The Salem Chronicles Review: Horror’s Newest Witch Movie Just Fumbled Its Cult Classic Chances

by

Salem, Massachusetts has a complex and intriguing past, marked by a dark period of hysteria. It’s best known for the infamous witch trials of the 17th century, where many innocent people were wrongly accused and executed for witchcraft. Today, Salem attracts those fascinated by witchcraft, the macabre, and the town’s history, with many paying respects to the victims. The town will also be featured in the new digital release, The Salem Chronicles, directed by Thomas J. Churchill, coming in 2025.

When young detective Shane Parris-Gable’s estranged mother passes away, he unexpectedly inherits his family’s old home in Salem. He and his wife, Johnna, move there, leaving behind a difficult case he couldn’t solve. They’re greeted by Shane’s friendly Uncle Nelson and his grandmother, who is elderly and losing her memory, and receive some surprising news about trying to have a baby. But soon after arriving, strange and unsettling events begin to occur, and the couple realizes they’re caught up in a dark, ancestral evil connected to both sides of Shane’s family.

The Salem Chronicles Is Too Afraid to Be a Horror Film

Horror movies have been a bright spot for Hollywood in recent years. Thanks to hits like the X trilogy, the Terrifier series, and innovative films such as Sinners and Strange Darling, filmmakers have breathed new life into the industry with creative and bold ideas. In the fall of 2025, some of the most talked-about and successful movies were horror films – Good Boy features a heroic dog, and Shelby Oaks was made possible by fan support. While not every new horror movie is perfect, they’re often more original than the predictable stories typically produced by major studios. The Salem Chronicles is clearly hoping to join this wave of successful and innovative horror films.

For a long time, witches in stories were generally portrayed as kind or at least understandable characters. But recently, that’s changed. We’re now seeing more witches as flawed or even villainous figures – often complex characters driven to darkness by terrible experiences like abuse, trauma, or being outcast. While these modern witches still evoke some sympathy, they’re closer to the more frightening witches seen in older films. The Salem Chronicles follows this trend, with results that are unsettling but not always entirely successful.

The Salem Chronicles is particularly bleak and takes itself very seriously, even for a genre filled with death and darkness. It’s visually striking – dark, unsettling, and slick – almost like a Scandinavian crime show blended with a ’90s made-for-TV Halloween movie. Despite its polished look and beautiful sets, especially the impressive haunted house, the film feels clumsy, uneven, and slow-paced. The dialogue, particularly at the beginning, is clunky, overly explanatory, and doesn’t sound natural. The characters don’t have much believable connection, and the actors seem uncomfortable and unsure in their roles – which is understandable, given the awkward lines and strange script they’re working with, leading to somewhat flat performances.

It’s clear only a handful of actors enjoyed themselves, or at least tried to bring some energy to their roles. John Henry Richardson, playing Uncle Nelson, delivers a lot of explanatory dialogue with as much warmth as possible, and both Parris and Laura Meadows, as the vengeful ghost and eccentric grandmother, clearly put in effort to be over-the-top. Unfortunately, even with their best attempts, the movie ultimately fails to stay afloat.

The Salem Chronicles’ Occult Horror Comes Too Late and Too Little

The show, The Salem Chronicles, aims for a dark, intense, and moody atmosphere. It immediately focuses on the victims of the witch trials and quickly presents a series of disturbing events: a harsh arrest and execution, a recent suicide, and a gruesome crime scene involving dismemberment and ritualistic elements. Throughout it all, the detectives investigating the case are portrayed as gloomy and often argue with each other.

The movie begins bleakly and remains consistently heavy. Even during calmer, everyday scenes, a sense of dread lingers, making the film feel weighed down and lacking any real levity. There are few moments of relief, and quiet scenes feel strangely uncomfortable. While The Salem Chronicles is more effective when it’s intense and chaotic, even those moments feel artificial and forced rather than genuinely thrilling.

Unfortunately, The Salem Chronicles doesn’t quite live up to its potential. While the premise – a family curse, a difficult pregnancy, and a haunted house all tied to the history of the Salem witch trials – is genuinely intriguing, the story is bogged down by excessive explanation, a slow pace, and awkward writing. It’s disappointing to see such a promising concept and interesting characters fall flat in execution.

Despite a promisingly gruesome start and a handful of deaths, The Salem Chronicles largely consists of characters listlessly discussing witches, executions, and their family histories. It’s filled with vague emotions and hints that something isn’t right, punctuated by brief appearances from unsettling ghosts and occasional moments of violence.

The Salem Chronicles Could’ve Been a Cult Classic

“The Salem Chronicles” seems hesitant to fully embrace the horror genre, despite clearly wanting to be scary. It uses all the familiar tropes – a creepy soundtrack of drones and violins, an unsuspecting main character, and a family history linked to the Salem witch trials. There’s even a zealous, witch-hunting minister and gruesome, deformed ghosts wielding axes. It has all the ingredients, but doesn’t quite commit to being a true horror film.

The movie had all the ingredients to become a beloved cult classic, but it takes a full hour of drawn-out, atmospheric scenes – with only occasional scares or brief glimpses of the past – before it truly feels like a horror film. Even then, the scares don’t quite land, despite the story getting increasingly disturbing. It would have been more satisfying to see the consequences of past actions unfold, instead of just hearing characters talk about them for most of the movie.

The Salem Chronicles might have been stronger if it had learned from similar shows and movies. For instance, while taking significant creative risks, another series clearly had more energy and imagination in its storytelling, world-building, characters, and even its scary moments. Looking back further, Rosemary’s Baby was also a slow-burn horror film with a heavy, unsettling mood, but it kept things engaging with compelling characters, dark humor, memorable dialogue, and a visually striking style.

The Salem Chronicles suffers from a lack of energy, with dialogue that feels stiff and unnatural. The story relies too much on explaining things directly to the audience instead of letting events unfold naturally, and the pace is slow. By the time the film attempts to build suspense visually, it’s too late, and the imagery feels familiar, especially given recent horror films like The First Omen, Immaculate, and Azrael, which have explored similar themes of religious horror, cults, and dangerous pregnancies. While the film benefits from its atmospheric New England setting and a fresh perspective on the Salem witch trials, these interesting ideas aren’t fully developed. The story could have been much more impactful if it had spent more time showing the history of Shane’s family and how it connects to the present, rather than simply telling us about it.

Despite having some interesting ideas and a good starting point, The Salem Chronicles unfortunately doesn’t quite deliver. The film suffers from slow pacing, awkward dialogue, and a story that feels disjointed and drags on. While the last ten minutes offer more intense horror, it feels unoriginal given the recent surge of films similar to Rosemary’s Baby, especially considering the movie’s themes of pregnancy and cults. With a more confident, concise approach, The Salem Chronicles could have been a much more compelling film.

The Salem Chronicles is now available to stream on demand.

Read More

2025-10-24 04:11