Stephen King’s Pet Sematary was already adapted in 1989 by Mary Lambert to moderate critical and financial success, but that’s not to say it can’t use a fresh coat of paint, right? In fact, that’s what the folks at Paramount Pictures are thinking, as they’ve now begun to put together a remake of the pic, with Jason Clarke in the lead role.
For those unfamiliar with Pet Sematary, the story follows the Creed family as they move to a small town in the Northeast which borders a cemetery enabling the buried to return. Head of the family, Louis Creed thinks it’s far better to bring his loved ones back from the dead as murderous simulacra than let them rest in peace – but don’t worry, there’s plenty of interfering supporting characters to impart wisdom.
While specifics on the production are scarce at the moment, admirers of Stephen King’s oeuvre must be concerned that the remake is seemingly being rushed in front of the cameras. True, jumping to conclusions at such an early stage would be a tad premature, but the rebirthing of yet another horror classic once again provokes the question whether any piece of cinema history is sacred these days.
That being said, there might be reason to have hope for this one, as writer Jeff Buhler has shed some light on the project today, telling Dread Central this particular adaptation will be bringing the story back to the source material.
“When we first started our conversations, the director and I really connected around the idea of bringing the story back to the source material, to find a modern telling of the book that really spoke to some of the big scenes and big moments that Stephen King had originally written.
And as much as all of us are huge fans of the original film, there are moments that are larger than life and feel borderline campy. Our desire was to tell a really grounded, character driven and psychologically horrific version of Pet Sematary, which in my belief, is the scariest book that King ever wrote.
Continuing on, he said:
“It fucked me when I read it in high school and I always remember hearing that it was the one book King chucked in the garbage, because it was too scary and dark, and it was his wife and his friend Peter Straub who were like, ‘You have to publish this.’
Now, as a father of a five year old and a nine year old, I really connected to this story of grief and loss and what it could do to a family in a different way, in that, how far would a parent go to return to their life prior to a tragic event? All of that feels so poignant and universal. It’s our desire to really reconnect to those elements of the story and bring them into a world that speaks to the modern horror audience.”
Finally, he promised that fans of the novel will love what they’ve got planned, before teasing that it might just be the scariest Stephen King adaptation, ever.
I will say this, if you love the book, you’ll love this movie. (Directors) Dennis and Kevin are both such visionaries in terms of how they’ve approached it, from not only a horror standpoint but also a character standpoint, and it’s been really gratifying to work with those guys. I think we’re on track to it make one of the scariest Stephen King adaptations ever! That’s our goal anyway.”
Though Mary Lambert helmed a pretty decent adaptation (at least, Church the cat was awesome) of the novel back in ’89, it did ultimately fail to properly convey the creeping dread of King’s prose. So, we’re willing to watch some fresh talent take another stab at Pet Sematary and after hearing what Buhler had to say, are definitely excited to see how things continue to develop ahead of the film’s April 19, 2019 release.