Editorials
Why a New ‘Pet Sematary’ Adaptation Might Be a Great Idea
As September 8th quickly approaches with a new version of Stephen King’s epic horror tome, IT clenched in its pincers, I’ve been revisiting other adaptations of “Uncle Stevie’s” catalogue that could benefit from getting a second cinematic translation.
While some King adaptations stand on their own as outstanding (or at the very least, interesting) pieces of cinema, others are dated, disconnected, and downright disastrous. Oddly enough, one King film seems to be all these things at once, and that film is 1989’s Pet Sematary.
For the uninitiated, here’s the setup…
Both versions of Pet Sematary tell the story of Dr. Louis Creed, his wife, Rachel and their children, Ellie and Gage. The Creed clan moves from their home in Chicago to a small town in – you guessed it – Maine when Louis is offered a job at a state university, a decision he’d soon regret. Work is tough on Louis and the location of the family’s new home is less than desirable. Things get increasingly worse for them when they discover an ancient Micmac burial ground that brings dead things back to life.
Now let’s talk about the source material…
Stephen King’s 1983 novel is one of the scariest books I’ve ever read. That’s not hyperbole; that’s fact. Dread drips from every page as the reader follows Louis Creed’s obsession over his inability to accept the mortality of his loved ones. He does everything within his power to cheat death as if the Hippocratic Oath extends beyond the grave.
The first to fall victim to Louis’ slow descent into madness is Church, the Creed family’s pet cat. Church is laid to rest in the burial ground and returns as a shell of his former self. The resurrected Church is mean. He’s no longer playful. He stinks. And as if a pissy, smelly zombie cat isn’t a huge red flag, Louis decides to bury his son in the same soil after he is run over by one of the many 18-wheelers that speed by their home.
As awful as all that sounds, somehow the novel finds a way to make things worse.
But Pet Sematary’s real source of horror is found in the ancient spiritual entity that stalks the gravesite and its surrounding area, a malevolent being known in Native American folklore as a Wendigo. While rarely explicit on the page, the force of this spirit is omnipresent throughout the novel and plays into the larger King Universe in later books.
Both the tangible and intangible terrors that fill the pages of Pet Sematary slowly build to one of the creepiest final pages of any horror novel ever written. It’s a fantastic macabre yarn that is still effective nearly 35 years after its release.
But in the 1989 film adaption, some things work while others…not so much…
From a screenplay by King himself, Mary Lambert (Urban Legends: Bloody Mary) directs a stripped-down version of the novel. All the major story beats are there, and most of the visceral horror elements are intact, making is a pretty effective little horror film that is widely considered one of the better King adaptations. When I saw Pet Sematary as a kid (before I read the novel), it scared the shit out of me (especially the Zelda scenes). But upon watching it as an adult, there were diminishing returns (except for those Zelda scenes; they’re still creepy).
The problems with Pet Sematary are manifold, but there are two key issues that hinder it from having any real longevity. The first is how the film looks. Pet Sematary is a product of its time, which is to say it looks a lot like other late ‘80s/early ‘90s horror films. There’s a direct-to-video quality to its composition, and while some of the production design is great (the burial site is fantastically realized), many of the shots and transitions look like they belong on primetime television and not amulti-millionn dollar theatrical release.
The other issue is how the film pretty much ignores any of the spiritual elements from the novel. There is no sense of ominous terror in the film. We get the gore and the shocks and the resurrection and that’s about it, which ultimately should be enough to appease book-readers (and it almost is).
At the end of the day, I don’t dislike Pet Sematary. There are some great horror moments that have been burned into my psyche and some solid performances (except King’s weird obligatory cameo) to admire. But it says something about the strength of the novel when I can read it after already watching the film and being privy to the demise of key characters and find myself still getting creeped out by what’s happening on the page.
So, what next?
Pet Sematary has a timeless sense of place and horror. There are a plethora of talented filmmakers who could bring this story to a new generation of film-goers – in fact, IT director Andy Muschietti just recently expressed interest. But my top pick? Give it to Robert Eggers (The Witch). That dude understands the importance of atmosphere and the sense of place in a communal horror story. I think he could easily realize a film adaptation that would treat the burial ground as its own character, which was completely lacking from the first film.
Also, his version of Zelda would probably fuck me up for life.
Auteur Filmmaking is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days in reference to big name directors like Quentin Tarantino and even Wes Anderson, but the truth is that film is a collective medium, and no one person can be responsible for every single aspect of a particular production. However, the smaller a film’s budget, the bigger the individual impact of every creative decision behind it – and the easier it becomes to identify a genuine auteur.
This isn’t necessarily a judgement of value, as blockbuster filmmaking comes with its own challenges and a good movie remains a miracle regardless of how big the crew is, but I’ve always been more interested in soulful b-movies produced by handfuls of passionate artists than blockbusters backed by creative armies.
That’s why I love exploring low-budget franchises that never left the hands of their original creators, as you really get to know the artists involved with these flicks and can accompany their evolution over a period of time. With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to join me in this multi-part series as we look into a vampire saga helmed by one of the most fascinating auteurs of the 1990s. Naturally, I’m referring to Ted Nicolaou’s criminally underrated Subspecies!
The Birth of an Unlikely Horror Franchise
A proud graduate of the University of Texas’ Film program, Nicolaou got his start in the industry as a sound technician working on Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. From there, the filmmaker would go on to work for notorious indie producer Charles Band, the founder of both Empire Pictures and Full Moon Productions. According to Nicolaou, Band would usually contact him with an offer to direct a feature after more prominent filmmakers, such as the late, great Stuart Gordon, had already refused, meaning that his projects tended to have lower budgets and more inexperienced crew members.
The plans for Subspecies began almost immediately after the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, with screenwriter David Pabian turning in an initial draft of the film after a Romanian producer contacted Band and explained that Romanian tax incentives could cover the cost of film production there so long as Full Moon took care of the post-production process. Since Stuart Gordon was unwilling to travel to Romania, Ted Nicolaou ended up taking over the picture.
However, while the financial incentives meant that this Romanian-American co-production could look and feel much more expensive than it really was, with Nicolaou scouting for locations in advance and selecting real castle ruins to be featured in the movie, the director was soon faced with an incredibly difficult shooting process. In interviews, Nicolaou would later describe the experience as something of a nightmare, with language barriers and the generalized distrust of capitalist outsiders sabotaging many of the team’s plans for the film.
In fact, the script, which had already been altered by Band, ultimately had portions of it rewritten by both Jack Canson and Nicolaou himself in an attempt to adapt the story to their unique limitations.
Radu Is One of Horror’s Greatest Underrated Villains
In the finished film, which was released directly to video in 1991, we follow a pair of American anthropology students, Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and Lillian (Michelle McBride), as they reunite with their Romanian colleague Mara (Irina Movila) in her native land. The group intends to study the folklore surrounding the secluded town of Prejmer, but their research is cut short by the return of Radu Vladislas (Anders Hove) – the evil son of a vampire king (Angus Scrimm) who had previously established a truce with the region’s human residents. It’s now up to Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) to protect the girls from a fate worse than death as the power-hungry vampire seeks to control a magical artifact known as the Bloodstone.
Right off the bat, you may have noticed that the film’s premise sounds decidedly old-fashioned when compared to other vampire movies from around the same time. While the 1990s saw the rise of cool-looking bloodsuckers with badass elements borrowed from Westerns, as well as the sexy aristocrats of Anne Rice’s stories, Subspecies has a lot more in common with Nosferatu and the Hammer Horror series than any of its contemporaries.
This is both a blessing and a curse, as the film falls victim to overly familiar genre tropes while also standing out as a rare example of a ’90s vampire flick that isn’t afraid to flex its muscles as a Creature Feature. In fact, I’d argue that the presence of age-old clichés is a small price to pay when confronted with one of the most compelling vampire antagonists in all of cinema.
Named after Vlad the Impaler’s real-life brother, Anders Hove’s Radu is such a fascinating character and the main reason why Subspecies is still worth watching 35 years later. From his animalistic mannerisms to the joy he feels in simply existing as a chaotic creature of the night, and that’s not even mentioning the iconic makeup that almost certainly inspired the undead from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Radu is a hypnotic presence harkening back to a time when audiences didn’t mind purely evil villains that couldn’t be redeemed through tragic backstories or sex appeal.
Gothic Atmosphere on an Indie Budget
Of course, the film’s Romanian setting and authentic art direction do a lot of the heavy lifting whenever Radu isn’t around. From the masked festivals of the village to the visually interesting selection of local extras, Subspecies’ multicultural elements help it to stand out when compared to similar flicks from the ’90s.
That being said, Nicolaou’s unique eye for special effects and exciting action sequences – as well as Vlad Paunescu’s excellent cinematography – make the movie a delight for fans of expressionist cinema and old-timey gothic horror. While the crew is obviously dealing with limited resources, many of the flick’s blemishes (such as the odd stop-motion demons that serve Radu) end up feeling more like charming idiosyncrasies than actual flaws.
I’d argue that the only real issue here is pacing, as there are long stretches of film where the protagonists are simply bumbling around without realizing what’s really going on around them. Thankfully, the gorgeous visuals and surprisingly effective soundtrack usually make up for this. Besides, how can you dislike a movie where shotgun shells are loaded with rosary beads and our lead vampires duke it out in a dramatic swordfight that would feel out of place during the golden age of Hollywood?
Your overall enjoyment of Subspecies will mostly depend on whether or not you find low-budget corner-cutting and janky practical effects charming rather than distracting, but I know I’ll keep coming back to this Full Moon feature again and again in the future.
That being said, while this first movie is worth revisiting by its own merits as the birth of an indie horror icon, I’d like to invite you to join us as we look into the cult sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II soon.
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