Pet Semetary (2019)
Same as the novel, the Creed family moves house, where they discover a burial ground near the house with a secret.
The same human urges: abhorring death and clinging to life, exceptionalism (“it won't happen to me”, “it'll be different this time”)
Pet Semetary treads very well-established ground for King stories. The conduit of evil is the American, white, middle-class man with repressed emotions and a Troubled Past; horror is tied up with disability*; an overwrought ending.
I enjoyed reading the book, but seeing it in movie format makes it lose a little of its shine.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS CUT
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- In particular, one of the characters' driving source of fear centers around her disabled, bedbound relative. But it's not so much about her guilt for wanting that relative dead – although that was explicitly stated – it focused more on the physical aspect. A scene leading to the climax has that character seeing herself become that relative. The creators of this film used physical disability as shorthand for horror and “unlife” – as with “undead” – and that is unacceptable.