Pet Sematary‘s Final Trailer Digs Deep
Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer Pet Sematary reboot had a lot to live up too. Director Mary Lambert’s 1989 original, based off one of Stephen King‘s most wrenchingly unsettling novels, made a whole generation of moviegoers appreciate the importance of their Achilles heel. That particular scene still gives me the creeps anytime I think about it. Lambert’s Sematary had a bunch of shocking sequences that crept out of the theater and stalked the viewer for days, weeks, or in this case, years to come.
Kölsch and Widmyer wisely cast a bunch of top-notch actors to fill out the crucial roles, and have tweaked the central story just enough to deliver fresh scares. The aforementioned old man, Jud Crandell, was so memorably played in the original by Fred Gwynne. In the current film, none other than John Lithgow steps into the role. He’s got a lighter touch than Gwynne but is still as potent important as ever.
The basic outline of the plot is the same. The Creed family has moved from Boston to rural Maine. Their new house is set on a surprisingly busy street (for a rural town, a lot of large trucks rumble by the house) and backed by some expansive woods. In those woods is the Pet Sematary, where local children bury their pets. Jud tells Lois Creed (Jason Clarke) that there’s something not quite right about those woods. Meanwhile, Rachel (Amy Seimetz) harbors a lot of trauma—namely from the terror of what befell her sister Zelda. The kids, Ellie (breakout star Jeté Laurence) and Gage (Hugo Lavoie) will become central to the unfolding horror that will envelop the Creeds’ in their new hometown.
Paramount has released a final trailer, which highlights a lot of what audiences at SXSW were raving about. The film is currently sitting at 85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It doesn’t follow the same path into the woods and out again that Lambert’s beloved original did. The new twists will spook newcomers and lovers of the original both. Yet the film remains a dark meditation on grieving. How we do it, how we avoid it, and how we sometimes refuse to let go, to the detriment of our own sanity and the lives of our loved ones. The Creeds learn the hard way that Jud was right; sometimes dead is better.
Check out the new trailer below. Pet Sematary opens in theaters April 5, 2019.
Featured image: Theatrical poster for Pet Sematary. Courtesy Paramount Pictures.
