Stephen Kings Chapelwaite vs Salems Lot Which One Is The Better Adaptation
Stephen King’s Chapelwaite vs. Salem’s Lot: Which One Is The Better Adaptation
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Chapelwaite is the latest Stephen King miniseries to bring the horror icon’s stories to life, but is it better than the seminal ’70s hit Salem’s Lot?
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The horror series Chapelwaite adapts the classic Stephen King short story “Jerusalem’s Lot” into a ten-episode miniseries, but is the new show better or worse than the seminal ‘70s miniseries Salem’s Lot? Since his best-selling debut novel, Carrie, was brought to life in cinemas as the teen horror classic of the same name by director Brian De Palma two years after its publication, Stephen King’s writings have had a mixed relationship with screen adaptation. For every critically acclaimed outing like the two-part blockbuster horror It, there has been a high-profile flop like 2020’s The Stand miniseries.
Judging by its critical reception, the ten-episode miniseries Chapelwaite falls between these two extremes. Starring Adrien Brody as the troubled Captain Charles Boone, the Gothic horror series is an expanded adaptation of King’s short story “Jerusalem’s Lot.” Chapelwaite has divided critics, with some appreciating its gloomy tone and deliberate pacing while others have called the series overlong and crushingly self-serious.
However, Chapelwaite is not the first miniseries to bring the town of Jerusalem’s Lot to life on the small screen. Long before the ‘90s were filled with Stephen King television miniseries adaptations, Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper directed a now-iconic two-part adaptation of Salem’s Lot. Notably, Salem’s Lot was based on the 1975 King novel of the same name, whereas Chapelwaite is adapted from the 1978 short story “Jerusalem’s Lot.” A prequel to Salem’s Lot included in the short story collection Night Shift, “Jerusalem’s Lot” is a thirty-page epistolary effort that sees Charles Boone inherit a house infested with rats (or something worse) in the titular town. The locals are unfriendly to the new arrival and things soon end badly for him when he investigates a local abandoned church, but Chapelwaite massively expands the scope of this brief story for its ten episodes. So, with that in mind, which of the Stephen King miniseries is the superior watch?
Salem’s Lot Is (Arguably Too) Brief
Adapting a 440-page novel into a two-part miniseries is no mean feat, and Tobe Hooper is not known for wasting screen time. The Salem’s Lot miniseries moves incredibly fast so the show can cover the many subplots of King’s novel, and crams a huge amount of story into its short runtime. Salem’s Lot, unlike later King adaptations such as Children of the Corn, remains faithful to the original book, but simply does not have sufficient screen time to bring to life the rich characters of the novel and shortchanges some supporting cast members as a result. That said, what Hooper’s miniseries lacks in length, Salem’s Lot makes up for in impact. Like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Salem’s Lot is a fast-paced and frightening horror whose shocks have not been blunted by the passing decades, and the miniseries should be commended for keeping the story as scary as, if a lot less fleshed-out than, King’s source material.
Chapelwaite Is (Arguably Too) Long
If turning the 400+ pages of Salem’s Lot into a two-episode miniseries was an ambitious feat of truncation by Hooper, Chapelwaite’s choice to expand “Jerusalem’s Lot” to a ten-hour story is the exact inverse in storytelling terms. The original Lovecraftian King story leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination, taking place over only a few days and limiting its perspective to the narrator. As the writer’s grip on reality loosens, the reader is left uncertain how much of his account can be believed, whereas Chapeelwaite gives the protagonist a trio of children and a love interest to flesh out the story and loses this intensity in the process.
However, this expansion approach is also a boon to the series as Chapelwaite’s original characters Honor, Loa, and Tane humanize the hero, who is a thinly-sketched horror protagonist in the source story. Meanwhile, the addition of a love interest in Emily Hampshire’s Rebecca adds stakes (no pun intended) to the tale. The only non-Charles character of “Jerusalem’s Lot,” Charles’ manservant Calvin, is a flat addition who only exists to give the otherwise understated story’s climax a body count. Thus, the Stephen King adaptation can be both commended and criticized for expanding its source story to ten hours, much like the televisual truncation of Salem’s Lot.
Salem’s Lot Is An Unintentional Period Piece
Set in the same era that it was produced, Salem’s Lot was a contemporary story upon its original ‘70s broadcast. However, since then the miniseries had become a veritable time capsule to the late ‘70s, with the fashion, hairstyles, and filmmaking style of the era being epitomized in Hooper’s miniseries. Coming from the helmer of one of the decade’s most infamously grimy, terrifying movies, Salem’s Lot represents a shift in mainstream horror. The show heralded the turn from the gritty realism of the ‘70s (The Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) into the supernatural, fantasy-inflected paranormal horror that ruled the ’80s (the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise, Hooper’s Poltergeist).
Chapelwaite Is An Intentional Period Piece
Chapelwaite is an austere period piece set in the 1850s and, unlike Hooper’s seminal miniseries, the show is an intentional period piece. This makes the Gothic horror a more reserved affair than its contemporaries American Horror Story and Slasher, which rely on more outlandish elements to keep their scares interesting. Chapelwaite, in contrast, is a self-serious, slow-burn affair, and could be less accessible to fairweather fans of the genre than Salem’s Lot thanks to its period setting and its slow pacing.
Salem’s Lot Is The Superior King Adaptation
Of the two miniseries, Salem’s Lot is the stronger King adaptation. However, this is less the fault of Chapelwaite and more of a testament to the staying power that Hooper’s miniseries has. Everything from The Lost Boys to Fright Night, to The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror specials, to Hannibal, owe a creative debt to the miniseries, which is an incredibly far-reaching legacy for a two-episode small-screen adaptation. As a result, the graceful and unusually stoic gothic thrills of Chapelwaite can’t compare to the impact of Salem’s Lot, although the Stephen King adaptation does an admirable job of building on its source material and adding layers of character, world-building, and lore to a sparse original story.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/chapelwaite-salems-lot-stephen-king-vampire-adaptation-better-which/
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