Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary

Dir. Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer

Paramount Pictures

The horror novels of Stephen King are going through something of a film adaptation renaissance at the moment, and honestly, now is the perfect time. In the 1980s, King’s work saw a similar flurry of film treatment, but many suffered from low budgets and a lack of special effects technology. Most recently, King’s 1983 novel Pet Sematary, the chilling tale of the dead returning to life, was given a modern re-working to great effect. Helmed by rookie directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, the film serves the novel well by capturing all of the honest humanity of the character’s decisions alongside all of their dark, terrifying consequences. (Simon Weedn)