Stephen King is the Master of Horror for a reason, but not every big screen adaptation of his works has been a hit with fans. As Tubi stocked new titles for December, the free streaming service added a divisive remake of an ‘80s King adaptation starring a Harry Potter actor, and it’s better than what the reviews say.
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Prior to his upcoming role as Dumbledore in HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter TV series, John Lithgow starred as Jud Crandall, the kindly, elderly neighbor and a lifelong resident of Ludlow, Maine, in 2019’s Pet Sematary. The movie, directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer as the second film adaptation of King’s novel of the same name after the 1989 film, started streaming on Tubi on December 1st. The movie centers around the Creed family, whose idyllic new life in the countryside is cut short when the sinister burial ground behind their new home unleashes its evil curse.
Pet Sematary was a hit at the box office, grossing over $113 million worldwide against a modest $20 million budget, but underperformed with critics and audiences. The movie only earned a 57% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a dismal 33% audience rating, which was 27 points lower than the original and made it one of the lowest-rated King adaptations in terms of audience reception.
Pet Sematary’s Controversial Change to the Original Worked in Its Favor
There’s a lot that critics and audiences just didn’t like about the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary, including what was viewed as an overreliance on jump scares, a weak ending, and inconsistent pacing, but most controversial was a major change the remake made to the original film and King’s own work. In Kölsch and Widmyer’s remake, Ellie, rather than her younger brother Gage, is struck and killed by a truck only to later resurrect as a malevolent entity, a major twist that was slammed as a narrative misstep by many but is actually one of the strongest points of the movie.
By changing the fate of the eldest Creed child and handing the role to a talented young actress in Jeté Laurence, the horror of Pet Sematary is not only more believable, but also more terrifying. There is a distinct shift from Laurence’s performance of an infectiously warm and vibrant, and very much alive, Ellie and the twisted, horrifying entity she becomes, and that alone is terrifying enough. But by opting to shift Gage’s death to his sister, the movie also presents a far more formidable foe. A 9-year-old girl capable of wielding weapons and articulating her evil is a more active threat than a toddler, and her understanding of her own fate is downright haunting. Resurrecting Ellie also allowed for a bigger emotional gut punch, as she had started questioning death and the afterlife prior to her passing, making her death more tragic.
Other Horror Movies Now on Tubi
Tubi is a great place for horror, with a catalog of content that grows every month. Now streaming for free on Tubi alongside Pet Sematary are other scary titles like House at the End Of The Street, The Menu, Oculus, and Slither.
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