With the new Pet Sematary just a few weeks away from reaching cinemas, Total Film (via Games Radar) has shared a new pair of pics featuring Jason Clarke as Louis Creed wandering the titular graveyard on a misty night.
In the Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer’s upcoming Stephen King adaptation, the First Man and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes star plays a grieving father who attempts to resurrect his daughter Ellie after a tragic accident. Clarke’s creepy, anguished performance has so far proven to be a highlight of the pic’s promotional footage, and in an interview with Total Film, the actor recalled how King’s original 1983 novel left its mark on him.
“I read it in my early twenties,” Clarke said. “Nobody does it better than King. The descriptions of what’s going on are just too much at times – you have to put the book down. I was really fucking disturbed.”
Of course, as with any adaptation, the new Pet Sematary makes a few diversions from the source material, the most notable being that Ellie is the one to die as opposed to her brother Gage. Clarke has previously justified this choice by observing that the film can get a “much deeper, richer story” by giving the meatier role to the older of the two siblings, rather than resting too much responsibility on a 3-year-old actor. According to Clarke, King himself is perfectly fine with the change, and seeing how he still isn’t a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s beloved but less than faithful take on The Shining, the author’s blessing was never a guarantee.
Speaking of King, 2019 is set to be an exceptionally big year when it comes to adaptations of the writer’s work. Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, for instance, is headed for theaters on November 8th, though the one you’ve likely heard the most about is It: Chapter Two, which is set for release on September 6th. Before all that, however, we’ll be seeing Pet Sematary on our screens from April 5th.
