The first thing you need, if you’re going to make a Pet Sematary remake, is a cast ready to replace a few iconic faces. You’ve got Gage, the demonically imbued toddler. You’ve got the vicious cat. And perhaps most importantly, you’ve got Jud Crandall, played to folksy perfection in the original 1989 film by Fred Gwynne, he of The Munsters fame. Gwynne’s delivery is everything to Pet Sematary, so you need a heavyweight actor not afraid to ham it up to step into those shoes.
So they went out and got John Lithgow. And we approve of that decision, although he might want to punch up the “backwoods” quality of his delivery a bit.
The first trailer for the new Pet Sematary looks evocative and intense, almost drawing reference to the likes of The Wicker Man with its animal masks and this year’s Hereditary in its visuals. Jason Clarke plays the father, a doctor from Boston who moves with his family to a small country house that is far more dangerous than it initially appears—especially given that there’s a highway about 100 feet away where trucks go screaming by at Mach 1. Suffice to say, he ends up with a few bodies that need burying.
Pet Sematary is being directed by filmmakers Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer (who made the fantastic and underseen Starry Eyes), and is set to hit theaters on April 5, 2019. It seems unlikely that we’ll have another It on our hands in terms of impact and box office, but that probably won’t stop Paramount from crossing their fingers. Check out the trailer below.