Pet Sematary (1989)
Directed by Mary Lambert
After the Creed family's cat is accidentally killed, a friendly neighbor advises its burial in a mysterious nearby cemetery.
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What critics compared Pet Sematary to
Mr. Mercedes, The Mist, Castle Rock, Creepshow) and nine film adaptations (CELL, THE DARK TOWER, IT, 1922, GERALD’S GAME, PET SEMATARY, IT CHAPTER TWO, IN THE TALL GRASS, and now DOCTOR SLEEP).
The Shawshank Redemption, Pet Sematary, Carrie, Lisey’s Story, Dolores Claiborne, Hearts in Atlantis, The Dark Tower.
When most people think of Stephen King on film, titles like Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary, It, Misery, or The Shining immediately come to mind.
And it earns bonus points for that Pet Sematary (1989) nod too…
Even the monster, if you can call him that, lands like a low-fi metaphor out of Pet Sematary.
This is a resurrection movie with a plot not unlike Pet Sematary.
Two recent horror movies — Jordan Peele's Us and Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's new Pet Sematary remake — can both be read as contemporary riffs on “The Monkey’s Paw.” They're movies about being terrorized by monsters who look like loved ones, but both play less like cautionary tales about people trying to thwart fate — the explicit lesson of Jacobs' work — and more as explorations of a deeper, more amorphous, and collective dread.
Speaking of which, I’m not going to die and be resurrected on a hill claiming the probably unnecessary Pet Sematary reboot is a masterpiece, but it at least has more fun re-animating Stephen King’s zombie cat story with a zippier pace.
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Speaking of Hugo Weaving (2011's " Captain America: The First Avenger "), as memorable as his Nurse Ratched is, he's even more unforgettable as Old Georgie, a demonic voice in Zachry's head that materializes like someone's worst imaginings mingled with memories of Zelda from 1989's " Pet Sematary ."
There is furniture that moves by itself, lights that suddenly switch off, and interdimensional entities coming through the walls, Poltergeist-style; there are violently dreamlike levitations, as in A Nightmare on Elm Street; there is the thing hiding under the bed or in the closet, as in any child’s nightmare; there is the demonic figure filmed standing over the bed of a sleeping homeowner, as in Paranormal Activity; there are the revenant dead, as in Pet Sematary; and there are blood-sucking creatures, as in any vampire movie.
Director and screenwriter Demian Runga’s film pays tribute to the genre with callbacks to staples such as Pet Cemetery and The Grudge , while creating unique visuals and set pieces that are nightmareish and warrant sleeping with the lights on.
Corpses returning from the grave allude to Pet Sematary while the investigative team of paranormal psychologists will evoke nostalgia for Poltergeist and The Conjuring .
The practical effects are so detailed and appropriately hideous, it’s hard not to be reminded of similarly ugly creations such as Zelda from Pet Sematary.
Guadagnino’s version, by contrast, is an indecipherable rewrite by David Kajganich, who’s next writing the new “Pet Sematary.”
It’s reminiscent of Pet Sematary (either version) when the dead kid comes back, except nana’s not dead.
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Murdered pet and secluded woodland retreat à la Pet Sematary ?
The Running Man joins The Shining, Pet Sematary, Carrie and Firestarter, among others, that fail in their attempt to please both the masses and King.