Pet Sematary: Guillermo del Toro would like to make his own adaptation

Director Guillermo del Toro’s latest film Nightmare Alley is set to reach theatres on December 17th (you can read our early review HERE), and in the days leading up to the film’s release del Toro has made an appearance on The Kingcast, a podcast dedicated to the works of Stephen King. While the del Toro episode of the podcast has a “special focus” on It, other topics are covered – and of course, hosts Scott Wampler and Eric Vespe took the opportunity to ask del Toro if there’s any King story he would like to bring the screen. Surprisingly, del Toro’s answer was a story that has already been turned into a couple different movies: Pet Sematary.

The filmmaker said (with thanks to Collider for the transcription),

You know the novel that I would have killed to adapt, and I know there’s two versions of it, and I still think maybe in a deranged universe I get to do it again one day is Pet Sematary. Because it not only has the very best final couple of lines, but it scared me when I was a young man. As a father, I now understand it better than I ever would have, and it scares me a hundred times more.”

Del Toro went on to mention a visual that didn’t make it into either cinematic version of Pet Sematary, and discussed how he would present the image of homicidal living dead child Gage:

For me, the best scene in that book is when [Louis] opens Gage’s coffin, and for a second he thinks the head is gone, because this black fungi from the grave has grown like a fuzz over the kid’s face. … I think you cannot spare those details and think that you’re honoring that book. One of the things I thought about Pet Sematary that we would do in post is when the dead return, when Gage returns, I’d spend an inordinate amount of money taking out the sheen from his eyes. So that the eyes are dull.”

While we wait to see if Guillermo del Toro will ever have the chance to make his own Pet Sematary, writer/director Lindsey Beer is currently working on a prequel movie that stars Jackson White as a young Jud Crandall. That film is going to be released through the Paramount Plus streaming service. Henry Thomas, Samantha Mathis, Natalie Alyn Lind, Pam Grier, Jack Mulhern, John W. Lawson, Forrest Goodluck, and Isabella Star LaBlanc are also in the cast.