One for the Road is a short film based on Stephen King’s story, originally published in 1977 and later collected in his first anthology, Night Shift. One of the reasons the tale remains popular is it takes place about two years after the events in ‘Salem’s Lot.

In a bar about to close, two good old boys, Tookey and Booth, decide to help a lost stranger. The man, Lumley, has had car trouble in a blizzard and left his family behind. As if driving in a storm wasn’t bad enough, Tookey and Booth realize on their way to help the family that the car stalled amid the scorched and deserted environs of Jerusalem’s Lot, a town none of the surrounding locals go near for at least one good reason: vampires.

Writer Corey Slater and director Daniel Carsenty make great choices in their adaptation. It doesn’t get cutesy or winky or try to cut against the grain of the original story. One difficulty with the narrative is how simple it is, yet how much more King can pull emotionally from the reader since it’s told through first-person narration and given its connection to the more extensive scope of a novel.

Within the nine minutes of screen time, Carsenty and crew showcase serious cinematic chops. Their characters not only make sense but also make believable decisions. Despite a short amount of screen time, Booth and Took are funny, likable, and relatable. The opening shots of evening highways, towers, and windmills against darkening skies are beautiful and unnerving. They manage to capture a rich contrast between a deep, black, and surrounding night and clearly lit character actions. As someone who knew the short story and enjoyed the nods to Lumley and Derry, I was in pleasant suspense throughout.