Chapelwaite

Chapelwaite is a 2021 television series adaptation of Stephen King's Cthulhu Mythos short story "Jerusalem's Lot" (which also serves as a prequel to his non-Mythos novel 'Salem's Lot). It stars Adrien Brody as Captain Charles Boone, who inherits a house called Chapelwaite in the town of Preacher's Corners, Maine, in the year 1850.
==Synopsis ==
===Episode 1: "Blood Calls Blood"===
Directed by Burr Steers
Written by Jason Filardi & Peter Filardi
As a child in 1817, Charles Boone is attacked by his insane father, who tries to kill him while rambling that "the Worm" is coming and that "blood calls blood". His life is saved when his father is shot by his mother, who tells the boy to go far away and never return. 33 years later, Charles is now the captain of a whaling ship, and married to a Japanese woman with whom he has three children: Honor, Loa, and Tane. When his wife dies from a disease contracted by spoiled meat (which also results in one of Loa's legs being crippled), he takes his children to America and settles in his family's ancestral home of Chapelwaite, inherited recently from his cousin Stephen, who hanged himself after the death of his own daughter, Marcella.
The Boones arrive at the town of Preacher's Corners, Maine, where Chapelwaite is located, only to find that the townsfolk shun and hate the Boone family, blaming Stephen Boone for a mysterious plague that causes lapses of memory, fatigue, and eventually death. Not everyone is entirely hostile, however. While most of the employees at the family's sawmill do little to hide their hatred, one named Able Stewart proves himself to be far more loyal. Similarly, an aspiring writer named Rebecca Morgan, whose late father worked for the Boones, offers her services to the family as a governess, despite the fact that the elder Morgan was terrified of his boss.
While trying to make his children comfortable, Charles deals privately with his own demons, as he experiences nightmarish hallucinations about earthworms, and hears the sounds of rats inside the walls, even after a man hired to exterminate them insists that there are none. The family also finds out that Stephen, his father Phillip, and daughter Marcella, are all buried in the house's yard, as opposed to the cemetery. In Preacher's Corners, a man named Edward Mallory, whose daughter Susan is suffering from the plague, decides to sneak into Chapelwaite at night and burn down the place. Before he can do so, however, he is attacked by a mysterious figure who cuts his throat and collects his blood in a bucket.
===Episode 2: "Memento Mori"===
Directed by Burr Steers
Written by Jason Filardi & Peter Filardi
With the disappearance of Edward Mallory, the suspicions against the Boones intensify even more in Preacher's Corners, where a woman named Faith Pringle gives birth to a deformed and eyeless child. Unbeknownst to the town, the child's father is the local minister, Martin Burroughs, who is willing to elope with Pringle and raise the child with her. At Chapelwaite, Rebecca finds letters written by her father, which Charles allows her to keep. On the road to the town, Charles meets a mysterious woman eating an apple, who tells him that "the worm is calling".
With Minister Burroughs' support, Charles makes a public announcement about his intentions to expand production at the sawmill and build ships, which would create jobs and prosperity. At night, a man sneaks into Loa's bedroom and takes the shells from a broken necklace that belonged to her mother. Soon afterwards, an amnesic Susan Mallory arrives at Chapelwaite, looking for her father. Rebecca takes her home, but the girl's mother is far from grateful, and still blames the Boones for her daughter's condition, as well as for her husband being missing.
The next morning, Loa can't find her shells, and Charles' hallucinations get worse. On Halloween night, the Boone children go trick-or-treating, but are met with hostility, aggravated by the townsfolk's racism. Meanwhile, Susan's condition gets worse, and she claims to have seen Stephen Boone. When she dies, her mother Rose confronts Charles, telling him that his cousin is alive and responsible for the plague. Constable Dennison assumes control of the situation and puts an end to it before it results in violence, ordering everyone to go home. The constable's wife, Mary, is attacked by an unknown person. Back at Chapelwaite, Charles decides to open his cousin's grave, only to find that it is empty.
===Episode 3: "Legacy of Madness"===
Directed by Jeff Renfroe
Written by Scott Kosar
Charles has a nightmare about burying his children and wakes up on the yard next to his cousin's empty grave. He starts to suspect that Stephen is indeed alive, and has faked his death. Constable Dennison stops by, still concerned about Edward Mallory's disappearance, but the more the townsfolk make clear that they want the Boones gone, the more Charles is intent on staying and holding his ground. He visits Stephen's housemaid, Elizabeth Cloris, who found the bodies of Stephen and Marcella, and claims that Stephen's father Phillip committed suicide by jumping into the sea three days later. Charles doesn't believe her. Dennison finds that his wife Mary is now afflicted by the plague. Soon, the Boone siblings are expelled from school, allegedly due to concerns that they might be infected.
At night, a group of masked men throw stones at Chapelwaite and threaten Charles, who comes out with a gun to confront them, but is overpowered and beaten. After the attack, one of the men is stalked and killed by the mysterious figure, who slits his throat and collects his blood. The next day, Loa wakes up with her shell necklace somehow restored and repaired. Charles correctly guesses that the men who attacked him are his own sawmill's employees (sans Able Stewart), and fires them on the spot, while warning them that the next time, he won't hesitate to shoot to kill. When a man named Daniel Thompson continues to taunt him, Charles beats him up to prove that he's serious. He then goes to Frigate Island Hospital, an asylum, to speak to a doctor named Frost, who prescribed medicine for Stephen in the past.
Dr. Frost reveals that all the Boones have experienced hallucinations related to worms, and correctly guesses from Charles' reaction that he does as well. Frost believes it to be genetic, and that it will only get worse without treatment. He also dismisses Charles' theory about Stephen faking his death as a form of paranoia. Back home, Charles speaks to the exterminator, who once again confirms that there are no rats inside the walls. While playing in the barn, Tane meets the "apple girl", who talks about the god she worships: a god older than any other, without eyes or limbs, who burrows under the ground and devours flesh. Tane asks her to stop, and she tells him that his father must find the book. When she gives him her half-eaten apple, Tane is horrified to see that it's full of earthworms. He relates the story to his father, who believes it.
At night, Charles is tormented by the sound of rats and starts to break down the walls with an axe, scaring and almost hurting his children in the process. Remembering a comment Dr. Frost had made about ice baths being good for controlling hallucinations, he decides to take one, but soon notices a message on the ceiling that spells "blood calls blood".
===Episode 4: "The Promised"===
Directed by Jeff Renfroe
Written by Declan de Barra
Visited by the unnamed "apple girl", Faith Pringle is revealed to be a former member of the community of Worm cultists. The "apple girl" assures her that her vows of blood are permanent, and that she can't hide anywhere in the world, as the Worm's reach is infinite. She invites Pringle to return and "be reborn".
At Chapelwaite, Charles is horrified by what he has done. He tells Rebecca of how his own father attacked him as a child, and tells her about the hallucinations, convinced that he must intern himself in the Frigate Island asylum before he hurts someone. At this point, however, Tane finds a secret passage in the barn, which leads to a system of tunnels giving access to the interior of the house, potentially allowing one to move inside the walls at will. Now convinced once again that Stephen is alive and trying to drive him mad or worse, Charles summons Able Stewart to protect his children while he ventures into the tunnels with a gun, eager to confront his cousin.
Pringle urges Minister Burroughs that if they're going to elope, they have to do it fast, as she tells him about the Worm cultists who are after her. Burroughs assures that he will go with her, but first he must perform the funeral of Susan Mallory and spend a last moment with his wife Alice, by the grave of their deceased daughters. While Charles is exploring the tunnels, he experiences another hallucination. Meanwhile, Rebecca looks for Constable Dennison and instead finds Mary Dennison, along with a vampire feeding on her blood. The vampire flees, but not before Rebecca can see his face and recognises him as Phillip Boone. She tells the constable about it and rushes to tell Charles that it's not Stephen who's still alive, but Phillip.
At Chapelwaite, Loa sees another vampire, Stephen, who informs her that he was the one who repaired her necklace, and hints that her mother isn't necessarily gone forever. Charles arrives and confronts Stephen, who tells him to "find the book". Charles notices his grey skin and fangs, and when he shoots Stephen, the latter falls off the window, but stands up and runs away. Later that night, the "apple girl" returns with several brainwashed Worm cultists, who call themselves the Promised. She tells Charles that someone named Jakub wants to see him tomorrow in a nearby town named Jerusalem's Lot.
===Episode 5: "The Prophet"===
Directed by Rachel Leiterman
Written by Jason Filardi & Peter Filardi
Charles and Able go to Jerusalem's Lot, an abandoned town founded by Charles's great-grandfather James, to meet the mysterious Jakub, while the Boone children stay in the boarding house with Rebecca and her mother Ann. Constable Dennison shows Dr. Guilford the puncture marks on his wife's neck, where Phillip Boone fed on her blood. Minister Burroughs admits to his wife that Pringle's child is his. Rebecca goes through her father's letters and finds some sent to him by Jakub regarding a book named De Vermis Mysteriis.
At this point, it is clear that the Boone family has a long history of attempted filicide: James Boone tried to kill his daughter Silence, but was shot before he could do so. Silence later tried to kill her sons Robert and Phillip, and hanged herself. And Robert Boone later tried to kill his son, Charles.
In Jerusalem's Lot, Charles asks Able to return, to check on his family, while he meets with Jakub. The constable finds Phillip with his wife and is attacked, but fends the vampire off with a crucifix. Jakub, the vampire leader, tells Charles that James Boone stole their unholy scripture, De Vermis Mysteriis, to try to harness its power, cursing himself and all his descendants in the process. Jakub wants the book back, but Phillip and Stephen are of no use to him as vampires, because only the living Boones can hear the book's calling in the form of the worm-related hallucinations.
When the vampires capture Able, along with Rose Mallory, Jakub threatens to kill them if Charles doesn't agree to find the book for him, so Charles gives his word that he will do so. At night, Loa runs away from Rebecca's house and returns to Chapelwaite, as Stephen had promised he could cure her leg and bring back her mother. When Charles returns from Jerusalem's Lot, he finds Loa's dead body.
=== Episode 6: "The Offer"===
Directed by Rachel Leiterman
Written by Scott Kosar
An utterly devastated Charles takes Loa's body inside and notices the puncture marks on her neck. Constable Dennison, Minister Burroughs, and Dr. Guilford discuss the vampire situation. After his encounter with Phillip, the Constable is fully convinced that the creatures are real, while Guilford is open-minded but cautious. Burroughs remains skeptical, but relates to the others what Faith Pringle told him about people in Jerusalem's Lot who fed on her blood. While the Constable and Guilford go speak to Mrs. Cloris, Burroughs stays with crucifix on hand, to guard Mary. She tells him that she can hear her god speaking to her, promising his blood, so that she may live with him forever "in the dark".
Loa is buried in the sea, like her mother was. Burroughs buys a ticket so that Pringle and the baby can leave the town, but tells her that he must stay in Preacher's Corners to help his congregation fight off the evil that has infected it. Pringle tells him that the biggest threat is not Phillip Boone, but Jakub, yet Burroughs is hopeful that even Jakub can be defeated. He fully intends to join Pringle and raise the child with her after the whole ordeal is over.
Dennison kills his wife, believing this act will spare her from becoming a vampire. Jakub's followers stalk Pringle and kill her. At Chapelwaite, Charles waits for Phillip and Stephen to come, so he can avenge his daughter. When they come, however, they bring along Loa herself, who is now a vampire too, and tell Charles to find the book and give it to them, not to Jakub.
=== Episode 7: "De Vermis Mysteriis"===
Directed by David Frazee
Written by Declan de Barra
Charles finds the place where Marcella Boone hid De Vermis Mysteriis to prevent her father and grandfather from finding it, inside the grave of the Burroughs twins, who used to be her playmates. When Charles touches the book, he has a vision of what the world will be like once the Worm is released: an apocalyptic landscape under a red sun in perpetual eclipse. A dead world ruled by vampires.
Loa and Stephen try to convince Charles to hand the book to them, Loa promising that his pain will go away and he will be reunited with his wife, and Stephen talking about how the coming of the Worm is inevitable, and the ones to release it will be rewarded. Charles is briefly tempted, but refuses. In Jerusalem's Lot, the whippoorwills flock and sing, letting Jakub know that the book has been located at last.
Able and the Constable tell each other of their near-fatal encounters with vampires, and plan to go to Chapelwaite along with Minister Burroughs. Rebecca, Honor and Tane help Charles barricade the house and paint crosses, but the proximity of the book takes a huge toll on Charles' mental health, causing him to hear screams and despair over the hopelessness of the incoming apocalypse. Having tried to burn the book and failed, as fire has no effect on it, Charles plans to commit a murder-suicide in order to spare himself and his children from their fate. Fortunately, after Rebecca knocks him out and takes the book away, he returns to normal.
Able, Burroughs and the Constable arrive, and the book is tied to the body of Mary Dennison, who being already a vampire, can't be further corrupted by it. Mrs. Cloris finds that Stephen, Phillip, and Loa are hiding in her barn, feeding on her livestock, and when she tries to fight them they kill her. Burroughs blesses every room in Chapelwaite, but finds his own faith shaken after the death of Pringle. When the vampires arrive, Charles manages to impale Phillip with a harpoon and decapitates him, but soon the house is surrounded by Jakub's pack. At Charles' insistence, Able rides off to Preacher's Corners to try to get help.
===Episode 8: "Hold the Night"===
Directed by David Frazee
Written by Jason Filardi & Peter Filardi
With Chapelwaite under siege, tensions rise as Charles, Rebecca, Honor, Tane, Burroughs, and Dennison try to hold their ground against Jakub's vampires and Worm cultist followers, all trying to break in. Burroughs loses whatever faith in God he had left after the "apple girl" reveals that the father of Pringle's child is Jakub, not him. Now a nihilist, he wants to give De Vermis Mysteriis to them, but the sight of what Mary has become convinces him that the vampires must be destroyed.
When Jakub's forces find their way to the tunnels inside the barn, Charles and the others are forced to barricade themselves inside the dining room and engage in combat with some of the vampires, including Rebecca's father, who she thought had been killed by Stephen and Phillip, but was actually converted. Tane gets separated from the group and meets Loa, who saves him from one of Jakub's men and tells him to trust her.
The situation seems hopeless as the vampires break down the barricade and the group is forced to hide in the cellar. Rebecca, Honor, and Tane pray, while Burroughs and Dennison try to hold the invaders back, and Charles once again contemplates murder-suicide as a final solution. Suddenly, the attackers back off and leave, and Tane reveals that he gave De Vermis Mysteriis to Loa, as she told him it was the only way to save them. Charles leaves the house just in time to see that Loa is now in league with Jakub.
===Episode 9: "The Gathering Dark"===
Directed by Michael Nankin
Written by Scott Kosar
Bent on attacking the vampires while there's still time, before night falls and the Worm is summoned, Charles and the others ride to Preacher's Corners and explain the situation to the town, showing Mary Dennison as proof. The townsfolk watch in horror as Mary is burned to death by the sun. Burroughs tells the women and children to stay inside the church, which is the safest place, while a group of men (including Dr. Guilford and Daniel Thompson) volunteer to go to Jerusalem's Lot with Charles, Dennison, Burroughs, and Able. Rebecca will come with them as well, as she hopes to reach out to her father and convince him to help them.
Before the group departs, Burroughs is poisoned by his vengeful wife and dies. In Jerusalem's Lot, Jakub converts his loyal human followers into vampires, and promises them eternal life and glory in the new world after the Worm is raised. He opens the book and starts chanting an incantation in the name of Yog-Sothoth.
===Episode 10: "The Keeper"===
Directed by Michael Nankin
Written by Jason Filardi & Peter Filardi
As Jakub and Loa read the spells from De Vermis Mysteriis, the sun is eclipsed and the sky becomes alive with moving and exploding stars. The group led by Charles arrives in Jerusalem's Lot and fights the vampires, fending them off with crucifixes and impaling them. Christopher Morgan offers to turn Rebecca into a vampire so she will rule the new earth with them, but she refuses. Dennison sacrifices himself by attracting the vampires' attention, allowing Charles to get to Jakub. The vampire lord orders Loa to kill Charles, but she instead stabs the "apple girl" just as the latter was going to strike Charles from behind.
While Charles and Jakub fight each other, Stephen sneaks into the lair and steals De Vermis Mysteriis. This provides Charles with the distraction he needed to impale and decapitate Jakub. He tells Loa to hide, promising to go back for her, and rushes to stop Stephen from finishing the incantation and releasing the Worm. At last, he manages to kill Stephen with a stake, while Rebecca closes the book, cutting off the spell and allowing the sky to return to normal. The sunlight destroys the remaining vampires, sans Loa, who is still hiding in Jakub's lair when Charles and Rebecca come to take her home. They are joined by Able and Dr. Guilford, the only other survivors, and return to Preacher's Corners to reunite with their loved ones and neighbours.
Back at Chapelwaite, Charles explains to Honor and Tane that Loa will stay with them, and safeguard the book, as only vampires can handle it safely. Honor and Tane object that they still don't trust her. Thinking about the probability that there might be other people after the book, and that his children will never be safe with it around, Charles concludes that safekeeping the book is a task too dangerous to delegate to Loa, even though she's willing. Viewing it as his own responsibility, Charles convinces Loa to turn himself into a vampire, so that he can do it. After the transformation, Charles asks Dr. Guilford to open up his chest, hide the book there and seal it. With Rebecca promising to look after the children, Charles says goodbye to them and sails away to keep them safe.
==Characters==
*Captain Charles Boone, a whaling ship captain and widower who inherits his family's old property, Chapelwaite. Played by Adrien Brody.
*Honor Boone, Charles' first daughter. Played by Jennifer Ens.
*Loa Boone, Charles' second daughter. Played by Sirena Gulamgaus.
*Tane Boone, Charles' young son. Played by Ian Ho.
*Rebecca Morgan, a struggling author who finds a job as the Boones' governess, hoping to write a story about the family. Played by Emily Hampshire.
* Ann Morgan, Rebecca's mother, who doesn't trust the Boones. Played by Allegra Fulton.
*Christopher Morgan, Rebecca's father, who worked for the Boones in the past, initially believed to be deceased. Played by Jeremy Akerman.
*Able Stewart, an employee at the Boones' sawmill who becomes one of Charles' first and most reliable allies. Played by Devante Senior.
*Daniel Thompson, an employee at the sawmill who is the most openly hostile to Charles at first. Played by Michael Hough.
*Edward Mallory, a local man killed by the vampire pack. Played by Sean Skerry.
*Susan Mallory, Edward's young daughter, suffering from the plague. Played by Justine Colan.
*Rose Mallory, Edward's wife, who seeks justice for her husband and daughter. Played by Joanne Boland.
*Stephen Boone, Charles' deceased cousin, who actually became a vampire. Played by Steven McCarthy.
*Phillip Boone, Stephen's father, also a vampire. Played by Julian Richings.
*Minister Martin Burroughs, the town's minister, who has sympathy for the Boones. Played by Gord Rand.
*Alice Burroughs, the Minister's wife, who is far less sympathetic. Played by Jennie Raymond.
*Faith Pringle, a former cult member who has a secret affair with Minister Burroughs. Played by Briony Merritt.
*Samuel Gallup, Alice's father and the former minister, who is extremely hostile towards the Boones and resentful of his son-in-law and successor. Played by Eric Peterson.
*"Apple Girl", a mysterious and threatening Worm cultist. Played by Genevieve DeGraves.
*Constable George Dennison, the town's sheriff, who has a history with the Boone family. Played by Hugh Thompson.
*Mary Dennison, the Constable's wife, later turned into a vampire. Played by Trina Corkum.
*Dr. Guilford, the town's level-headed physician. Played by Dean Armstrong.
*Elizabeth Cloris, Stephen's old housemaid who allegedly knows how Stephen and Phillip died. Played by Gabrielle Rose.
*Jakub, a powerful vampire who leads the Worm cult. Played by Christopher Heyerdahl.
==Behind the Mythos==
While the main narrative of Stephen King's "Jerusalem's Lot" is adapted faithfully, the series takes some liberties with the source material and adds new characters and plot lines to fill its ten episodes.
In the original story, Charles Boone is an abolitionist who moves to Chapelwaite with his manservant Calvin McCann, and writes letters to an unseen correspondent called Bones. He doesn't have any children and believes himself to be the last of his lineage, although the ending reveals that this isn't the case. In this series, on the other hand, Charles Boone is the captain of a whaling ship and has three children, who move to Chapelwaite with him. The characters McCann and Bones are omitted, although the former's role is largely taken up by Rebecca Morgan, who is hired as the Boones' governess.
Category:Expanded Mythos Film & Television Adaptations