Chapelwaite/Jerusalem's Lot By Stephen King

 

Confession time: For one reason or the other, I’ve never been a huge fan of short-stories. I can’t pinpoint exactly why, but it’s a format that does not fulfill me.

Anyways, Stephen King’s Night Shift was originally published in 1978, after the huge success of Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, and The Shining. This would be the first of many short stories collections he would put out over the next few decades, but this, as noted, was the first. Of the 20 published tales in the book, four were works that had never released before and Jerusalem’s Lot was one of them. This tale is told through a series of letters and diary entries, mainly those of its main character, aristocrat Charles Boone, although his manservant, Calvin McCann, also occasionally assumes the role of narrator. In the letters addressed to "Bones", Boone describes the arrival of himself and his manservant, Calvin  at Chapelwaite, the neglected ancestral home of Charles's estranged dead cousin. Calvin learns that many people in the nearby Maine town of Preacher's Corners think Charles and Calvin are mad for living in the mansion. The house is said to be "a bad house" with a history of sad events, disappearances, and mysterious noises which Charles attributes to “rats in the walls”. Calvin finds a hidden compartment in the library containing an old map of a deserted village called Jerusalem’s Lot, a mysterious area the townsfolk avoid. What they find is a decayed Puritan settlement. As the two explore a church, they discover an obscene parody of the Madonna and Child and an inverted cross. They also find a book entitled De Vermis Mysteriis, or "The Mysteries of the Worm", filled with Latin and Druidic runes. Charles eventually finds someone to talk about his apparent families’ dark past. The Lot was founded by one of Charles' distant ancestors, a James Boon, who was the leader of an inbred witchcraft cult. Charles grandfather and uncle eventually took up residence in Chapelwaite, but Philip was taken in by Boon's cult, and acquired De Vermis Mysteriis at Boon's behest. Philip and Boon used the book to call forth a supernatural entity referred to as "The Worm". Meanwhile, while investigating the noises of their house, Charles and Calvin also find the undead corpses of two of his relatives, Marcella and Randolph Boone. Charles recognizes them as “nosferatu”.

Jerusalem’s Lot serves, more or less, as prequel/background information on the town that is featured in King’s second novel, ‘Salem’s Lot. I’m not sure whether King ever attempted to add this part to his book and it was cut for length (1970s publishing was more about costs than letting a writer actually write), or decided just later to write a short story expanding on stuff that was already in the book.

So the new 10-episode miniseries based on this tale is called Chaplewaite and debuted in August on EPIX and will conclude on October 31, 2021. Like most adaptations of King’s work, the short-story and the TV version (or movie version) get loose in the translation. The series is adding new characters and new backgrounds and seemly expanding the tale to fill a 10-episode slot. I probably won’t get a chance to see the miniseries until a video release or one of the other streaming channels picks it up. 

Of course, five of the tales in this book have been adapted into films, including Children of the Corn, Cat’s Eye, Maximum Overdrive, Graveyard Shift, and The Mangler. Television adaptations include Sometimes They Come Back, Trucks, Battleground, a remake of Children of the Corn, and now Chapelwaite.