not just because of the dismal finale. Book readers are all too familiar with the crimes that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss perpetuated in the HBO adaptation.
While undoubtedly gripping and a massive boon for the network, George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series wasn’t exactly adapted faithfully, particularly in the all-important territory of character development. For example, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) fans may look at the character in the show as a boss queen, but they are losing out on the entire point of her character in the book. Her arc in the TV series revolves around Cersei’s schemes catching up with her, due to her vanity and ultimate stupidity. Book Cersei is a far more fascinating character study, but the show loses the plot. Other characters are erased entirely, like the mastermind behind the Sand Snake coup, Arianne Martell (RIP, we hardly knew you). But it is Pilou Asbæk‘s portrayal of Euron Greyjoy that shoves salt into the wound.
Show fans are greeted with a version of the character that is closer to a swashbuckling pirate than one of the most terrifying characters in the books. Martin’s character strikes fear in the hearts of not just his enemies, but family as well. Similar to the series, book Euron arrives on Pyke to claim his place as King of the Iron Islands. Unlike the series Euron, he is a formidable foe who worships apocalyptic and Lovecraftian chaos deities, hoping to bring about the end of the world. He even has an alleged dragon horn which he boasts will bind Daenerys’ dragons to him.
None of this character development shortfall is the fault of Asbæk, who works with the material he has been given. But this gifted actor has the rotten luck of being a through-line of misfortune, as he features in another faulty adaptation of a fan-favorite book.
Released in 2024, Salem’s Lot falters under the mighty weight of its source material. At just under 700 pages, there is a lot to cover and only so much time to do it in an adaptation.
And this is where Mr. Asbæk figures back into the equation. Asbæk’s portrayal in Salem’s Lot of the Renfield-type character, Straker, is window dressing at best. While present in one of the more horrifying sequences in the film, he is sadly underutilized, and not given the space to be as ominous as his book counterpart. This is regrettably a common theme in the film now streaming on Max. Asbæk has the unfortunate luck of being part of two universes highly regarded in genre, which resulted in poor adaptations that fail to capture the essence of the subject material.
Salem’s Lot follows Game of Thrones into poor adaptation-land, with Asbæk along for the ride
Salem’s Lot has all the makings of a horror classic. Breathtaking cinematography, ghoulish scares, and a climactic final act. But it is the pieces in between that feel missing. There is no time to get comfortable with the characters enough to find them believable. The film clocks in under two hours, which doesn’t make this entirely surprising. At least It knew well enough to split that story into two parts.
The foundation in the film is so sparse that there is barely enough time to understand what Straker’s role is in all of this. Walking around in the day, viewers unfamiliar with Dracula may be confused as to why he is facilitating the deaths of the citizens in such a grisly fashion. And even when watchers get time to catch up, he dies pretty unceremoniously. Like the Marsten House that stands ominously with not nearly enough explanation, Salem’s Lot — and the character of Straker, and Asbæk himself, probably — deserved better.
Published: Oct 8, 2024 03:15 pm