THE LEGACY
Bringing Pet Sematary to life are four creatives who have been haunted by its story for decades
Lorenzo di Bonaventura [Producer]:
“For me, a lot of the horror I come across [in my job as a producer] is not psychological. And that’s where I get interested. The reason I’m doing this [film based on the novel by Stephen King] is because it’s about something that is not horror, which is the emotional bond between an adult and their child. That question of, ‘How far would you go to see your child again?’ Or, ‘How far would you go to protect your child?’ That’s why when Stephen King wrote Pet Sematary he didn’t give it to his publisher for three years. Because he was so terrified by it. And I still find the book deeply terrifying today. It’s primal.”
Dennis Widmyer [Co-director]:
“Stephen King was one of those guys like [J.R.R.] Tolkien, that I started reading at, like, 11 or 12. I’d already read a bunch of his books by then, but I’d held off on Pet Sematary because I remember the back of the paperback said, ‘The most terrifying novel he’s ever written!’ And I had a cat, and something about it always spooked me. There was something different about Pet Sematary. I had a very indelible reaction to it. It stood out. It just felt more dangerous than his other books. And it was very autobiographical, you know?”
Kevin Kolsch [Co-director]:
“It [the recent film based on Stephen King’s novel] reminded people that Stephen King writes not just great fiction, but great literary horror. And it really respected the material, treated it like prestige horror, not schlock. And that’s what we’re doing, too. Our whole thing with this is to make people think. To make a movie that is going to scare teenagers because it’s supernatural and there are classic characters like Pascow and Zelda. But also something that will scare parents, because of what happens. Pet Sematary has always really worked on both those levels.”
Mark Vahradian [Producer]:
“I grew up loving Stephen King, and horror. And now it’s evolved into something else. The genre always seems to take on a new aspect, like comedy. There’s always an evolution. And that’s what this is. You know, Pet Sematary is not It, there’s no alien or clown in our movie. It’s not a kid-driven story. We’ve been working on this for eight years, maybe more, for our incarnation of [this story]. It’s always been a hard thing to get made because it’s such a dark story. And I think everyone was afraid of that. But that’s what makes it so powerful.”
