Author Stephen King regularly promotes films based on his novels ahead of their release, likely due to his connection with the source material. This isn’t to say all of the films that King promotes are major successes at the box office, but King continues to show his support for various projects ahead of their release. The latest adaptation to hit theaters, the upcoming Pet Sematary, has the daunting task of not only living up to the original King novel, but it will also be compared to the 1989 adaptation that many horror fans hold dear. King recently shared his praise for the new film in his typical fashion.
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“It’s f—ing great! It’s a really good movie,” King shared with Entertainment Weekly when asked his thoughts on the movie. “It’s a grown-up, adult kind of movie. It’s not like 12 semi-clad teens get killed in a summer camp. In this particular time frame, you know, there’ve been several movies that have been successful. Horror movies like Jordan Peele’s Get Out last year. And then I think when Us opens, I think it’s gonna be big. I think it’s gonna be huge. Those are like adult-type fantasies.”
King’s praise might not be too surprising, but his tone sounds more passionate and excited than it has been with every other adaptation of his work. While movies based on King stories regularly find success, adaptations like The Dark Tower have disappointed not only financially, but also critically. In those instances, King has never shied away from weighing in on what he thought went wrong.
“The real problem, as far as I’m concerned is, they went in to this movie, and I think this was a studio edict pretty much: this is going to be a PG-13 movie. It’s going to be a tentpole movie,” King previously shared with Entertainment Weekly about The Dark Tower‘s reception. “We want to make sure that we get people in there from the ages of, let’s say, 12 right on up to whatever the target age is. Let’s say 12 to 35. That’s what we want.”
“So it has to be PG-13, and when they did that I think that they lost a lot of the toughness of it and it became something where people went to it and said, ‘Well yeah, but it’s really not anything that we haven’t seen before,’” he added.
The new Pet Sematary lands in theaters on April 5th.
Do King’s comments have you more excited for the film? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
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