Pet Sematary Remake Has A Director And A Writer.

Dread Central are reporting that a Pet Sematary remake/reboot is on the way after interviewing writer Jeff Buhler, (Midnight Meat Train), who confirmed that he’s joined director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo on the project for Paramount.

The original movie was made in 1989 and was based on a Stephen King novel of the same name. I was young enough to remember watching it and being horrified throughout, especially during a certain scene involving a scalpel and an Achilles tendon, that shit gave me nightmares for months. It also taught me an important life lesson which was never to be fooled by cats, they’re evil, all of them.

Just like the book the movie dealt with a family who move to Maine from Chicago and discover a cemetery for pets located behind their new house, a place which brings the dead back to life once buried there. The film spawned a very weak sequel in 1992 which produced poor box office sales and garnered negative reviews and just like the story’s main plot, the property has lain dormant, until now, (see what I did there?).

Buhler, a man already involved with two other remake/reboot projects Jacob’s Ladder and The Grudge, revealed in Dread Central’s interview that this latest remake/reboot will be sticking close to the original source material and not the two previous films:

“We are being very respectful to the book and we are not tying ourselves to anything in the first two films at all. We are [also] bringing in some fresh elements that speak to the spirit of the story that aren’t in either one…If you look at the core of it, of what’s going on with the family, it’s an absolutely disturbing story,”

“I think the heart of the story has to do with Louis and his relationship with his kids and grappling with that dilemma when kids ask you what happens when you die and what you believe in. It deals with these big questions in such a personal way, and that is classic Stephen King.”

The original movie really did strike a chord with me and the theme of family loss definitely resonated, but as a person who hasn’t read the book I don’t know how much different the film adaptation was, so it will be interesting to see what Buhler and Fresnadillo come up with.

You can read the full interview over at Dread Central