Pet Sematary (1989)

“Gwynne is the anchoring presence as a classically dry, laconic New Englander who seems to know some terrible secret. Elliot Goldenthal has composed a helpfully ominous score, as moody as vintage Bernard Herrmann, and Peter Stein’s cinematography is superbly varied, from the bright hues of a glossy magazine to the dark shadows of the charnel house. No question about it, Pet Sematary is a handsomely produced film.” — Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

SYNOPSIS

Few Stephen King adaptations stare into the abyss as unflinchingly as Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary, a grimly effective tale of grief, mortality, and the terrible consequences of refusing to let go. Dale Midkiff stars as Louis Creed, a doctor who moves with his wife and children to rural Maine, where an ancient burial ground beyond the local pet cemetery possesses the inexplicable power to return the dead to life…though what comes back is never quite what was buried. Working from King’s own screenplay, Lambert grounds the supernatural premise in the everyday anxieties of family life before steadily descending into increasingly macabre territory, aided by Fred Gwynne’s unforgettable performance as the Creeds’ neighbor Jud Crandall. Bleak, unsettling, and possessed of an almost fairy-tale fatalism, Pet Sematary casts grief as a Faustian temptation, confronting its characters with the possibility of cheating death while exacting a terrible price for believing they can.

BOOK TO SCREEN CLUB

This quarterly book club will meet on the fourth Thursday of the chosen month. Starting at 6 pm, a half-hour discussion about the book will take place at the Colonial Theatre before the film screening.  After, there will be a short discussion to compare the two.

All book group participants will purchase a movie ticket for the film that will be showing at the Colonial Theatre. The book group is free to join, and all are welcome! Books are available for purchase at Reads & Company with a 20% discount.