The R-Rated Stephen King Adaptation Everyone Should Stream
Ah, November. A time to gather around the table with your family, try not to fight, enjoy wonderful food, and be grateful that there’s not an ancient Native American burial ground in your backyard bringing dead things back to life. Wait, is that just us on the last part? Well, regardless of how you celebrate the upcoming holiday, Paramount+ will soon be inviting audiences to do so with the classic 1989 film, Pet Sematary, based on one of Stephen King’s most beloved pieces of writing.
Pet Sematary Is Coming To Paramount+
Coming to the streamer alongside a list of exciting new titles to start the month off right, Pet Sematary will give audiences that last dose of spooky season before moving into the lineup of holiday-themed fare. Adapted for the big screen just six years after King’s novel of the same name hit shelves everywhere, the movie centers on the Creed family, who have just moved from the bustling streets of Chicago to the quiet and quaint town of Ludlow, Maine.
Shortly after the family relocates, their pet cat, Church, is struck by a truck and killed. While his wife and children are away for Thanksgiving (thus making it a Thanksgiving move), family patriarch, Louis Creed, takes Church to the Pet Sematary behind their home, where he’s heard legend that the ground can bring dead things back to life. As tragic events unfold for the Creed family, they seek out the help of the cursed burial ground, only to discover that – sometimes – dead is better.
Helmed by Mary Lambert, who would return to back its sequel just a few years later, the supernatural horror movie featured performances by a lineup that included Dale Midkiff (Time Trax), Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and The Munsters’ alum, Fred Gwynne. Perhaps realizing that he always likes an adaptation more when he’s able to leave his creative stamp on it (we’re looking at you The Shining), Stephen King penned the screenplay for Pet Sematary’s on-screen makeover.
The Sequel
There’s rarely been a time that fans aren’t ready for more King, and such was certainly the case for Pet Sematary, as the film raked in $57.5 million at the box office against its production budget of $11.5 million. The movie was largely a hit or miss with critics, but that didn’t stop Paramount Pictures from pushing forward with a sequel in 1992. As is often the case with these sorts of things, the follow-up didn’t perform anywhere close to as well as the original.
The Story Continues To Get Adaptations
Still, the legacy of Pet Sematary has carried on throughout the years, with the story brought cinematically to another generation in Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer’s 2019 reimagining. While it’s hard to compete with the straight-up eeriness of the original, the John Lithgow-led remake still did plenty to chill and thrill audiences.
Then, just last year, Lindsey Anderson Beer directed a cast that included Jackson White, David Duchovny, and Henry Thomas in a prequel film, titled, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, that dug into the history of Ludlow and other stories unearthed from the cursed burial ground.
Head over to Paramount+ on November 1 to spend your Thanksgiving with the Creeds when Pet Sematary arrives on the streamer.
Source: TV Guide
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