PET SEMATARY
Horror is going to be close to home
Directors Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer Starring Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz, Obssa Ahmed
Stephen King’s 1983 novel Pet Sematary is his darkest and scariest book – he initially considered it too bleak to publish – and has already been turned into a decent movie by Mary Lambert in 1989. But boy, it feels ripe for a remake, and would seem to be in extremely safe hands given directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer are the messed-up mavericks behind excellent occult body horror Starry Eyes (2014), and have been King nuts since they were kids.
“Like Tolkien, King was one of those guys I started reading when I was 11 or 12 years old,” says Widmyer as Kölsch nods in agreement. “I held off on Pet Sematary because the paperback said, ‘The most terrifying novel ever written!’ When I got to it, I read it in two days. There was something different about it. More dark and dangerous. A lot of King’s work is sentimental; he has a heart. Pet Sematary is not like that. The family slowly go crazy.”
The plot sees Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), a doctor from Chicago, move his family to the sticks when he gets a job at the University of Maine. Well, not quite the sticks – their house is fronted by a busy road and the family cat soon joins the many local pets who have been buried in the titular graveyard in the woods. They don’t always stay there, however. And as the tagline puts it, sometimes dead is better…
Dealing unflinchingly with death, grief and a splintering family, the book is unshakably distressing. Will the movie, which also stars John Lithgow and Amy Seimetz, fully embrace the darkness? “Oh yes,” smiles Kölsch. “It will scare teenagers but it’s also going to scare parents. It’s very mature and psychological.” You have been warned. Jg pet Sematary opens on 5 april.