Pet Sematary: Bloodlines addresses Stephen King fans’ biggest gripe

polygon.com:

This preview of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines comes from a Q&A after the movie’s world premiere at the 2023 Fantastic Fest film festival.

Fans of Pet Sematary, one of Stephen King’s all-time scariest books, have had a major gripe since the novel was first published in 1983. The action centers on a secret burial ground in the woods near a small Maine town, where anything interred in the earth returns to life. This is a horror story, so naturally, there are consequences.

But new-to-town protagonist Louis Creed is willing to risk those consequences, once he finds out about the place from an aging local man, Jud Crandall. Why the hell does Jud invite Louis to use the pet cemetery’s powers when he knows from experience what will happen? Readers have been asking that question for 40 years now.

Lindsey Anderson Beer’s new prequel movie, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, makes Jud’s actions seem more irresponsible and unlikelier than ever. But as Beer and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained in a Q&A after the film’s world premiere at Fantastic Fest in September, they did set out to address Jud’s behavior in a way that would finally fill in what King fans consider the book’s biggest plot hole.

[Ed. note: Very minor spoilers ahead for Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ broad setup and inspiration. This preview avoids any specific plot spoilers for the new movie.]

Bloodlines is a solid enough addition to the Pet Sematary cinematic library. It isn’t as scary as Mary Lambert’s 1989 movie adaptation, starring Dale Midkiff as Louis and (more memorably) Fred Gwynne as Jud. But it’s better paced and performed, and significantly more thought seems to have been put into making it a human story, as well as a creature feature. It’s also better on all