The works of Stephen King are currently experiencing a new period of popularity, and that means not only adapting some books for the first time but remaking movies that have already been made once before. One of the remake projects currently in development is Pet Sematary, a story about a plot of ground that brings what gets buried there back to life. Jeff Buhler, who is currently working on the script, says that the film is worthy of getting a remake because the original film focuses a lot on big scares, but the novel itself is actually terrifying because of the way it is grounded and psychologically terrifying, which the new movie will try to capture. According to Buhler...
It fucked me when I read it in high school, and I always remember hearing that it was the one book King chucked in the garbage, because it was too scary and dark, and it was his wife and his friend Peter Straub who were like, 'You have to publish this.' Now, as a father of a five year old and a nine year old , I really connected to this story of grief and loss and what it could do to a family in a different way, in that, how far would a parent go to return to their life prior to a tragic event? All of that feels so poignant and universal. It's our desire to really reconnect to those elements of the story and bring them into a world that speaks to the modern horror audience.
Horror movies are designed to scare you, but there are many different ways they can do that. Quite often, visually terrifying imagery is the chosen method, but sometimes the scariest thing can be not what you see, but what you feel. Jeff Buhler's comments to Dread Central indicate that the remake will be going for this option, as to him, that's what was most frightening about the book, something he understands that much more now that he has kids of his own.
It certainly makes some sense. There's no point in remaking anything if you're just going to do the same thing over again. A remake needs to retell the story in a way that adds or changes enough to make it worth seeing again. While the plot of both versions of Pet Sematary will be mostly the same, the way they tell that story will be different enough that people will, hopefully, be interested in seeing the new version, rather than simply rewatching the old one.
The Pet Sematary remake appears to be getting closer as it recently has cast both Jason Clarke and John Lithgow in key roles. The movie has had a long road to development, but it seems things are finally moving forward. The film is currently set for an April 2019 release.
