Gary Dauberman's "Salem's Lot" has had a bumpy ride. The Stephen King adaptation was originally supposed to hit theaters in 2022. Then it got delayed to 2023. Then it got pulled from the release calendar entirely. Since "Salem's Lot" is a Warner Bros. production, there was a growing fear that this vampire movie would go the way of WB's "Batgirl" and "Coyote vs. Acme" and never see the light of day. King got involved, taking to Twitter and pondering why the studio was sitting on the flick. "Not sure why WB is holding it back; not like it's embarrassing, or anything," the master of horror said. Rumors eventually began to swirl that "Salem's Lot" might skip theaters entirely and go directly to WB's streaming service, Max. Sure enough, the studio finally announced that was the case: "Salem's Lot" is destined to stream on Max this October, just in time for Halloween season.

When a movie is delayed like this, it comes with a certain amount of baggage. Such delays can frequently indicate a studio doesn't have much faith in their finished film, which raises some red flags. But delays aren't always a sign of certain doom: Drew Goddard's horror-comedy "The Cabin in the Woods" was infamously delayed for years, only to finally be released and embraced by horror fans. Ditto Michael Dougherty's Halloween anthology "Trick 'r Treat," which sat on a shelf for two years before being dumped directly to DVD and becoming a modern spooky season favorite.

Now that Dauberman's "Salem's Lot" is finally here, the question must be asked: was it worth the wait? I'm a huge Stephen King nerd, and I'm fond of Dauberman's work (his haunted house flick "Annabelle Comes Home" has become my personal favorite entry in The Conjuring Universe), so it brings me no pleasure to confess that this new take on "Salem's Lot" lacks bite. I'm not saying it should've been shelved forever -- such a process is ghastly and wrong-headed. But this adaptation of King's vampire classic is rushed, clumsy, and curiously lifeless. King was right: It's not "embarrassing, or anything." It's just not very good, either. Bummer.