In my last blog post, I talked about the novel, Pet Sematary. In this post, I will be talking about the 1989 movie that was made as an adaptation to the Stephen King novel. I actually like this movie, (despite the horrible acting) and have watched it more than once. Stephen King had his own role in the making of the film. He worked as the screenwriter and even had a cameo role as a minister during a funeral service. Stephen King had a habit of appearing in some of his films at the time and I think it is always a fun thing for an author to make themselves a part of their creation on the big screen.
I find this movie to be enjoyable in the late 80’s way and the fact that Stephen King was involved in the making made me feel good about the production. Of course, like any movie, there were things that could’ve been improved upon.
The movie follows the book pretty well in the sense that as someone who read the book I wasn’t insulted. The man cast as Jud Crandall, Fred Gwynne, was absolutely perfect in his role (with a fabulous Maine accent) and I loved when he was on screen. The same cannot be said for the man who played Louis, Dale Midkiff. His acting was subpar and when he had scenes with the amazing Gwynne it became painfully obvious.
The child actor for Ellie Creed was also not that great, but back in those days searching for good child actors wasn’t seen as a priority. Basically, back then, if the kid could talk, that was good enough for them to be on the big screen.
Many plot points had to be cut from the novel which made a lot of sense. Much of the story is told in Louis Creed’s head, which would make a terribly boring movie. One change that they made was that they did not mention the fact that the burial ground was cursed because of a Native American monster controls the town. The Native American creature is known as the Wendigo and is not actually a creation from the mind of Stephen King. There is actually a being known as the Wendigo and is still part of Native American culture today.
However, the movie glosses over the monster and Jud only explains that the ground has “gone sour,” and that is the reason that the creatures buried there become evil.
The movie may have its slow points, with dashes of bad acting, but it is still loyal to the novel and is definitely better than other Stephen King adaptations in the past. So, for that reason, the movie is a must watch for those who are fans of Stephen King and horror movies in general.
Next time, I will be talking about the new adaption for Pet Sematary that came out this year in 2019.
Haha, I guess because of the bad acting a remake for the novel is actually justified. Additionally, I feel like a movie adaptation of the novel in 2019 would be way better than an 80’s adaptation. I actually did not know Pet Sematary was made into a movie. It is great that Stephen King was very proactive in the movie as well. King appearing in his own work is also very cool. It reminds me of Stan Lee in the Marvel movies. I’m interested to see your take on the 2019 adaption. However, this was a great and honest review of the 1989 film.