# Salem's Lot (2004)

> A haunted writer returns to the picture-perfect town of Jerusalem's Lot, where an unseen evil is quietly taking over its people.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/18043

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 2
- Episode runtime: 92 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: horror, drama
- Network: TNT
- Cast: Rob Lowe, Rutger Hauer, Donald Sutherland, James Cromwell, Samantha Mathis, Andre Braugher, Robert Mammone, Dan Byrd
- TMDB rating: 6.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0355987/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: gothic, eerie, oppressive, melancholic, visceral

## What critics say

Critics broadly received this adaptation of Stephen King's novel positively, praising its atmosphere and cast.

## Synopsis

Salem's Lot (2004) is an American horror miniseries created as a television adaptation of Stephen King's novel and broadcast on TNT. Across two feature-length episodes totaling about three hours, a writer with a haunted past, Ben Mears (Rob Lowe), returns to the picture-perfect town of Jerusalem's Lot and begins to uncover a dark terror that has quietly taken hold of its residents. He is joined by a local doctor, James Cody (Robert Mammone), and a priest, Donald Callahan (James Cromwell), who must decide how far to trust what they see. Against them stands the mysterious newcomer Kurt Barlow (Rutger Hauer), whose arrival sets the infection spreading, while Richard Straker (Donald Sutherland) operates his antiques shop as a sinister presence on the edge of town. The engine of the story is a slow, mounting dread: suspicion among neighbors, disappearances that go unexplained, and a community that would rather not look too closely at what is happening beneath its polished surface. Its tone is gothic, eerie, and oppressive, with a melancholic undercurrent and moments of visceral horror. Set in a rural Maine town in the 1970s, it has the feel of a classic stephen king story brought to television. Fans of Salem's Lot (1979), Twin Peaks, and It will find resonance in its atmosphere of small town menace and its patient, character-driven scares.

## Shows like Salem's Lot

- [The Institute (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/168354)
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- [The Strain (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/42917)
- [Salem's Lot (1979)](https://ember.film/tv/14988)
- [The Outsider (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/72074)
- [It (1990)](https://ember.film/tv/18114)
- [Castle Rock (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/62137)
- [Dark Shadows (1991)](https://ember.film/tv/15729)
- [Storm of the Century (1999)](https://ember.film/tv/4774)
- [Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/1521)

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