agonizing,
06:17emphasizing the truly vile and sickening nature of Rose the Hat and the true not
06:21While Doctor Sleep's child death scene is more graphic and intense, Salem's Lot has
06:25a similar moment toward the beginning of the 2024 movie.
06:29After Kurt Barlow is first brought to Salem's Lot, Richard Straker brings the vampire the
06:33young boy Ralphie Glick as a human sacrifice to begin his reign of terror.
06:37Ralphie is then brought before Kurt Barlow, with the young boy horrifyingly screaming
06:41as the vampire tears him apart and blood is seen spattering on Straker's face.
06:45Both Stephen King adaptation moments are extremely disturbing starts to the Jerusalem's Lot-rooted
06:50villain's horrific takeovers.