Despite being not of the highest opinion of the original novel and also pessimistic about the prospect of putting it into film, there are actually positives to the firsts adaptation.
First, they portray the cementary and the deadfall very convincingly. Second, it was hard for me to imagine what kind of a road where heavy trucks pass that would also be easily accessible for kids to run into.
Norma is completely removed. Church now scratches Louis almost immediately, then comically throws a dead rat into his bathtub. Missy, kids nanny, who was mostly a too happy non entity in the book, here is a depressed lonely woman, who hangs herself at Creed’s basement when she discovers she has cancer.
I didn’t expect to see King himself playing the preacher 😅
They combined kite episode and Gage’s death into one. This works much better than in the book.
Also, in the movie Jud doesn’t run away after encountering Timmy, they are the ones to set fire on his house.
I swear, Pascow (I was listening to the book, so I thought it’s Pascal all that time) is the best part of the movie. I think it’s the same dark humour American Horror Story adopted all those years later.
In the end, though, I think Pet Sematary story is unsalvageable. To make the final twist work, Rachel has to die. And in order for her to die, she has to be killed by Gage. But getting killed by a 2 years old is embarrassing.
Tag: Pet Sematary
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Pet Sematary (1989)
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Pet Sematary, Stephen King
“Rachel looked on this, his only real hobby, with a wifely indulgence that held, he supposed, some elements of contempt; even after ten years of marriage she probably thought he would grow out of it. “
I have read a lot of Stephen King as a teenager, but not Pet Sematary. I wonder what I’d think of it back in the day. Because now, to me it all looks like a discussion about death being inseparable part of life.
I find that the most interesting character is Rachel. Not because she’s likeable, but with the way she uses her kids to veil her own emotions: “he’s tired” means that she’s tired, “Ellie is now upset” means that it’s actually Rachel who’s upset.