Screening of Stephen King's 'Pet Sematary' leaves critics shook

Shaw Pet Shematary

I am Shook

Book was excellent. Never bothered with the films.

I remember reading this book many years ago, at night. I froze with fright. I don't recall exactly why. I just had to lie still for a couple of minutes before I could move again.

Hopefully the movie will be equally scary.

While the book was one of King’s better efforts, the first movie adaptation was shit. I’ll catch this one on streaming.

[quote]Can always count on an adaptation of a Stephen King novel to be good.

Really?

I hope the hype is real. The 1989 film was so stupid--terrible acting, terrible everything. "Evil" Gage was a joke, he reminded me of Chucky.

r5 And that Castle Rock show last year wasn't that great either.

I read this book as a teen when it came out. It was so scary, I vowed never to read another Stephen King book again. And I haven’t.

Yeah, but this version won't have The Ramones, so on that one level the 89 version will always be better.

I think King himself said it was his scariest book. It was partly based on his own life living on a high traffic road where his own son was almost hit and the neighborhood children had created a pet cemetery for all the animals that had been killed. Like with Misery, something that close to his own experience is going to be that much more intense.

R8 That is my experience also. My disgust with the mind of Stephen King has softened with his clever ongoing insults of Trump, his family and nightmare "administration".

I love King's books but I would say more often than not, the movie adaptations have been lacking. That said, the recent IT was very good so I have high hopes for this as well.

Agree, r12. And ironically, the best books have been made into the worst -- or at least, the least faithful -- movie adaptations.

The Shining is one of his best books, but Kubrick butchered it (and let's not get into Jack Nicholson chewing up the entire hotel). Apparently King nearly strangled Kubrick when he saw the film for the first time; he had to be physically restrained. Not that Kubrick's film is objectively bad, it's pretty good, but it's got a very different sensibility than the book.

The novel Carrie is actually written in the format of a documentary / news report, with an "onscreen" narrator and re-enactments. Why did De Palma decide to turn it into a straightforward dramatic movie instead? It could have been what Blair Witch became 20 years later.

The Dead Zone, on the other hand, is one of King's lesser novels, but the film version with Christopher Walken was very good.

The sequel with Edward Furlong that Lambert directed was actually better than the first one. The only high point of the original is the super hot but terrible actor playing the dad.

I wasn’t sure I’d like this new one (I find Jason Clarke alienating) but these reviews sounds promising. I only go to the movies once or twice a year, so this might be the one to roll a joint and head out for.

I think the best Stephen king film adaptions are The Shining, Stand Be Me, The Dead Zone and Misery. The recent IT was not good at all- don’t get how anyone can say it is. Ridiculous concept! The 4 films are great because they have directors who are supremely talented. Will pet semetaty be good? I will see it but am not holding my breath.

Pet Semetery 2 was absolutely insane. The fact that Mary Lambert who had directed Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video only a few years earlier is even stranger. If any of you are horror fans, check out the Dead Meat YouTube channel. He’s cute and his “Kill Count” videos are great. Here’s a link to his Pet Semetery 2 Kill count...

I watch the kill count every week, R16. Cute guy, funny in a nerd way, and the segments are always well edited. His Cut Comparison videos are great.

[quote]It could have been what Blair Witch became 20 years later.

You mean a piece of shit that lowered the bar for movies as a whole, not just horror films?

Amen, R9 🤘

The last page of "Pet Sematary" was so horrific that I couldn't read King for years. I probably won't watch this remake of the movie. Who needs the nightmares - real life is bad enough.

That cat is evil as shit.

R15, don’t forget Dolores Claiborne! It’s one of the few movies that I can rewatch parts of it at a time, and still enjoy it because I just like how the story is told. The same with the following...

Shawshank Redemption,

Green Mile,

Eyes Wide Shut,

Stand by Me.

And The 2019 Shining, where the book was better.

Call me when they re-make Salem’s Lot and no not that turd with Rob Lowe. The 70s film is obviously dated but boy did that film do a great job of creating legit terror. These weren’t kissing teen vampires with angst.

They did a role reversal in the movie (very obviously spoiled in the second trailer for the movie) and it changes a lot of things so I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out. The new ending they gave to the end of The Mist was stunning.

The first movie had Fred Gwynne. Best thing about that movie.

When I read that book I swore I would never see any movie based on it. It is way too freaky. It is the stuff of nightmares

Christ you people are pussies. The only Stephen King book that was remotely scary was Salem's Lot. And to not consider the original version of Carrie as both a well made movie as well as a classic horror film shows just how suspect your judgments are.

The original Carrie was scary as hell.

The Shining might be the creepiest, most unnerving movie ever made. Though I understand why King hates it. His themes are absent in the Kubrick Version. King is unable to appreciate its considerable merits because it's simply not the story he told in his book.

More hype by "critics" eh. Never read a single SK novel before but all these incarnations of his books to film seem more bust than boom. I think I'll try this one first unless any other starter recommendations?

I'm not buying this hype. I went to see IT last year with very high expectations (thanks to all those glowing reviews) and I thought it was terrible (even more so than the original mini-series).

And I grew up with the original film version of Pet Sematary and thought it was the scariest film I've ever seen. I rewatched it recently after a long time and couldn't believe how awful it really is - amateurish direction, bad performances and unintentionally hilarious moments galore. Its only redeeming features were Fred Gwynne and whoever the hell played Zelda.

Pet Semetary and Salem’s Lot were his scariest books. I can quote passages from both nearly verbatim because I read them so many times over the years and they affected me so much. Salem’s Lot could be an incredible film in the right hands.

Fred Gwynne and Ramones theme song are the only good parts of the first movie.

Related thread here:

It, the novel, scared the hell out of me but maybe that had something to do with the fact that I read it when I was the same age as the Losers kids in the book.

I had no idea they were remaking Pet Sematary.

I enjoyed The Shining mostly because of Shelley Duvall -- I know she annoyed people, but I thought her performance was great.

The new It was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve ever experienced. I don’t know which was more of a let down- that or the new Halloween.

There's been plenty of amazing film adaptions of King's work, yet interestingly enough, it's the more grounded stories that have translated best to film, like:

Shawshank Redemption Stand By Me Misery Delores Claibourne

I think his more popular, straight up horror fantasy novels don't translate as well, probably because the special effects often look dated and cheesy.

Any opinions on The Stand?

R37, I never could get through The Stand for some reason, although I know many share the opinion that it's his best novel. Dystopian/post-apocalyptic plotlines have never been my thing though..

I myst like The Stand. I’ve read all three different versions. I even liked the miniseries.

It’s best in the first third, with King’s realistic description of how a man-made pestilence devastates the planet. But then he seems to have nowhere to go but into the supernatural, a battle between Good and Evil. His Walkin’ Dude Satan character was cast very well in the series, and his followers seem in retrospect pretty deplorable.

Apparently, a remake is underway, and I’ll probably go see it. Just as I’ll probably go see this.

I didn't like the first film much and hated the sequel. Think I'll pass on this one.

Nothing against Jason Clarke,but the lead in the original was cute at least.

The scene of him with the hairy chest in the bath lead to many boners during USA Up All Night in the 90’s.

R41 best part of the whole Movie honestly

Dale Midkiff, DILF

[quote] The fact that Mary Lambert who had directed Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video only a few years earlier is even stranger.

There is something not right with this sentence.

Ian Bohen could be his twin.

Has King published anything new lately?

To me, Carrie did the wise thing and got rid of the investigation crap. It kills a lot of the tension if you know who made it out alive and who didn't. I believe De Palma's film is better than the novel itself. Would it have been cool to see Carrie destroy the whole town? Maybe, but just destroying the school was fine. They also tried to open the film with the rain of stones scene, but it didn't look right. The other two adaptations have at least filmed that sequence as well (it was also shot and cut from the 2013 version) and you'd think they'd learn by now that it's just not a very good scene and makes very little sense.

Pet Sematary was always King's scariest book to me, so I'm curious to see how they handle it this time around. The original film had great moments and a whole lot of idiotic moments.

The little kid hiding under the bed with the scalpel, terrified me, I was only a kid myself but for years and years afterwards I checked under my bed every night.

ZELDA WAS TERRIFYING

Jason Clarke is my sole reason for seeing this remake. He is a phenomenal actor and his career has taken off like a rocket.

R51, I will say that he is a great disadvantage with that face of his. He just looks like an asshole. That circular salad plate face and intense stare scream unhinged bully.

I’ll give him a chance but it’s a shame that only the female director brought some eye candy. Of course the wife is beautiful in this one.

Salem's Lot was the only book I ever read, that I COULD NOT read unless every light in my house was on. Scary shit.

This painting terrified me as a child.

Pet Sementary is not remotely scary to me the movie never read the book though. I’m kinda of lukewarm on this remake. I enjoyed IT remake didn’t find it Uber scary but thought the movie was overall enjoyable. Only SK horror remake I want is Salem’s Lot. The Shining and Carrie originals are perfect no need for remakes.

Also r48 can you expand a little more about the differences in DePalma’s film versus the book (obviously never read the book)?

DePalma's Carrie is the closest thing a popular horror b-production has ever come to art. It's great.

Pet Sematary was the last Stephen King book I read for a long, long time. It was just too sad. I don't know how parents can endure a child's death without going crazy with grief. I'd never recover.

[R6] it WAS a terrible movie, even though Dale Midkiff was nice to look at. WEHT Dale Midkiff? He looks rough in recent image searches. Please tell me he's not doing Lifetime or Hallmark movies these days.

I buried my cat out back a couple weeks ago. That night something broke my first floor window. It was one of those super windy days, but I couldn't help thinking Joey's spirit was trying to get back into house.

Mystery unsolved.

R56, the main difference is that the novel has a framing device using fake interviews and book excerpts from the survivors telling you more about Carrie, what she was like, what the town was like, etc. If it were to be translated to film, it would have a documentary style like an episode of A Haunting or one of those other ghost shows. There's a prologue (which has been shot for every version of the film, but only made it to the final cut for the '02 TV version) where young Carrie sees a teenage neighbor sunbathing and asks what her breasts are. Margaret comes out, drags her back into the house, starts beating her, and Carrie causes stones to fall from the sky.

There's also a pregnancy subplot with Sue (that was brought into the 2013 film version) and a subplot with Chris' dad trying to sue the school for what they did to his daughter (also in the '02 and 2013 versions). The prom scene is also different in that Carrie is hit with the pig's blood, she rushes off stage into the crowd, slips and falls, people laugh, and she goes outside on the lawn and cries before getting the idea to kill them all. She coldly walks into the lobby of the gym and controls everything from there, watching through the doors, smiling the entire time. She then goes on a spree, destroying stuff in the town itself before coming home to her mother. She never takes the bath like in all the other versions, but Margaret still stabs her, but Carrie stops her heart instead of crucifying her (a much better and more cinematic death for Margaret if you ask me). Carrie manages to get back outside and into the town where she kills Chris and Billy and collapses outside the old roadhouse where Sue finds her. They share a brief scene and have some telepathic link. Carrie dies and Sue gets her period which tells her she's not pregnant.

De Palma managed to capture all the themes of King's novel beautifully, but made it his own (and improved a few things along the way).

It's opening April 5, 2019.

I didn't like De Palma's Carrie (and I didn't see the remakes). In the book, Sue Snell is the lone person who defends and is protective of Carrie's memory, wanting people to understand she was horribly abused and had once been a genuinely sweet girl who was pushed to the brink. That was an interesting dynamic. As part of the framing of the book, Sue is interrogated during a Congressional investigation and it seems like she is being set up as an accomplice both for arranging for Carrie to attend the prom and for refusing to trash her. Either during her questioning or in an excerpt from a book she writes, Sue mentions that when Tommy picked Carrie up from the prom, she asked if he would mind bringing her home right after because her momma would worry if she stayed out to late. Sue points out that this is the "monster" everyone is posthumously trashing--an outcast who is about to her attend her first and maybe only major social event and will cut her night short because she doesn't want to make her momma worry. Sue seems to genuinely grieve for her, even though she's also grieving for everyone else she lost because of Carrie.

The movie abandons that really compelling relationship completely and just goes with a more cliched horror ending. That did the story a real disservice. The movie also failed to really get into why Sue would forego the prom and insist Tommy take Carrie in her place, which just left a real plot hole. It's just sort of a vague "Sue feels bad for her" when in the book it was much more complex. Sue is having a real crisis of conscience not just about Carrie, but her whole world and all her petty privileges. It's so disappointing to see interesting female characters get stripped down to 2-dimensional roles, especially because it happens so often.

Sissy Spacek was perfection though, capturing Carrie's vulnerability but still believable when she totally loses it. And of court Piper Laurie pulled off something amazing with a part that could have easily devolved into silliness.

r22, what does Stephen King have to do with Eyes Wide Shut? And what's the 2019 version of The Shining?

Schteven King’sh The Schhining!

[quote]Carrie dies and Sue gets her period which tells her she's not pregnant.

Sue is pregnant up to the end. The trauma of that night and the telekinetic connection btw Carrie and Sue in the forner’s dying moments are the implied cause of her miscarriage.

I’m kinda with r62 even though I like the DePalma film (though the scare ending is cheap), but the book version is quite a credible piece of work in its depiction of mean girls and that very particular type of female-on-female bullying. I’m not sure it is something men can get.

"I’m not sure it is something men can get."

Because men never bully each other at all.

[quote]Salem's Lot was the only book I ever read, that I COULD NOT read unless every light in my house was on. Scary shit.

I was around 20 when I read Salem's Lot. It scared me so much I had to wear a silver cross around my neck for two weeks afterwards. I still don't understand why my reaction was so over the top, I mean I felt so disturbed that I had trouble getting sleep. I'd read practically all King's novels before that and none of them made me so afraid of the dark. I recently listened to it as an audiobook and it wasn't really that horrifying... then again I'm almost 30 years older now. I listened to the audiobook during night time while painting and I must admit I had to stop a few times and take a look around the room to see no one was there.

I've always liked Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary. Sure the hot male lead was a horrendous actor but he was so hot it didn't really matter. At the time it was seen as one of the best King filmatizations, and I still think it is. It's a trashy little horror flick. I didn't really like the trailers of the new version but good to hear it's apparently a great film.

WATCHERS will always be superior.

[quote]"I’m not sure it is something men can get." Because men never bully each other at all.

Never said that, but it’s a different kind of bullying. Maybe work on your reading comprehension a bit dear.

"I’m not sure it is something men can get."

Well, except King wrote it.

Everyone thinks of King as a great horror writer, but more so he is an exceptional relationship writer. His best books and the best films of his books are the ones where relationship dynamics are centered, with the horror creeping in at the margins. The bad ones inevitably amp up the horror and forget the importance of the relationships. Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption, and Delores Claiborne have very little horror, but the friendships and loyalties at the center of the stories make what awful things happen to the characters all the more compelling. It (the book) works so well because of the intense friendships the outcast kids forge--and the recent movie nailed that by spending so much time developing those friendships. That makes "what will Pennywise do next?" so much more terrifying. You know those kids are in it together 100% and Pennywise will use their loyalty against them.

Pet Sematary (the book) has a number of superb depictions of relationships--Louis finding his "father" in Judson, his love of his children even when they aggravate the fuck out of him, his fierce protective love of his wife, especially after he learns what her parents did to her re her sister, and so on. What makes the horror parts of the book so scary is how they impact all those relationships--Judson "luring" him to use the pet cemetery, burying the cat to spare his daughter grief, the soul-crushing grief he and his wife experience when Gage is killed. When he brings Gage to the cemetery it's so horrifying not just because of what he's doing, but because you understand what's driving him and it's so compelling. He's so broken and you're invested in his brokenness because King pulled you right into his love for his son. And of course the ending when he makes that mistake again. It works because you understand why he'd be so desperate to try again. It wouldn't be so effective if King didn't invest us in those relationships so much. If this movie gets that right, it will be great.

[quote]"I’m not sure it is something men can get." Well, except King wrote it.

Clearly I was complimenting King for being able to conceive and formulate it. But Kng is also a talented and wildly successful writer with a five decade career. He’s not the norm,

I'm listening to Pet Sematary on Audible (which is quite well done BTW with Michael C. Hall); as a person who just lost a parent in the last year, re-reading it made me realize how much this book is really about grief - accepting our own mortality, the kind of grief that we can come to terms with and the kind that we just can't. I love Jason Clarke - he was the best part of Everest - so I hope the movie isn't a total campfest like the last one. The whole bit about dead Pascal visiting Louis & the trip into the Micmac burial ground is scary stuff, but it's really about just going to a place no one should ever go.

If you've ever read The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin, there's a part where she talks about Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead & she doesn't dispute that she did it - she just said he never should've done something like that.

I agree with the posters who say that Salem's Lot in the right hands would be a great movie. That was one of King's first books & his female characters were pretty weak (Susan lives at home = loser), but the latter part of the book when society completely breaks down & the remaining survivors are hiding in fear from their friends & neighbors who turned into vampires is truly scary shit.

R58 Dale Midkiff did a mid 90s Lifetime movie called "Love Comes Softly" and he looked mighty fine still at that point. Even playing against the horrid Katherine Heigl. In an even boring sequel, DL fave January Jones played his daughter.

My favorite King book is "Needful Things" which in 1993 was made into a terrible movie starring Max Von Sydow. Hopefully someone will do a remake of this one and stay closer to the tone of the novel.

Another compelling "relationship" story: Apt Pupil. Again, the little actual horror in the story is effective because we see what this sick "friendship" is doing to both the boy and man.

I didn't know who Kathy Bates was when I saw Misery upon release. I had read the book and the image of the character in my mind was exactly as Bates played her. She was perfect in that role and deserving of the Oscar that she won. I've read all of King's early books except Pet Sematary nor have I seen the original movie. I don't know why other than I never got around to it.

Dale Midkiff is hot AF in the fabulously trashy 90s TV flick, “Sins of the Mother”!

Elizabeth Montgomery plays his Supercunt mom - and it’s streaming free on Amazon Prime.

Werq, Dale!

R76 "I've read all of King's early books except Pet Sematary nor have I seen the original movie."

Forget the movie. Read the book, but prepare yourself. The depiction of grief is overwhelming and makes the scary parts that much scarier.

I hope if this works, they turn this into a series of films. Pet Sematary 2 was pretty good step in this direction. I think there’s a lot of potential for more interesting stories to come out of the concept of this cemetery.

I actually think Sue is the weakest part of Carrie. Even King himself admitted that he never really trusted her or her motives. She seemed almost too pure and too kind to be real. It doesn't help the De Palma film that Sue has about 6 lines, but Amy Irving is quite good in the role, so she leaves quite an impression. The De Palma film is so perfectly paced to me and so wonderfully put together that it's hard to find much fault. It is interesting that some really interesting actresses have taken on both Carrie and Margaret in subsequent stage/screen adaptations and neither we able to bring what Sissy and Piper did. In fact, most Margarets have practically blended into the wallpaper and were nowhere near as imposing and scary as Piper was in the role.

Sometimes, you get lucky with an adaptation. It's the right creative team with the right cast at the right time and everything just works. It might not be 100% faithful to the source material, but it works. It's even more apparent if it's readapted later on. Inevitably, those remakes might be more faithful or might have better effects for one scene or better cinematography or an actor who's more appropriate for that one role, but it's still not quite perfect. The other adaptations of Carrie got a few things right and they're both technically closer to the novel, but they don't have that spark that the De Palma film had.

I always thought it would be interesting to do a black Carrie remake in the style of Precious with a bible-thumping Baptist mom. But I don’t think they’ll ever remake it a fourth time unless it’s a TV stage production of the reworked but lifeless musical.

I have to say I’m really enjoying the commentary in this thread. I was never a big SK fan nor have I read many of his books. But I’m the various breakdowns being done in this thread is pretty fascinating.

I like SK’ son’s work Joe Hill I loved Heart Shaped Box.

The moment I saw Precious, the first thing that came to mind was a black version of Carrie. It might just work and would add another layer to the story. I wonder if there's at least been a black production of the musical on stage at some point.

Has anyone else read ‘Crouch End’ from Stephen King’s ‘Nightmares and Dreamscapes?

It scared the cold fuck out of me.

R81 "I actually think Sue is the weakest part of Carrie. Even King himself admitted that he never really trusted her or her motives. She seemed almost too pure and too kind to be real."

I didn't see her as too pure and kind at all. She joins in the shower attack on Carrie for the sake of going along--she's completely spineless there. Even in wanting Tommy to take Carrie to prom for "good" reasons, she's really just making a martyr of herself. She never actually tries to get to know or befriend Carrie, she keeps her at a distance. It's only when Carrie is dying that Sue actually tries to make a connection with her. And in the aftermath it's clear she's very defensive and hates having her motives questioned.

Odd to me that King felt like he couldn't trust one of his more complex female characters.

There was one King story that really terrified me. I can't remember what it was called. Maybe The Man in Black? It was in Everything's Eventual, I believe, and it centered upon a young boy meeting a creepy guy in black who smelled of sulfur. I don't think it would translate well to the screen at all, but there was something so unnerving about it. I remember one passage where he told the kid that his mother would die and that, soon, his father would need another hole to stick his dick in and the boy would have to take it. It gave me the heebie jeebies.

R86, some writers are always surprised by how people interpret their characters and stories. Maybe what worked for you didn't work for King. As a writer myself, I'm always shocked when I write something that I think is shit or just middle of the road and people actually love it and the thing I wrote that I loved and had full faith in gets a "it was ok" or "it's not my favorite." I did find it interesting that he would say that. I always just assumed she was one of the good ones - maybe a rare good Christian girl who wanted to be of service. She saw that she could help someone out and she did. People like that do exist. They're rare (especially in teenage form), but they do exist. Although, it does make sense that the media and the justice system would have their doubts about her.

Back to Pet Sematary, because of course I had to read the last section again when I saw this thread - what do you guys think is behind Victor Pascow's presence? Who is trying to "warn but not interfere", even though the evil energy is very much allowed to interfere and has been playing everyone like puppets?

Also why is the Wendigo corporeal? That's not very scary.

The creepy kid from the original, Miko Hughes, grew up to be quite cute:

R88 Interesting, but Sue doesn't start out as one of the "good ones." She starts out a pretty average popular teen girl who is generally "nice" but is perfectly capable of, and in fact engages in, the kind of horrific abuse that happens to Carrie in the shower scene. Had the incident with Carrie never happened, she realizes she would have gone on to an empty "Suzie Cupcake" life filled with surface niceness and vapidity. The incident completely upends her and sends her into a total crisis of conscience. She's not too pure or good and she still makes mistakes, but she is trying to make something right and send her life into a different direction. And then it all goes to hell and as an adult and survivor she's balancing her cynicism with trying to find some meaning and force some understand of what happened. It's precisely her character evolution that makes her interesting to me.

R89, personally I think King laid on the supernatural stuff too thick (as I think he usually tends to do). The story really doesn't need multiple strands of supernatural--limiting the cemetary's description to "bad soil" from a desecrated burial ground was enough. I think though Pascow is just supposed to represent that some things can't really be defeated, only avoided. The book overall is really bleak and desolate, and it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that once Louis sets foot in that cemetery, he's a goner. He'd never be able to withstand its pull, so Pascow tried to tell him the only thing he could do was just avoid it altogether. I think when Pascow appears to Ellie or Rachel later, he tells her something like "it's too late."

It's likely an allegory to King's alcoholism--you're never going to get the better of alcohol, the only thing you can do it stay away from it.

I agree with the poster upthread who said this is a great thread. I only need half an excuse to pull out my old copy of Carrie and read it for the first time in twenty years. I was lucky to read the book before the movie so I gained an appreciation of both. Unfortunately, I saw Pet Sematary before I picked up the book and I had trouble getting into it. I kept seeing the movie in my head and I felt like I was wasting time. I want to give it another chance, or at least read from the burial of Gage and on.

^ You really need to read from the beginning. Again, what makes the story so compelling and the horror so effective is how well King developed and depicted these characters and their relationships.

Any thoughts on “Christine”? The descriptions of the rotting corpses were so vivid I literally threw the book in the trash the night I finished reading it. For years I had a horror that I’d turn over in bed and be faced with one of those monstrosities. I’m creeping myself out right now. I didn’t think the book was one of his best, overall, but parts of it delivered the goods. The movie was crap.

I grew up in Maine and “Pet Sematary” really captured the oppressive creepiness of the Maine woods. That book is so bleak, and tremendously effective as horror, because of that emotional bleakness.

Carrie is great and they killed Betty Buckley. So deserving and for nothing to do with the movie.

The Shining, Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption are wonderful.

I will still say that Delores Claiborne is the very best adaptation of any Stephen King work.

Vera Donovan alone. Masterpiece.

Jason Clarke’s presence usually is a red flag for a stinker.

Salem’s Lot with David Soul was quite scary at the time for a TV series.

I think it still holds up pretty well.

Salem’s Lot and Christine are great candidates for quality remakes.

R9 interesting thoughts, thanks.

For those who haven't read it and don't want to sleep tonight, here you go.

* r92, sorry

Does anyone have a Salem’s Lot PDF? I’ve never read it and this thread got me interested.

R101 you can read it online here- it seems to be generated by OCR so there are character recognition errors. https://allnovel.net/salem-s-lot.html

A pdf (not mine) is also linked below.

R89

I've only seen the movie and haven't read the book, but the movie Victor seemed to be trying to help but actually had the opposite effect. If he hadn't "helped" by appearing to the daughter and the wife, the wife likely wouldn't have died. And the introduction of the character with his own death scene was really creepy. I had a hard time understanding at first that he was (supposedly) trying to prevent tragedy, and, at the end, I started to question whether that really was his goal or if he was trying to egg on as many deaths and reanimations as possible.

somewhere out in the internet i found a download of every king book for epub/mobile reader. If I remember where it was I will post it.

Salem Lot, to this day, scares the piss out of me. It's the kid scratching at the window and the town, hiding and dead inside their homes. I think of it every once in a while if I'm walking home and haven't seen a car, or a person in a while.

I also love and am traumatized by Cujo.

For those of you interested, there’s a documentary that came out a few years ago about the making of the film called Unearthed and Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary. I remember it being somewhat interesting, mostly in the sense that it was filmed in a small town so the shooting had a major effect on their lives at the time. I got it on iTunes so I might check it out again tonight for you guys if I find anything of note.

R103 good point, but I guess the Good didn't consider how strong the Evil had become and thought it'd be possible to change the course of events.

I've tried to imagine what happens after the epilogue. Louis gets whacked, presumably, and then what? Or Rachel just hangs around creeping out the other residents?

R77 I can't believe how long it took me to realize that's Elizabeth Montgomery lol

I have a soft spot for the original movie. It has a great atmosphere and some truly scary scenes. Not everything has to be critically acclaimed to be entertaining.

As this thread veered off into all things SK, I was most struck by Carrie’s physical description in the book (overweight with black hair, if memory serves), which was such a marked difference from Spacek (I read the book after seeing the movie).

And I enjoyed the reference to Margaret’s mother or grandmother having similar powers. The epilogue re a mother writing a letter to someone concerning her little girl with the same powers was excellent.

It is interesting that the only Carrie who matched the novel's description has been Linzi Hately who originated the role in London and Broadway in the musical version. She's almost exactly as you'd picture the character from the novel. A bit chunky, horribly dressed, but could clean up fairly decently.

Chloe Moretz was probably the furthest from the novel's description in both looks and personality. I thought she was truly awful and whoever cast her should be slapped silly.

I think if i ever watched the original again, i'd have to stop before the ending. Seeing Tasha Yar's face like that made me want to puke.

Also has anyone watched Carrie the tv version?? Is it any good??

I actually prefer his short stories. Jerusalems Lot was fucking creepy. Shawshank was based on a short story and is one of the best movies.

" There was one King story that really terrified me. I can't remember what it was called. Maybe The Man in Black? It was in Everything's Eventual, I believe, and it centered upon a young boy meeting a creepy guy in black who smelled of sulfur. I don't think it would translate well to the screen at all, but there was something so unnerving about it. I remember one passage where he told the kid that his mother would die and that, soon, his father would need another hole to stick his dick in and the boy would have to take it. It gave me the heebie jeebies."

This is my favorite short story of all time. So haunting in the end when the elderly narrator wonders if it was just luck that let him escape The Man in Black and not the God he's worshiped all his life. SK fans should check out Joe Hill, especially his short story collection 'Strange Weather'.

The Man in the Black Suit

R96 "Six pins, Dolores! You know how I like it."

I've never read King before as I've only.recently started reading horror, but I picked up Pet Semetary yesterday and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to finish it, I'm such a scaredy cat.

I'm on page 117, where Norma has a heart attack.

Why do people post links to copyrighted material here? The books are not that expensive to buy, and unfortunately if Datalounge gets a warning from the rights holders this thread will be deleted.

R111 Its a complete bore.

It's funny that, apparently, both film versions of Pet Sematary start with Jud already being a widower with Norma already gone. I always liked her presence in the film, because she had the story's only real natural, peaceful death. It also showed how, as much as he loved her, Jud couldn't bury her in that place and bring her back, because he knew she wouldn't really be her if she came back. I was moved by their relationship as it reminded me a lot of my grandparents and I remember how lost my grandfather was when my grandmother died before him. It broke my heart.

The TV version of Carrie is ok. Angela Bettis is a great Carrie, but Patricia Clarkson is a big snooze as Margaret, which neuters the film a good deal. It's also shot on this horrible digital format that looks like a home movie. I assume this was for budgetary reasons, but it looks like shit. The CGI effects are pretty hilarious, too, and the ending is truly abysmal (and was setting up a TV series where Carrie would, I guess, go around the country and help other kids with her abilities)

R119, I thought Jud and Norma's age was the big factor in why Jud wouldn't bury her there--she had a long full life, why bring her back and risk what she'd turn into for maybe just a few more months/years? Part of the lure of the cemetery seems to be the prospect of bringing back someone who was cheated out of life. The story Jud tells of the one person he knew to have been brought back was a man whose father couldn't accept he'd been killed so young. (I forgot the nature of his death--war maybe?) The central question of the book is could grief drive you to bring back a loved one at any cost? That question isn't nearly as meaningful with someone who dies peacefully in old age. Had Norma died younger, Jud might have tried it.

R116 here and I'm at page 227, Norma's funeral and I really can't buy why Louis and Rachel would okay their five year old attending the funeral? In what fucking world? If Norma was her grandmother, then yeah it would be believable but since she was the across the street neighbor they had known for less than a year, it just seems really forced.

Louis comes across pretentious when it comes to death and how his daughter should know the truth. She's five.

He's a stupid man.

R122, what's weird about kids attending funerals? I don't remember the novel that well but the concept of small kids going to the funerals of their parents' friends isn't that weird, especially since the kid knew Norma as well.

I thought the book was a waste of paper. A short story fluffed up so the page count could be higher and make more money. King’s books never have made good movies and most of his books suck. He wrote one good book. Salem’s Lot. Scared the shit out me.

R124 for a five year old who wasn't related to the deceased and only knew the person for approximately six months, it's most definitely weird and shitty parenting.

And yeah I would never be allowed to attend a funeral at 5 years old. It just wasn’t done. Wasn’t considered appropriate.

I've seen children at funerals and wakes. It's actually easier I think to bring a child to one where there isn't a close connection. They can come to terms with what death is and how it affects people without it being so personal that they're distraught themselves. It's definitely a cultural thing though.

Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but don't Louis and Rachel fight about whether Ellie should attend the funeral? Louis grew up around death, he worked in his family's funeral home before becoming a doctor. He thinks he's mastered the emotional toll of death, which is part of the arrogance that is his undoing re the cemetery. Rachel has a serious hang up about death because of her experience with her sister--she just can't handle it. Louis wants the kids to have a normal understanding of death, Rachel wants to avoid the subject altogether. Louis wants Ellie to attend to help her accept that Norma is gone and understand that grieving is normal, as opposed to developing a complex about the subject like her mother.

I thought that the scene where Ellie finally realizes that Norma is gone was well written. She starts crying about how Norma made the best cookies (I think) and now she won't be around to make them anymore. A very realistic way a child might grieve someone they liked but weren't necessarily close to--this nice person who did nice things for me isn't going to be around to do that anymore and it feels awful. Once she realizes that and comes to accept it, Louis thinks she's going to be OK and have a somewhat healthy attitude about it.

" I like the DePalma film (though the scare ending is cheap)"

CARRIE was the first movie to include the surprise endcap that has become a cliche.

Carrie has a good grasp of female relationships because Mrs King contributed to it.

I'm not so sure Carrie's semi-ghost written by Tabitha. King tends to have fairly interesting female characters (Dolores Claiborne anyone?). I think he just might be a wonderful writer of the human condition. That's what I always respond to most in his work - his characters. I think he just has the smarts to write women as (gasp) real human beings.

I'm not saying Tabitha didn't help if King had a question about if a woman would do this or that, but he's created too many interesting women for me to think it was all a fluke.

De Palma's Carrie is great, because it's not a total slave to the material. It keeps the characters, situations, themes, and a lot of the dialogue, but sorta does its own thing with it. It's still a very faithful adaptation for the most part, but it makes some moments more cinematic than they would have been if they'd stuck to the book. For example, who the fuck wants to see Carrie stop Margaret's heart on screen? It works ok in the book, but on screen, it wouldn't be interesting enough. Impaling her with all the kitchen wear was a brilliant idea. The ending was, too. Very inspired and still a great scare to this day. I still love showing people the movie and watching their reaction to the ending.

I love the book, but I do think the original film is a true masterpiece with some really excellent performances - easily some of the best the horror genre has ever seen. If only more horror films were like this and paid attention to casting.

In the intro to later versions of the book Carrie, King himself credited his wife for helping him with the story and writing the female perspective. He wrote the shower scene intending it as a short story, but threw it out thinking he could never get it right. Tabitha saved the scene and offered to help him flesh it out into something workable, and with her help he expanded the story into a novel.

Don't clink on the link at R102. It just gave my Malwarebytes a fucking stroke.

[quote]CARRIE was the first movie to include the surprise endcap that has become a cliche.

Oh really?

When my father was four years old he was carried into the front palour to see his great grandfather in his coffin.

R136 [quote]his [bold]great [italic]grandfather[/italic][/bold]

[quote]great [italic]grandfather[/italic]

When my grandmother died I remember my parents discussing if my sister and I should attend the funeral. They decided it would be too traumatizing.

The really good families don’t allow young children to attend funerals. It’s more of a rural thing to take them because they don’t have nannies or proper babysitters.

R97

I was kind of embarrassed because I too think the mini series still holds up well. But thought everyone would think I’m decrepit fool. The re-made for TNT and it was a complete dud.

Yes I think the 70s vibe it has now gives it a certain something it didn’t have as a contemporary show when it first aired.

Plus I always liked David Soul and Lance Kerwin and the rest of the cast for that matter.

The kitchen scene in Salem’s Lot was pretty terrific and scary

I don't remember the ending of DELIVERANCE.

R116 here. I'm currently on page 330, where Louis sends Rachel and Ellie to Chicago.

This book is depressing.

Im gonna need a palate cleanser after this.

R143 yes because you don’t see it coming. All of a sudden it’s BAM ! Ugly shows up and goes off on everyone in the room.

The Guardian critic gives Pet Sematary 4 out of 5 stars and this new version sounds absolutely terrifying.

Get a library card and you can download the books legitimately.

The last book I read by King was Under The Dome, again the characters were more interesting than the who/what/why behind the dome's appearance. I finished it in one three-day weekend, could not put it down. The first episode of the tv show was fine but it was disappointing after that.

I wonder if Stephen ever checked out the sequel??

I kinda don't hate The Rage: Carrie 2. It's pretty entertaining.

r149 Thanks for the tip about Under the Dome. I do love the way he writes characters. Digging in now!

R110

Moretz was broadcasting awkwardness way too heavily, especially during the opening shower scene. She's not a very strong actor, which makes me appreciate it that much more when an actor can really sell adolescent awkwardness, shyness, and fear of judgement, which Spacek did in spades.

Off topic but the King’s are one unattractive family. His wife was a matron when they met.

r154 You aren't kidding. Here's his son Joe, who has managed to become quite a respected writer himself

Here is Owen living in his brother's shadow

Joe is actually their best looking offspring. Poor Naomi.

....

Naomi is a reverend, and gay activist

This NYT article about the family is quite good. It's a bit dated (2012)

They all look like Stephen. Even the wife.

Their dog Molly, aka The Thing of Evil, is the best looking family member.

Reading Under the Dome now: This passage sounded a bit..familiar in spots.

Lester was a man of fifty so well maintained—by genetics as well as his own strenuous efforts to take care of the temple of his body—that he looked no more than thirty-five (judicious applications of Just For Men helped in this regard). He wore nothing tonight but a pair of gym shorts with ORAL ROBERTS GOLDEN EAGLES printed on the right leg, and almost every muscle on his body stood out.

I like that in this version the evil that lives in the pet cemetery seems to have an actual plan rather than just waiting for the dad to act.

Remake [italic]Cujo[/italic] next and make the little boy black this time.

Remake Cujo with a cat!

King is not a good writer but he comes up with interesting plot ideas. I tried to read Dolores Claiborne after getting into the movie, which much improves on the stillborn narrative of the book.

I miss the Under the Dome TV series from a few summers ago, but only the first season. That first season was wonderful.

The Rage: Carrie 2 has its moments.

R160 they're creepy af.

R116 and r145 I'm down to the last fifty pages. This book is making me feel all sorts of dread.

Ugh.

Stephen King movies used to be often low-budget and of marginal quality. Stephen complained he was tired of being packaged like lunch meat. It's only recently that Hollywood has started taking his work more seriously, with both movies and TV.

r167, King isn't a great writer but he is a great story teller.

I loved The Stand and I think Captain Tripps and all of the disturbing imagery from the fall of civilization contributed to my hypochondria <3 It's my favorite of his books, for sure. I liked the mini-series a lot, and still think it holds up pretty well.

I think Needful Things and The Tommyknockers were some of the more disturbing ones to me. I don't quite remember why. IT, to me, was way overhyped and I preferred the alien presence of The Tommyknockers.

This movie better have Denise Crosby in it.

I love The Tommyknockers, found it totally engrossing. It's underrated, but I'll bet that has a lot to do with the title which comes off as childish. The miniseries was ok but not nearly as good as the book. I wonder if it has any chance of being remade?

The Man in Black scared the crap out of me. I still remember it. I just finished reading "Revival" . He needs editing but for some reason the ending terrified me. His idea of the afterlife made you want to stay alive. The fact that it didn't make a difference if you were good or bad we were all fated the same place.

R171 I'm both envying and feeling sorry for you reading it for the first time. Try to get to the very end while there's still daylight.

Thanks for the link R160 ! Only Joe Hill will make it as a novelist. The rest...… absolutely boring!

R177 just finished it. I feel sad and a little spooked out. I'm starting Salem's Lot next.

They could do a prequel about the dad in the flashback that brings his son that was killed in the war back.

One of my favorite King stories (and one with no supernatural or horror elements at all) is the title story in Hearts In Atlantis. Not the one they adapted into that movie with Anthony Hopkins, but the story about the boys in the dorm, pissing away their grades and futures playing cards. It was a beautiful piece of writing and really helped define that generation for me. I always thought someone should turn it into a stage play.

R180, that's a great idea. Would also work for a TV or streaming series.

I wish Castle Rock had been better thought out. That could have worked really well as a series exploring all the interesting b-plots from King's stories.

I remember watching Salem's Lot as a kid & being *terrified* of someone scratching at the window, however, I re-watched it Halloween & what stuck out at me was:

- David Soul's ultra tight jeans - how did he even walk in those things? - Boom Boom Bonnie's perm - Fred Willard in the red silk boxers (#sad) - what a complete & total gaying Lance Kerwin was

James Mason really stole every scene he was in by being so weird & creepy

R175 omg the Tommyknockers miniseries was so tragic but also hilarious camp. TRACI LORDS as a postal worker that vaporizes people with her alien lipstick. Whaaaat.

It also butchered the Ruth McCausland (my fave in the book) character by making her a Sheriff.

There's a great movie called Deathdream which deals with a family who makes a wish to bring their son home from the war and he does come back - what they don't know is that he died in the war and, now, he needs blood to stay alive. It's quite good. It's Bob Clark's pre-Black Christmas horror film.

R20 what happened at the end of Pet Sematary? I never read it. Too big an animal lover.

R186 the main character's wife comes back as an undead. An evil undead, obviously.

I remember reading his first book of short stories and several were very creepy or frightening. Not the mangler at the laundry, that seemed predictable, but the one with the kid whose father just sat in his easy chair drinking beer.

The Boogeyman, anyone?

What did you guys think of Gerald's Game?

R182, Castle Rock was such a missed opportunity. You have all of Stephen King’s canon and you choose THAT character and that lifeless actor to lead it? I gave up halfway through, although Noel Fisher, Bill Sargard, and Melanie Lynsky gave great performances.

Since it’s an anthology show, I might give it another shot next season. Annie Wilkes is a character but the fact they gave it to Lizzy Caplan is a head scratcher.

I seem to remember The Tommyknockers being pretty universally panned when the book came out. It felt like the critics were really eager to take King down since he had been riding high for so long. I haven't read it in years but remember it being uneven - I loved parts of it but then there was a lot of nonsense and superfluous stuff that could have been edited down. Doesn't King claim he can't even remember writing this one because he was so drunk/high the whole time he was writing it?

He wrote Tommyknockers at the height of his coke addiction.

I remember the Boogeyman.

[quote][R186] the main character's wife comes back as an undead. An evil undead, obviously.

And the guy was sitting at the kitchen table wearing a hat (because his hair had turned white) waiting for her (he may have been playing cards) with his back to the door.

He hears her enter, approach him, and place her hand on his shoulder. “Darliiiiiiing”

Yes, I liked that book too R188; the book was called Night Shift. The story One For the Road (presumably the impetus for Salem's Lot) was one of his best.

Another off-topic from Pet Sematary, but I thought the telemovie "Storm of the Century", screenplay written by King, had a terrible sense of dread to it, but was also kinda corny. The ending, however, just slayed me.

"Give me what I want, and I'll go away."

R195 someone in another thread said the part where King writes about the undead wife kissing the husband really disturbed them, but I just finished reading the book and that's not in the book.

Here's something you never wanted to see.

Amazon is remaking The Dark Tower. Maybe this time it won't suck.

I don't remember what year it was but Stephen King was hit by a van while walking along a road in Maine.

He ended up in Boston for treatment.

My fiends and I used to spot him in our neighborhood. (Back Bay)

Really creepy, always wearing a bathrobe and hobbling around on crutches.

Love the books, but we all agreed his parents were closely related to each other.

The guy who hit him was drunk. He later died under mysterious circumstances. Don't fuck with Stephen King.

[quote][R195] someone in another thread said the part where King writes about the undead wife kissing the husband really disturbed them, but I just finished reading the book and that's not in the book.

I vaguely remember the Lambert film ending with that, and then The Ramones' Pet Sematary starts playing. A great ending.

I've always called the film a love story. Midkiff's character loved his kid and wife so much he brought them back, and in the end he was happy, out of his mind probably, but happy. A beautiful man's devotion for his loved ones was probably the biggest reason I liked the movie a lot. I haven't seen it in ages, though. And yes, Midkiff most certainly was a frequent visitor in my teenboy wank fantasies for quite some time after seeing the film.

Midkiff was super cute, but what a lousy actor. It's been awhile since I've seen the film, but I remember thinking that the film's reputation would probably be better if they'd hired a much better actor for Louis.

R198 it was in the movie, not the book.

I've never read Salem's Lot, but I'm curious about it. How many of you would recommend it? I want to be scared shitless, is it that kind of a book?

I recommend it highly [R206]. It Will scare you shitless. Try to finish it before the sun goes down....

[Quote] It Will scare you shitless. Try to finish it before the sun goes down....

More than The Shining?

R204, nah, it was pretty terrible all around.

Final trailer.

Well ok, I thought I'd see this but no. Moment at 1:18 in that trailer did me in. Nope, nope, nope.

God, what a bunch of fucking pussies some of you are. Pet Sematary isn't even all that scary, except for a couple of parts.

Salem's Lot really deserves a big-screen treatment. If done the right way as a theatrical film, it could be sensational. Maybe split it up into two parts like they've done with IT.

I'm not going to lie, that new trailer has finally sold me. It looks like it's going in a very different direction, giving itself a reason for existing in the first place. The reviews seem good, too. I hope it's good.

Salem’s Lot scared the shit to of me, the little kid scratching at the window??? And that scene in the kitchen?? Christ all these years later it’s scary.

Although not his best book, for my money the best movie adaptation was The Dead Zone. Cronenberg + Christopher Walken, how can you miss? Although they altered a few things (in the book the disaster wasn’t young kids playing hockey on a pond but rather teenagers at a prom party at a roadhouse), I think Walken was a perfect John Smith. Whenever it happens to be on the Movie Channel or something, I never miss it.

The Stand remains my favorite book, but good God the casting in the TV miniseries was ABYSMAL. Other than Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg, and Rudy Dee as Mother Abigail the casting was awful. Molly Ringwald as Frannie? Really??? And FFS, how could they ignore Scott Glenn who would have been the perfect Stu Redman?

I loved the psychological thriller that is the book version of The Shining, but it was a massive Kubrick fail - something I never would have believed possible.

*Ruby Dee

The Stand is another one that needs to be a big-budget theatrical movie, in two parts. There was talk of it a few years ago, but so far nothing has moved forward.

That book scared me shitless! What made it so scary was that it could plausibly happen. A deadly virus wiping out humanity isn't exactly science fiction or the supernatural. Quite terrifying.

I agree Salem's Lot was WAY scarier R212 there was the kid at the window scene everyone knows but the scene where the handyman is sitting in the rocking chair in the dark with glowing eyes, that freaked me out as a kid.

King's short story collection Night Shift is some scary shit too!

Is that the one that somehow became the giant rat/bat under an old factory movie R218?

its soooo good. makes US look like a piece of shit

u like really scarey? u will dig it !!

YES r219! I couldn't stop thinking about that story, it gave me nightmares. Scary AF! It's called "Graveyard Shift."

Salem's Lot is the scariest book I've ever read.

I told that to my brother, who agreed. In fact, after he finished reading the book, he BURNED IT.

He's not a fundy type, he was just that scared.

Let’s not forget the best thing to come out of the original film.

Salem's Lot is still the scariest movie ever made for TV. It was directed by Tobe Hooper. He was able to create a charming, yet spooky atmosphere for the movie. I'm a sucker for horror films with good atmosphere.

I dare say it's a better representation of Stephen King's work than The Shining.

Part of what made Salem's Lot so frightening was that this horrifying evil was taking place in a small town in the US. It wasn't in some far-flung country or a major metropolitan city. This unspeakable evil was moving around in regular people's homes, the local post office, the elementary school, and so forth. It put this frightening vampire tale into an everyday, ordinary setting.

"The Boogeyman" messed me up for years.

Even more traumatic was the cheap, feel-good Hollywood ending for the movie version of Cujo. I preferred the book's ending, as the story was about the adults' disintegrating marriage, not so much about the kid.

The TV series of Salem’s Lot bored the shit out of me.

Sorry, folks. Network TV has to many restrictions to allow something truly scary.

R227 that's what Netflix is for.

[quote]The Stand remains my favorite book, but good God the casting in the TV miniseries was ABYSMAL. Other than Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg, and Rudy Dee as Mother Abigail the casting was awful. Molly Ringwald as Frannie? Really??? And FFS, how could they ignore Scott Glenn who would have been the perfect Stu Redman?

r214, I agree with you except I hated Jamey Sheridan as Flagg. Not scary at all. That awful mullet and head-to-toe denim, he looked like a middle-aged Billy Ray Cyrus wannabe. I'd love to see a better version but it's a challenging book to adapt.

To do "The Stand" justice, there is no way it could be a big screen film. It would have to be a Netflix series. A LONG one. Hopefully they will nail the casting on the next attempt. No Molly Ringwalds need apply.

C+ from the AV Club. Ouch.

Mixed and average reviews on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. Seems like a 6/10 of a movie.

I generally trust the Audience on Rotten Tomatoes. They have spilled the popcorn (below 50%) ! It's a dud, and not a Milk Dud.

Mayhap they rethink release schedules ? Jordan Peele just took all your slow burning horror fan money , why release this following that in less than 6 weeks? You are asking for trouble . Oh well, I'll wait til this is on Firestick :) .

The real creepy part of Salem’s Lot was the ending. Years later and even after relocating they are still being stalked by vampires. The rest of their lives will be spent on the move with no attachments or relationships.

I'm still going to check it out. I don't see how it can be any worse than the original.

I just read the plot on wikipedia. Those changes they made in the last part of the film sound really stupid.

At the ending of the novel Salem's Lot, the man and the boy go back to the town a year later to clean up the remaining vampires. Too bad King never wrote a sequel.

god dam the Ramones were repulsive. hard to believe such fuks ever made a dime. gak!

good movie but kinda ruined by the lead guy, a nothingburger….tv fodder only.

Could have used a hottie, for sure...

tried watching it. had to stop, was alone in the house. tooo scarey.

I didn't think it was scary at all. I laughed whenever the little girl did her "creepy" voice.

R239 one or two couldn't have hurt the movie.

The scariest King's short story is The Jaunt. Remember that? Longer than you think, Dad.

Quick question are the people that "come back" from the cemetery just dead bodies possessed by the evil entities there or do they come back but just evil or is it somewhere in between?

R244 I thought it was somewhere in between. But I haven't read the book.

I agree R235 the book and the first adaptation's ending were way better.

I thought the critics were raving but it barely gets a passing grade at RT. I feel like I have been misled.

I just fast forwarded through a cam version. Trust me, people - this one definitely isn't worth spending any money for. The last five minutes of the film are a total mess.

MINOR SPOILERS ALERT

I also don't like the fact that it's the older kid who gets hit by the truck and dies in this one. One of the few things that was scary about the original film was the sight of a zombie toddler. And the older zombie girl in this one isn't scary at all - she talks too much after comes back from the dead and even dances around the house to Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

The original film suddenly doesn't seem so bad to me anymore. At least that one had a somewhat creepy atmosphere and a couple of good scares. This one doesn't have either of these things.

I never understood why the neighbor (Jud) showed the dad the ancient burial ground in the first place.

had to turn all the lights on at home after I saw it. I fraid dead animals and kids would walk thru the walls and eat me

and so scared their 2nd hand smoke would fuk wid my lungs.....arghhhhhhh

dem dead cats smoke like chimneys: all the foggy smoke from the semeentary

The Daily Beast critic calls the new "Pet Sematary" an insult to Stephen King and hates all the LOUD NOISES:

More objectionable than its second-rate scare tactics (and humdrum visuals) is the flippancy with which the film races through its action. Jeff Buhler’s script condenses King’s story with the grace of a trash compactor; scenes last only as long as it takes to dispense key plot information, and not a single second longer.

It’s akin to experiencing the novel in fast-forward, with any observations about longing, regret and guilt addressed via the absolute minimum amount of dialogue, as if the filmmakers were petrified of letting events and performances breathe...

omg better than THE SHINING by a long shot. SHAZAM !!!!!!

The most terrifying thing is the awful grammar in this thread.

Grammar Nazis are a dying breed. More important things are wrong with the world , dear.

I wouldn’t call that a minor spoiler r248 but I probably won’t be watching it very soon.

R255 Yes, it is a minor spoiler because it's even revealed in the trailer which kid dies in this one. And that's the exact reason I never watch trailers for horror films - they give far too much info away.

Well, I didn’t watch the trailer.

I watched the cam version, god this pathetic POS isn't even scary.

R259 neither do I. Also now I'm wondering what they did with Zelda? Is she not scary either?

Stephen King novels are rarely made into good movies. John Grisham on the other hand. Often great films.

Love Stephen King’s work. Agree that he’s an okay writer but an incredible atmosphere builder and world builder. My favorite book is It, followed by Dead Zone. Favorite movies are Shining and Dead Zone, with Misery following a close third. Carrie (the OG) was and still remains an incredible movie and book. The remakes are crud.

I wish his work were taken on by competent directors. It makes a huge difference because his books are often so densely written. Looking forward to The Stand and NOS4A2 (Joe Hill) a lot. Under the Dome was a fantastic book but a bad series. The Mist was a great little book and HORRIBLE adaptations. Would love to see a GDT version of a Stephen King book. POSs the Shining since King hates Kubrick’s version (which...why? It’s incredible!)

The Shining movie has no heart.

They did a TV version of Athens Shining that is mostly forgotten.

Meant The Shining.

[Quote] Looking forward to The Stand and NOS4A2 (Joe Hill) a lot.

I've been meaning to read NOS4A2. I didn't know it was being adapted.

What the hell is NOS4A2 ?

[quote]Stephen King novels are rarely made into good movies. John Grisham on the other hand. Often great films.

Rarely? Carrie, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Stand By Me, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne. Even some of the schlockier efforts like Christine and the original Pet Semetary are entertaining. It’s just there’s been plenty of bad with the good.

With Grisham there’s The Firm and... ? The Rainmaker? The Gingerbread Man? Christmas with the Kranks? A Time to Kill and The Client are both slick popcorn fare but that’s about it.

R266 your mom’s prom date

I saw it today. Way overhyped. Not even scary to me.

It the movie was really good

Also very good is Gerald’s Game.

I've been meaning to read Gerald's Game forever but haven't gotten around to it.

On Netflix.

Gerald's Game is super boring. That whole movie consisted of Carla Gugino having long and boring conversations with her dead husband. Just thinking about it makes me sleepy.

R267 I had no idea Christmas with the Kranks was based on a Grisham novel - now there's a scary movie!

Jesus r274! I don't think the world needed to see Tim Allen's ball sack in a Speedo.

Hot daddy alert!

Speaking of hot daddies, the only good thing about Gerald's Game was Bruce Greenwood's body. He looked so good for a 60-something guy that some people thought they used CGI on his body to make it look so ripped.

What bothered me is Jamie Lee Curtis looking so bad in a bikini. I never thought she had a bad body.

I actually admire Curtis for doing that scene. Her body doesn't really look that bad, she just looks like your average middle-aged housewife. Of course most other actresses would starve themselves for months before filming a scene like that but Curtis never took herself too seriously.

Luckily we also have Curtis' body in her prime immortalized in Perfect:

She looked great in True Lies.

I'll confirm this is a pile of shit. I thought it was overhyped from the start - the trailer never excited me the way it seemed to for a lot of people. The original may have been unintentionally campy at times but at least it wasn't dull. The characters in the remake are a snooze. The plot alterations don't add anything to the story and the final act is just stupid rather than chilling. Frankly I don't think Pet Sematary is a King story that really works as a film. Except for the ending not a lot happens that makes you think "this would be a great movie!" It's a dark, serious tale about death and the effects of grief and as commonplace as death is in movies, grief isn't something explored very much. Certainly a popcorn horror movie isn't a good place to address it.

Oooh, R281, you know what is a good popcorn horror movie about grief? The Babadook.

I told y’all Jason Clarke was a red flag!

R266 I think it's supposed to be Nosferatu in license plate form.

R282 what about the Babadong?

True, r282, though it's not one I feel the desire to revisit much.

Donnie Darko's bunny mask is turning up /everywhere/.

Or the Stanley Kubrick's The Shining pig mask.

One or the other.

No love for Silver Bullet?

I found myself laughing at tonight”s episode. This series is making me appreciate Faye even more in Mommie Dearest.

This new version is just a lame gore fest. I guess the makers of it thought they were being very clever with the changes they made but the changes don't do shit to make the better than the campy first movie version.

The book is more horrifying than both movies.

Even Pet Sematary 2 is better than the new POS.

Completely overhyped piece of shit. I’m pissed I spent money to see this. I should know better than to listen to a bunch of hyperbolic tweets from people who’d rather get retweeted in articles than have any credibility. It was boring and treaded zero new ground.

Jason Clarke was horribly miscast as the lead. He does not read as any doctor. The blue collar head contractor overseeing a new development of the hospital, yes. He conveyed no genuine grief. He just looked like a pissed off prick for most of the movie. And the whole movie is him trying to emote. They’ve yet to get a good actor to play what should be a juicy role. At least Dale Midkaff was hot.

The should've done a flashback scene with Judd telling the story of the WWII veteran. That was the best part of the whole damn book.

I've been rereading the book. An important character both versions omitted was Norma Crandell, Jud's wife. Actually, it's due to her that a chain of events gets started. She has a heart attack on Halloween; Louis happens to be there and he helps save her life. Judd is very grateful and feels like he owes Louis one. Then Church gets killed in the road. Judd, wanting to do Louis a favor, takes him up to the Micmac burial ground to bury the cat. Although Louis doesn't know why the hell they're going to all that trouble to bury a cat, he seems to be drawn to follow Judd's lead. The burial ground seems like a interesting mystery. Of course not long after that the dead cat comes back and behaves in violent, unsettling ways. And soon after Gage is killed in the road. And then Louis digs him up and tries to resurrect him by burying him in the same fashion as Church, hoping he'll come back as relatively harmless. And then Gage comes back and then...well, there's one horror after the next.

The book really gives a lot of insight into WHY everything happens. Judd explains to Louis that he told him about the Indian burial ground in order help him spare Ellie the loss of her cat. But then he realizes that it seems like the place MADE him do it; "it has a power." And it takes control of Louis too; he tries to maybe talk himself out of doing what he plans to do, but always seems to be drawn back to taking Gage up to the evil burial ground. And at the end of the novel he's totally mad, but still in the grips of the power that's taken hold of him. Anyway, this is a good passage from the book. Louis thinks to himself how could he have been so stupid, but considers:

Grief, not stupidity, Louis. THere is a difference...small but vital. The battery that burial ground survives on. Growing in power, Jud said, and of course he was right, and you're part of its power now. It has fed on your grief...no, more than that. It's doubled it, cubed it, raised it to the nth power. And it isn't just grief it feeds on. Sanity. It's eaten your sanity. The flaw is only the inability to accept, not uncommon. It's cost you your wife, and it's almost surely cost you your best friend as well as your son. This is it. What comes when you're too slow wishing away the thing that knocks on your door in the middle of the night is simple enough: total darkness.

I would commit suicide now, he thought, and I suppose it's in the cards, isn't it? I have he equipment in my bag. It has managed everything, manged it from the first. The burying ground, the Wendigo, whatever it is. It forced our cat into the road, and perhaps it forced Gage into the road as well, it brought Rachel home, but only in its own good time. Surely I'm meant to do that...and I want to.

But things have to be put right, don't they?

Yes. They did.

There was Gage to think about. Gage was still out there. Somewhere.

Turns out the critics aren't crazy about it after all, it barely misses fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 58%. Sounds watchable but nothing to write home about. It still might be better than the original movie, which was low=budget and far from perfect itself. Too bad they let Stephen down yet again, although on average, his movies have improved recently.

It is in no way better than the original movie. The original is far from perfect, but it has a certain charm that this one lacks completely. It's a lot like the Carrie remake where scenes were replicated nearly shot for shot, with all of the creativity and nuance squeezed out of it.

Zelda freaked out an entire generation even though she was clearly a man in a dress. In this movie, she's just a presence-less dummy in a dumb waiter. And wasn't there an article with the filmmakers that said there's more Zelda and Victor Pascow in this adaptation? There's less.

It's been a while since I've felt so incredibly conned into seeing a movie. Fuck Paramount, fuck those talentless directors, and fuck the fake critics who got drunk on Paramount's dime to shill their shit movie on Twitter.

Saw it yeasterday. It was terrible.

[quote] Can always count on an adaptation of a Stephen King novel to be good.

Are you high? There are many terrible adaptations of Stephen King books.

It wasn't terrible, but it's far from as memorable as the original or the novel. A lot of missed opportunities. This one will come and go and no one will remember it (like most remakes, if we're being honest).

"The original is far from perfect, but it has a certain charm that this one lacks completely."

The original has no "charm" at all. It was just gross and stupid. And the acting was SO bad. Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby and the child actress who played Ellie were all dreadful. And I always hated having Victor Pascow popping up all throughout the movie as some kind of corpse/spirit sent to help the Creed family. In the book Louis has a dream visitation (or is it a dream?) from him once and Ellie dreams of him, too, but that was all. The only good thing about the original was the acting of Fred Gwynne.

[Quote] And I always hated having Victor Pascow popping up all throughout the movie as some kind of corpse/spirit sent to help the Creed family.

I'm sure someone out there enjoyed seeing Victor in his shorts.

Just saw it and I was bored. I actually kind of dozed off towards the end. I don't know why they even bothered with Victor, nor did I find Zelda even remotely scary.

Isn't the guy who played Pascow in the original gay?

I saw it a few weeks ago and was thoroughly disappointed . I looked forward to this for nearly a year. The original freaked me right out. It obviously has its flaws but to me it was one scary movie. And Dale Midkiff was so hot. I didn’t mind the changes they made in the new version, I just didn’t think it was scary. And the ending was dumb and felt cheap. On a good note I reread the novel recently and holy crap what a good book. More depressing than scary but still very good. There are many missed opportunities in both films from the book.

I dont get the appeal of Jason Clark. Why Hollywood is choosing those actors and throws one opportunity after the other at them? This guy is so bland.

R306 I thought it was so random that he chose to play John Connor in Terminator Genisys.

DePalma's Carrie is by far the best cinema adaptation of King. And the story might be his best story, too, so original! Also love Dolores Claiborne.

I saw The Shining the day it premiered (I was in college). Some beautiful and unusual shots. The opening shot of the car traveling through the canyon is surprisingly ominous, and mimicked later by the kid winding his way through the hallways of the hotel.

But that movie is a failure. It is not scary, and the story is very muddled. All the money in the world doesn't necessarily make the art better. The Shining needs Alfred Hitchcock.

The old movie of Pet Sematary is pretty cheap, but I think it's still effective. The child (Gage?) actor is surprisingly good.

I really hope they remake Salem's Lot as a big-budget theatrical release, divided into two parts like they're currently doing with IT.

That book is fucking INSANE.

Salem's Lot involves vampires right?

Yes r310. Very scary book.

For me, "Salem's Lot" is in a tie with "Pet Sematary" as Stephen King's best book. It scared the hell out of me. There have been two tv versions of "Salem's Lot"; neither did the book justice. tToo many plot changes and miscasting are the reasons why neither of them really worked.

Salem's Lot mini-series still the best King adaption. The low-budget effects from 1979 are better than anything they can do with CGI today.

The only thing anybody remembers from the first "Salem's Lot" mini-series is the little boy vampire floating outside the window, scratching at the window pane. It was the only memorable image, the really scary thing about it.

[quote]The old movie of Pet Sematary is pretty cheap, but I think it's still effective. The child (Gage?) actor is surprisingly good.

And he grew up hot!

The Rob Lowe "Salem's Lot" from the early 2000s is awful.

Salem's Lot is such a great and terrifying story. If it were done right as a film, it could be fantastic.

This 2019 Pet Sematary shit isn't scary at all. And the cat only looks dirty. *yawn*

Are you insinuating that that pussy stinks, r318?

Will there be a Pet Sematary sequel? Since all the family members "survive" it would seem to me that somebody would have the bright idea to create a franchise.

What a shame, R317. He gave the only convincing performance in the movie.