Stephen King Weighs in on ‘Pet Sematary’ Remake

Fans have two more months to wait before a new iteration of Pet Sematary lands in theaters, yet author Stephen King tipped off his followers that the film might be scarier than you anticipate.

While sharing a link to the film’s latest trailer, King added, “This is a scary movie. Be warned.”

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 (Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences.

Anyone who watches the trailer will clearly acknowledge it is a scary movie, but King himself giving a disclaimer seemingly hints that the film might be even more terrifying than anticipated. The author’s reaction could confirm a claim made by the film’s writer, Jeff Buhler, who aimed to make this film the scariest King adaptation ever.

“I will say this, if you love the book, you’ll love this movie,” Buhler shared with Dread Central. “[Directors] Dennis [Widmyer] and Kevin [Kolsch] 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.”

The film was previously adapted into a film in 1989, with Buhler wanting to point out that the goal of the project was to give a new interpretation of the original novel instead of merely serve as a remake of the previous film.

“When we first started our conversations, Dennis and Kevin 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,” Buhler noted. “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.”

Fans can see how this new interpretation compares to the source material when Pet Sematary lands in theaters on April 5th.

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