Interviews
‘Unearthed & Untold’ Directors Talk About the Path to ‘Pet Sematary’ [Interview]
In the long line of Stephen King adaptations, few have the prestige and fanfare of 1989’s Pet Sematary. It’s one of those films that works on many levels. It’s a great horror film, offering up the chills and thrills that we all love, but it’s also a wonderful story about family and the difficulties that accompany the loss of a loved one. Pet Sematary was also the first King film to be directed by a woman and remains one of the most influential horror films ever directed by a woman, making our top ten.
The cult of Pet Sematary is so grand that it inspired the documentary Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary, now available on Blu-ray courtesy of Synapse. The doc was directed by super-fans John Campopiano and Justin White. Campopiano and White took some time to answer some questions about their new film for Bloody Disgusting.
Do you remember your first experience with Pet Sematary? Was it the book or movie first? Did it resonate right away or was it something that grew over time?
John Campopiano: I saw the film before I read the book and–like many people–I was probably too young to be watching it. Pet Sematary was one of the earliest memories I have of feeling that exhilaration from being terrified. I was on the top bunk at a friend’s house watching a rented VHS copy with a small group of neighborhood kids. I would look away every so often but became glued to the screen at the first sight of Zelda. I was both scared and fascinated.
Justin White: I was 13 at the time, and I was up really late watching TV and Pet was on. I had no idea what it was, I hadn’t heard of the book yet. My parents weren’t thrilled about me watching horror films at that time so while I was fascinated by them, the opportunity to watch one was still rare, so I took it. I remember it being creepy in a much different way than some of the other films I’d seen by then in the sense that it lacked the Freddy Krueger/Jason Voorhees feel to it. You weren’t really on the edge of your seat, you just had this overall sense of uncomfort with it. I remember watching the scene when Jud tells Louis the story about how his dog came back from the dead. When the dog appeared on screen growling and barking and you could see the blood all over his face, I think I had to hide my eyes and cover my ears, I was not expecting that. But despite the fact that it wasn’t a slasher and affected me differently than one, to me it was still just a really cool horror movie, nothing more.
Like most horror films, when you look beyond the gore and scares within Pet Sematary there are some pretty heavy themes on handling grief and loss. Do you think that attributes to the film’s lasting impact?
JC: It’s a good question. I think the overly personal and emotional plot points of Pet Sematary certainly separates it from other popular horror films of the era, like A Nightmare on Elm Street. and Friday the 13th. That’s not to say it’s better than those films, but Mary was clearly more interested in exploring how humans cope with loss and less so on gore and shock. One thing that’s worth mentioning is that a lot of people have several different relationships with Pet Sematary depending on where they are in their lives. For example, we often heard people say things like, “I used to watch this film a certain way before I had children. After I had children, I either watched the film in a very different way or I couldn’t watch it anymore period.” It seems for a lot of people their relationship to the film changes once they start building a family. How many other horror films have that sort of impact?
JW: I do. Like I said before, it’s not a slasher. It deals with real human emotional responses to death and puts the viewer in the driver’s seat by essentially causing you to ask yourself what you would do in that type of situation. These themes are timeless. I think people can really connect with the film at different stages of life. When they’re young, as I was when I first saw it, it’s kind of like a roller coaster ride, uncomfortable/scary and a lot of fun. But when they’re older and have kids of their own, the film hits much closer to home, and they understand it’s core meaning a lot more and can appreciate it on a grander scale.
When I first saw the film I was 5 or 6 and I really enjoyed watching reruns of The Munsters. Seeing Fred Gwynne for the first time as someone other than Herman Munster was a shock to the system. Did you undergo something similar?
JW: I only knew Fred from the few other 80s films I’d seen him in. Despite that though, he did have much more of a presence in that film than one would expect. Every scene he was in, your focus was on Fred. I guess that was because most people I’m sure could better relate to the Creed family, in that there was more familiarity in general with them. But Fred was the different one, the one who spoke in the thick accent and had all those off-the-wall ways about him. So while I didn’t know him yet as Herman Munster, his character in Pet certainly commanded my attention.
JC: When I saw the film as a kid I never made the connection that the actor playing Jud was also the actor who played Herman Munster. I think that’s a testament to Fred and the ability he had to play just about anything. He could dance, sing, draw, do comedy, play it serious–he was creative force. The world lost him far too soon.
Pet Sematary is directed by Mary Lambert. When I was younger I didn’t know anything about directors but as I grew older and became aware of how the world works I started to realize the significance of the film being directed by a woman and that made the movie more special in my eyes. The film being directed by a woman, did that factor into your decision to make this doc to champion the film?
JC: Mary being a female director played no part in our decision to pursue a documentary about Pet Sematary. That being said, we were always aware of how significant it was for a female to be in the director role, particularly for a horror film and in the 1980s. It’s just another example of why Pet Sematary stands out a bit: there weren’t many females working in that high of a position in the film business. Over the years as we absolutely grew to appreciate the significance of what she accomplished in what was (and still is) a male-dominated industry.
JW: While it wasn’t part of our decision to make the doc, it certainly was a factor we decided to explore and showcase in it. It’s true that most horror films of the time were directed by males so seeing one through the eyes of a female definitely gave it a different feel. I think perhaps more emphasis was placed on the family aspect of the story, thereby allowing the viewer to relate more when the time came for Gage’s death. Pet Sematary I think has always been a film that’s been different than most in the sense that it allows the viewer to grieve with the Creed family. Most films, they show the death and that’s it, they move on. Pet does it differently, it holds on the aftermath of the death and the grief period that follows. I don’t know that if the film had been directed by a male that we would’ve had that opportunity and ultimately a better understanding of the meaning of the story.
Growing up how many dead pets did you bury hoping they’d come back to life?
JC: The only pet I buried and wished would come back was a little frog named Jethro. I accidentally killed him and so, if nothing else, I wanted him to come back to life so that I could apologize.
JW: I’m happy to say that I never buried an animal, ever.
Where does Pet Sematary rank in comparison to other King adaptations?
JC: I think Pet Sematary is one of the stronger adaptations in the Stephen King catalogue. One of the primary reasons I say this is because it was actually filmed in the areas King often writes about. Prior to Pet Sematary, King’s films were often set in Maine but shot elsewhere, such as the Pacific Northwest. That Pet Sematary was filmed in King’s home state makes it a significant adaptation just on those grounds alone. I also think that, in particular, the first two acts of the film are some of the most effective moments of film from any of his adaptations. Mary didn’t hold back in terms of showing the grief and ratcheting up the tension. Gage’s funeral–maybe even more so than his death scene–was really unlike anything else we were seeing in horror films during that era. It’s not a perfect film but I think it ranks highly on the (long!) list of Stephen King adaptations.
JW: Believe it or not, I haven’t seen a good portion of the King adaptations. There are certainly the more well-known ones that I’ve seen like It, Shining, Misery, etc. but there’s a lot I’ve yet to see, so for me, Pet Sematary ranks right up at the top. It’s a well-made film with a fantastic story, great acting and really good special effects for its time.
Does this film have the greatest theme song of all time? The answer is yes, I just want the experts to confirm.
JC: It’s definitely a great theme! So catchy and perfect given that King wrote The Ramones into the novel. That song is also a nice contrast to Elliot Goldenthal’s moody, sentimental score. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE what Elliot brought to the film but The Ramones felt very true to both King and also Mary Lambert who was no stranger to the world of music and music videos.
JW: I place myself on the list of those who really love the Ramones’ song “Pet Sematary”. I know some consider it cheesy, but what can I say.. always loved it.
You can order Unearthed & Untold directly through Synapse today!
Eli Roth is a formative name in the “Splat Pack” of ultraviolent filmmakers who first came to fame during the 2000s.
Roth’s Cabin Fever was a great statement piece, but he’s managed to continually top himself with gory gems like Hostel, The Green Inferno, and Thanksgiving. Roth has always been a filmmaker who strives to push boundaries and embrace a passion for genre cinema.
His latest movie, Ice Cream Man, is a project that’s been 20 years in the making. It’s a twisted take on the Pied Piper parable that’s arguably the most gruesome film from Roth’s career and an exciting turning point.
To celebrate the gory film’s summer release, Eli Roth opens up about the luxury of shooting a horror film with hundreds of enthusiastic kids, bypassing the MPAA to deliver the most outrageous kills of his career, and why he intentionally avoided Weapons before filming.
BLOODY DISGUSTING: You’ve described Ice Cream Man as “The Birds but with children” and cited Who Can Kill a Child? as a reference point. Were there other “killer kid” movies that you’re pulling from for inspiration like Children of the Corn, the French film Them, or even Weapons?
ELI ROTH: Well, Weapons I purposely didn’t watch until after I was done with my cut because I had people on the crew that went to see it because I wanted to make sure that there was no crossover. I didn’t watch it until after I was done with the film, but The Children from 1980 was a big influence. That trailer scared me as a kid, watching the kids on the bus go through the gas and then turn into killer kids. When the girl killed her mom in the original Night of the Living Dead was a big reference point. But definitely The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but also other movies like Bad News Bears and those early Amblin movies. Those coming-of-age films. There’s also a lot of references to Bird with the Crystal Plumage in there, too. It’s kind of a Pied Piper story, so that was really the starting point for it.
There must have been serious hurdles to not just filming a movie that involves so many children, but also in terms of its rating and censorship. Was there anything you shot that had to be cut or toned down?
ER: The whole reason I started The Horror Section was to completely bypass that system and go directly to the theaters. Now that Terrifier 3 kicked the door open for the rest of us and you can have an unrated movie go out in 2000 theaters, you know that fans want to go see those movies in theaters. Before, you could never release an unrated movie like this, but now after what Damien Leone did, you can. So I set up an independent studio, I went right to the theaters, I’m self-releasing it, and I didn’t even deal with the MPAA. I just made the movie the way I wanted to make it. We shot it, cut it, and we’re putting it out in the theaters raw and unfiltered.
Every movie I’ve ever made, at some point someone has said, “You have to take this out, or we’re not releasing the movie.” I just didn’t want to deal with that anymore. I’m just tired of it. I think they’re wrong. I think Terrifier 3 proved that they are all strong. In the past, I’ve been like, “I shouldn’t have taken that out. I shouldn’t have cut that down,” but you’re dealing with a corporation in a studio. That’s what they do. They’re so afraid, and it’s an abstract argument. There’s no proof that they’re right or that you’re right, but that’s where I know great horror lives. It’s got that bit of danger to it. You go, “You’re not supposed to do that,” “Should I be watching this?”
Even Evil Dead II, Faces of Death, or whatever it was when you get a tape. Whenever you’re going, “I shouldn’t watch this,” it becomes the most exciting kind of horror. Even The Ring. It’s got to be great. It’s got to be original. There has to be an incredible story that people have never seen before, but I faced no issues whatsoever other than my own budget. The whole purpose of starting my own studio is that I could take an idea like Ice Cream Man, that I’ve always wanted to do and that everyone told me I couldn’t, and just go for it.
On that note, there are so many amazing kills in this movie. What’s your favorite and which was the most challenging to pull off?
ER: There are a few, yeah. My original idea was the mother waking up and seeing her daughter just standing over her; she picks up a hacksaw and just cuts her head off. The dad wakes up, looks over, and the daughter is just smiling and cutting the head off and like, “Hi, Daddy.” Then the kid bashes his face in. So actually doing all that was extremely satisfying. There were a couple other ones that I don’t want to give away that really turned out great. I was just really lucky. I sat down with Steve Newburn at Applied Arts FX Studio. They’re incredible. I told them, “I want to do more kills. I want to basically beat every kill I’ve ever done and do more kills in this movie than all my other movies combined.” Adrian Moreau was incredibly genius. We did Thanksgiving together, and she did some very specific effects for me on this one. She won the Oscar for The Whale, so we had an incredibly talented team and just went for it. The kids in the movie, their parents are all horror movie fans, so we talked to them about everything.
Once you put the kids in the gore and in the makeup, they go right into it. They get it. They understand that this is like Halloween and pretend. There’s the bit where they’re pulling apart a body — they call it a “taffy pull” — we did this fake trailer, “The Piano Killer,” with Hailey Kittle. I also worked with her in Trick VR Treat, and she was in Thanksgiving. I said, “I’m going to drop a piano on you,” so we had her fake body and thought, “Let’s kill Hailey, and then we can use the body from “The Piano Killer” and pull it apart in Ice Cream Man. I recycled the same body parts.
It was unreal doing it all with the kids, though. You can’t believe what you’re watching, and the kids were having a great time. It was Christmas morning for them. Justin Harding, who was my Second Unit Director, his son Bowen is a baseball player. So it made sense to give Bowen the axe so that he could really give a good swing to cut Hailey in half. He is so good and so athletic, so he could really go for it. He’s just gleefully swinging the bat, and we’re just on the ground pumping blood at him. The kids were just laughing and having the time of their lives.
The main actors are so good, too. I really didn’t want “kid acting.” I wanted the same acting as when you’re watching Stranger Things or the ’70s Bad News Bears. These kids are real kids, and I didn’t want it to feel like movie dialogue. I wanted the kids to swear and talk the way that real 12-year-olds talk to each other and the way that bullies talked to me in the ’80s. I verified it with all the kids to know that this is exactly what the bullying in schools sounds like. This is how they’d talk and what they say when the adults, parents, and teachers aren’t around. I wanted it to feel naturalistic, and like you’ve just been dropped into this small town that has all this drama. Then you’re just with these kids, trying to survive this “kidpocalypse,” and trying to figure out why this is happening and how to get out of it.
I’m a huge fan of the Clint Howard Ice Cream Man from 1995. There’s also a great Tales from the Crypt episode with Bill Pullman and Brad Dourif that plays in this space. Why do you think there’s this ongoing connection between ice cream men and horror?
ER: It’s interesting; I’ve never seen the Clint Howard film. I’m certainly aware of it. But this all came about from just watching this ice cream man handing out ice cream. It was during the Cabin Fever press tour in 2003. I was just watching this ice cream man and thinking, “We just trust them.” It could be a serial killer, you know? What if they just rolled into town and poisoned the kids? I thought that might be too fucked up, but then I thought of it as if it’s the Pied Piper. There’s something with the music. Kids just want to run out into the street and buy ice cream when they hear that ice cream man music. It’s such deep programming. So what if that was used to turn the kids against their parents?
Having a new daughter myself — having a baby — all you want to do is protect them. And you know that no matter what you do, you can’t. The outside world is going to get to them somehow. You can prepare them, but you can’t fully protect them. Some evil force will get into their head, and so what if that was turned against you? This thing that you loved and put everything into now wants to kill you. It’s the most horrible thought as a parent. After 20 years, it was kind of great to go in and re-approach it from that direction.
But I think ice cream men just have this inherent trust behind them. You see them, and you trust them. They come into the neighborhood, feed the kids, and then they leave, and you have no idea who they really were. Sure, they were an ice cream man, but what were they like? They were wearing a white hat, and they drove an ice cream truck, but anyone can do that. It was such a perverse, sick thought. Like, “What if you turn Thanksgiving into something awful?”, “What if backpacking in Europe became a nightmare?”
That’s where great horror lives. It’s when you take something that’s seemingly innocent and then make it dark. “What if the kids are playing jump rope, but then they get turned, and they’re playing jump rope with guts?” At the beginning of the film, they’re playing “Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” but then it’s “Pin the Knife in the Teacher.” Or you’re playing little league baseball, but now you’re bashing your dad’s head in with the bat. It’s taking all the fun, innocent things from childhood and then twisting them with a horror spin.
Ice Cream Man is in theaters on August 7.
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