LUDLOW (NEWS CENTER Maine) — Wait, was that a "shrill, maniacal laugh" coming from the darkness? "Rising and falling in hysterical cycles, loud, piercing, chilling" and splitting "into dry cackles like some rottenly friable chuck of rock along many fault lines?"
Just a loon? Ah, OK.
It's October, which means it's horror film season, and we're totally spooked after watching Paramount Pictures' first trailer for its latest film adaptation of Stephen King's 1983 novel Pet Sematary.
The trailer shows newly-hired University of Maine employee Dr. Louis Creed and his family arriving in the fictional Maine town of Ludlow. Next, we begin to hear tribal beats, see children conducting rituals and watch as neighbor Jud Crandall shows the family a pet cemetary behind their new home. Next, rapid sequences of flashback-esque moments, an Orinco oil truck speeding down the road, Dr. Creed waking up with dirt on his feet, a funeral, undead people and scary-looking kitty cats. It all ends with a shot of the misspelled "Pet Sematary" sign and the sound of a loon.
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An initial 1989 adaptation of the same name, also produced by Paramount, "buried" the competition at the box office, earning $12 million in its opening weekend and grossing more than $57 million overall domestically, according to Box Office Mojo. Stephen King himself was cast in the film as the minister.
Much of the film was shot in Maine, including the Creeds home on Point Road in Hancock and the funeral at Mount Hope Cemetery on State Street in Bangor. Other fliming locations reportedly included Acadia National Park, Bucksport, Ellsworth and Sedgwick, according to movie database IMDb.
It's unclear whether any of the 2019 film was shot in Maine.
The original "Pet Sematary" was King's 17th film adaptation. That number's now 66 counting this latest installment. Four — "The Dark Tower," "It," "Gerald's Game" and "1922" — were released in 2017.
A sequel titled "Pet Sematary Two," released in 1992, was far from a success, grossing a dismal $17.1 million at the box office. King even told the LA Times a month prior to the film's release he had lobbied Paramount to have his name removed from the distributor's promotions.
Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives "Pet Sematary" (1989) and "Pet Sematary Two" 50- and 26-percent ratings, respectively. The 2019 version does not yet have a rating.
"Pet Sematary" (2019) was directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, written by Jeff Buhler and stars "Brotherhood"'s Jason Clarke as Louis Creed, Amy Seimetz as Rachel Creed and "3rd Rock from the Sun"'s John Lithgow as Jud Crandall.
It's set to be released in theaters next April.
Watch the trailer for "Pet Sematary" (2019) below:
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