The first terrifying trailer for the 2019 reimagining of Pet Sematary is here and it's creepy as hell. The clip opens with the tagline "Sometimes Dead Is Better" and features a parade of children wearing bizarre animal masks as they walk into the woods toward a "Pet Sematary” (misspelled, because kids). Cool, cool.
The film is adapted from Stephen King's famous 1983 novel of the same name, about a family who moves to Maine and comes to the chilling realisation that a cemetery near their home can bring back the dead.
The concept was so spooky King himself hesitated to publish his book in the first place. “I found the result so startling and gruesome that I put the book in a drawer, thinking it would never be published. Not in my lifetime, anyway.” he wrote in a 2000 introduction for the paperback, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“I’m particularly uneasy about the book’s most resonant line… ‘Sometimes, dead is better,’” King wrote. “I hope with all my heart that that is not true, but in the nightmarish context of Pet Sematary, it seems to be. And it may be okay. Perhaps ‘sometimes dead is better’ is grief’s last lesson.”
The book was released in 1983 and adapted into a movie in 1989 and, later, a sequel in 1992.
According to Paramount Pictures, the 2019 remake “follows Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), who, after relocating with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and their two young children from Boston to rural Maine, discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near the family’s new home.
When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences.” Fun!
Pet Sematary hits cinemas 5 April, 2019.
Rose is a Senior Editor at ELLE overseeing features and projects about women's issues. She is an accomplished and compassionate storyteller and editor who excels in obtaining exclusive interviews and unearthing compelling features.
