After IT proved to be a force at the box office last year, Hollywood seemingly came down with another case of what we’ll call “Stephen King Fever” (no relation to Disco Fever or Hulkamania), as various other adaptations of the legendary author’s works were put into production.
Personally, I was hoping that a modern director would be able to put their own spin on The Shining (the 1997 TV miniseries was indeed faithful to the source material, but it had to adhere to certain standards and practices), though I guess green-lighting its sequel, Doctor Sleep, makes just as much sense.
So, taking into account that Carrie has already been granted a sequel of its own – not to mention two remakes – it seems natural that Pet Sematary, another of King’s quintessential stories, be next on the docket.
Previously, this tale had been adapted to celluloid in 1989, with a followup, Pet Sematary Two, arriving in 1992. And though both have their place in the annals of horror movie history, I’m looking forward to seeing the kind of perspective another filmmaker can bring to this macabre vision, for we’ve already been told it’ll be one of the scariest King adaptations ever. Believe me, when you use hyperbole such as that, you’d better be able to reach the bar set by IT.
Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we now have a synopsis for the latest take, which teases the following:
Based on the seminal horror novel by Stephen King, Pet Sematary follows Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), who, after relocating with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and their two young children from Boston to rural Maine, discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near the family’s new home. When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences.
As you can plainly see, the team won’t be deviating from the premise of a burial ground capable of raising the dead. And should you already be familiar with the material, you know that any being resurrected under these circumstances doesn’t come back in the way one wished. In fact, it’d have been for the better if they’d just left them dead.
Pet Sematary arrives in theaters on April 5, 2019.
