Pet Sematary gets a harrowing new trailer
There’s something particularly tragic about Pet Sematary. Stephen King’s characters are no stranger to tragedy but Louis and Rachel Creed (played here by Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz) experience a very specific and very harrowing trauma. The desperation that comes with the loss of a child is something the novel perfectly taps into, creating a sense of inescapable dread with each passing chapter and, based on the new trailer, the 2019 adaptation, directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer of Starry Eyes fame, looks to have captured the same tragic dread.
The trailer has all the familiar trappings of a modern horror movie — stabbing violins, loud jump scares, a voice over that lays out the whole plot — but Pet Sematary’s second trailer does something far more interesting than most. Midway through, when the core conceit of the Sematary itself has been explained, we see the death of the Creed’s child (in this adaptation its their daughter who is killed) depicted in a montage of increasingly harrowing shots.
Starting with the ominously approaching truck and ending with a pink coffin being lowered into the ground, the moment perfectly adapts the core tragedy of King’s novel while also leaving room for us to experience the full horror of the scene while watching the film. The trailer returns to traditional modern horror territory after that, albeit with some interesting and striking visuals (is that Zelda cracking her way towards Rachel?), but that moment alone makes this a must see film. Of course the gnarly body horror on show and the painful moment where Jud Crandall (played by the incredible John Lithgow) is stabbed in the ankle are all great moments but it is that single shot of the coffin that I can’t seem to shake.
If you follow my Instagram then you’ll know how important Stephen King is to me and Pet Sematary is one of the formative novels that inspired my love of the horror genre. It got under my skin in a unique and challenging way as it attempted to unpack the concept of death. This new film adaptation seems to be remaining faithful to the core of the book while also creating something new to hook modern audiences. If the movie is half as sad as that shot of the coffin implies it will be then we’re in for a ride.
Needless to say, dead is definitely better.
