📺 Chapelwaite (2021)
Based on short story
The 2021 Epix series Chapelwaite is a television adaptation of Stephen King's 1978 short story "Jerusalem's Lot," which itself serves as a prequel to King's famous vampire novel 'Salem's Lot. The series, created by brothers Peter and Jason Filardi, takes the epistolary framework of King's story and expands it into a ten-episode Gothic horror drama. Set in the 1850s, it follows Captain Charles Boone, played by Academy Award winner Adrien Brody, who relocates his three children to his ancestral home in Preacher's Corners, Maine, after the tragic death of his wife at sea.
While the short story is told entirely through letters and diary entries, the series opens up the narrative considerably, introducing new characters and subplots. Emily Hampshire co-stars as Rebecca Morgan, a young governess hired to care for the Boone children, who becomes an ally in Charles's fight against the darkness plaguing his family. The show delves deeper into the town's hostility toward the Boones, the family's cursed bloodline, and the cosmic horror lurking beneath the abandoned village of Jerusalem's Lot, blending family drama with supernatural terror.
The adaptation makes significant changes from the source material, most notably in its pacing and character development. King's story is a tight, atmospheric piece of Lovecraftian horror, while the series stretches the premise across a full season, adding elements of slow-burn mystery and character-driven storytelling. The Filardis also weave in more explicit connections to the Cthulhu Mythos, with the ancient entity known as "The Worm" and the forbidden book De Vermis Mysteriis playing central roles in the unfolding nightmare.
Chapelwaite premiered on Epix in August 2021 and concluded its first season that October. Though a second season was initially announced in early 2022, MGM+ ultimately decided not to move forward with it in November 2023, leaving the series as a self-contained adaptation of King's chilling short story. Despite its cancellation, the show was praised for its atmospheric production design, Brody's committed lead performance, and its faithful yet expanded take on one of King's most Lovecraftian tales.
"Jerusalem's Lot" is a short story by American author Stephen King, first published in his 1978 collection *Night Shift*. It serves as a prequel to King's celebrated vampire novel *'Salem's Lot*, exploring the dark history of the abandoned town that gives both works their name. The story is presented as a series of letters and diary entries written in the 1850s by Charles Boone, who has inherited the ancestral Boone mansion, Chapelwaite, near the forsaken village of Jerusalem's Lot.
Upon moving into Chapelwaite with his manservant, Boone discovers a hidden family legacy of madness and occult worship. The mansion contains a mysterious, boarded-up chapel and a library filled with forbidden texts, including the dreaded *De Vermis Mysteriis*. As Boone investigates, he uncovers that his ancestors were part of a sinister cult that worshipped an ancient, worm-like entity dwelling beneath the abandoned church in Jerusalem's Lot, a being that demands blood sacrifice.
The story is a notable entry in King's Cthulhu Mythos fiction, deliberately echoing the cosmic horror style of H.P. Lovecraft. It incorporates classic Lovecraftian elements such as forbidden tomes, ancestral curses, and indescribable ancient evils lurking just beneath the surface of a seemingly ordinary New England landscape. The epistolary format adds a layer of period authenticity and mounting dread as Boone's sanity is tested by the horrors he uncovers.
"Jerusalem's Lot" has been praised for its effective pastiche of 19th-century Gothic and Lovecraftian horror, demonstrating King's versatility beyond his contemporary Maine settings. It remains a fan-favorite piece of short fiction, expanding the mythology of the *'Salem's Lot* universe while standing firmly on its own as a chilling tale of inherited evil and cosmic terror.