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brigade-claire-opinions · 4 years

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Day 4: Pet Sematary (1989)

"Adaptation" is a funny word when it comes to its use in cinema. If you think about it, any film can be considered an adaptation, even if there was no prior source material. Every film is a visual adaptation of a screenplay, which in itself is an adaptation of an idea put on page. Yet, the popular definition of an adaptation is the transfer of a story from page to screen. This week, I'll be talking about a few of those adaptations, and what better place to start than with the King of horror himself?

All of that nonsense out of the way, let me talk about this novel and this film.Pet Sematary is a novel written by Stephen King and published in 1983. It concerns the Creed family, who move to a new house on a busy road in Ludlow, Maine. There, Louis Creed meets Jud Crandall, his friendly old neighbor who lets him know that trucks run rampant on the road, and that they've taken some lives. They also learn of a "Pet Sematary" where many children buried their beloved pets.Tragedy strikes the Creed family when their cat, Winston "Church" Churchill, is struck by one of those pesky trucks. Jud then takes Louis to a deeper part of the Pet Sematary, a place that used to be a burial ground for an indigenous tribe before the "land went sour."

And, well, you probably know the rest of the tale. Pet Sematary was the first Stephen King novel I ever read, way back when I was fifteen years old during my Freshman year of high school. It was the second time I'd read a novel that got under my skin, but Pet Sematary's clinical view of the nature of death and its nihilistic view of undeath shook me to my core. I had no idea that a book about a spooky graveyard that created undead could affect me the way it did, but here I am thirteen years later. I honestly wish that I could read it for the first time again.

Pet Sematary the film was released in 1989. It follows the novel's narrative fairly faithfully, all things considered - but King himself wrote the screenplay, so I suppose that's to be expected. The film did remove references to a Wendigo that soured the land in the burial ground and a later encounter with said creature, which has always been a disappointment for me, but I digress.

I didn't like the film when I was fifteen, and I hadn't sat down to watch it again until this evening. I actually found myself wrapped up this time - I enjoyed it! Sure, 1989 was a different time, so there are effects in the film that would look better in a hypothetical modern day adaptation. The performances were great, though! At least, for the most part. I loved Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed and Fred Gwynne as Jud - it's crazy to think that Pet Sematary came out before Gwynne had his iconic role as Judge Chamberlain Haller in My Cousin Vinny. I've always been a bit annoyed by Rachel Creed, as I felt that King could have done a better job of portraying her crippling fear of anything to do with death, but Denise Crosby played her well. Even the child performances were alright! Miko Hughes as Gage Creed has always stood out in my memory. I love his delivery of "No fair! No fair, no fair!" after the film's climax. My cousin Albert and I used to quote that line in reference to my younger brother - just a small anecdote of a random piece of memoria.

Pet Sematary exists as an interesting piece of literary and cinematic history. While I still prefer the novel over the film, both are great ways to experience the story. If you have the patience to read the book, I'd recommend it before viewing the film, that way you get the full experience.

...Wait, remake? What remake?

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Best Horror Movies on Hulu

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Editor’s Note: This post is updated regularly. Bookmark this page and come back often to see the additions to the best horror movies on Hulu.

Updated for September 2020

Horror can come from anywhere: an unfamiliar European hostel, a remote sleepaway camp in the woods or even just in the comfy confines of the human brain. Every now and then it can be fun to reconnect with that child-like portion of our minds that is truly susceptible to irrational fear. The best way is to merely just hear a good scary story.

But perhaps the best place to find horror is on your friendly neighborhood Hulu. Hulu is best known for its TV comedy offerings but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in pure terror.

Here is your list of the best horror movies on Hulu.

The Lodge

Directed by Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (the harrowing Goodnight Mommy), The Lodge stars an excellent Riley Keough as Grace, a troubled young woman in love with Richard (Richard Madden) a journalist who wrote a book about the suicide cult she once belonged to and is the only survivor of. Their relationship triggers Richard’s estranged wife (Alicia Silverstone) to commit suicide, leaving the former couple’s two children devastated.

Six months later, Richard, Grace and the children head up to Richard’s remote winter lodge in an effort for all of them to heal. But a series of unexplained events occur that may be tied to Grace’s past or the death of the children’s mother — or both. The Lodge may stumble occasionally through some shaky plot turns, but the movie positively reeks with dread and leads to a thoroughly unsettling finish.

Wounds

Based on a novella called The Visible Filth by acclaimed horror writer Nathan Ballingrud, this Hulu original stars Armie Hammer as Will, a New Orleans bartender whose discovery of an abandoned mobile phone in his place of business portends the arrival of an unspeakable evil.

British-Iranian director Babek Anvari, who made 2016’s supremely eerie Under the Shadow, creates an atmosphere of extreme dread and rot here, from the cockroaches Will is constantly killing behind the bar to the frightening images and sounds that keep appearing on the phone he finds. Much is left unexplained but that’s kind of the point: horror is often most effective when it can’t be rationalized.

Black Rock

Directed by Katie Aselton from a screenplay written by her husband, The Morning Show Emmy nominee Mark Duplass, Black Rock is a tense tale of three childhood friends whose attempts to reconnect as adults on a remote weekend retreat are thwarted by two men seeking vengeance over an accident.

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It’s a somewhat generic story elevated by the performances of Aselton herself, Kate Bosworth, and especially Lake Bell who goes full feral in the often brutal fight for survival. The movie benefits from the presence of all three women even if the scenario itself is one we’ve seen countless times before.

Ghost Stories

It’s rare for a horror film to be adapted from a play, but that’s the case for this anthology-style film written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, who also penned the stage show. Nyman stars as well as Philip Goodman, a professor who devotes his career to debunking the paranormal.

His mission is put to the test in the three stories presented within the film’s framework, which feature Martin Freeman (Black Panther), Paul Whitehouse and Alex Lawther as two men and a boy who come up against various spirits and even supposedly the Devil. Can Goodman prove them wrong even as reality itself seemingly begins to crumble around him? Find the answer by watching this acclaimed pic.

Friday the 13th Part 3

Not only was this 1982 slasher classic the first (and, to date, only) in the Friday the 13th series to be shown in 3D, it was also the movie in which unstoppable killer Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) donned his trademark hockey mask for the first time — creating one of horror’s most iconic images.

The plot finds another group of hapless teens venturing too close to the grounds of Camp Crystal Lake and falling prey to the hulking killing machine, who dispatches them in increasingly inventive and gruesome ways. That’s really all you get — and if you were lucky enough to see the movie in theaters, you got it in 3D. But you could do far worse (like, say, most of the succeeding entries in the franchise) if you’re looking to waste some time with a slasher flick.

Anna and the Apocalypse

The term “zombie musical” isn’t one you see thrown around very much, so this 2017 British feature might well have the genre all to itself. The cast of mostly unknown young actors, led by Ella Hunt in a star turn as Anna, sing, dance and fight their way through the title event — at Christmastime, no less.

Based on a short film by the late Ryan McHenry, the heartfelt Anna and the Apocalypse cites its influences as horror staples like The Evil Dead and Night of the Living Dead as well as classic musicals such as West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the “Once More, with Feeling” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Midnighters

Midnighters is an excellent, tension-packed debut for screenwriter Alston Ramsay (who is also a former speechwriter for the Pentagon, weirdly).

Directed by Ramsay’s brother, Julius, Midnighters tells the story of a cover-up that becomes far more stressful than the crime. On New Year’s Eve, a struggling married couple strikes a pedestrian with their car. They opt to do the right thing and call the police. Lol/jk they opt to cover the crime and in the process begin a cycle of deceit, distrust, and madness.

Midnighters owes a lot of its success to Hitchcock, but then again – doesn’t virtually every thriller?

Mom and Dad

2017’s Mom and Dad has about the simplest and most terrifying premise one can imagine. You know your mom and dad – those two people who are supposed to support you through thick and thin? What if they…weren’t like that? What if they would stop and nothing to kill you?

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That’s what young Carly and Josh Ryan experience one day when one day some unexplained static starts transmitting through they television and suddenly their loving parents desperately want to kill them. Mom and Dad would be unsettling enough with any cast, but having Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair portray the unhinged parents is just icing on the cake.

Overlord

War is terrifying enough as is. It doesn’t need the addition of Nazi super soldier zombies. Thankfully the J.J. Abrams-produced Overlord decided to include them anyway.

Overlord picks up on the eve of D-Day when a paratrooper quad is sent in behind enemy lines to destroy a German radio tower located in an old church. Their plane is shot down and only a handful survivors land. Those who do will soon discover that the horror has just begun.

Children of the Corn

Fun fact: Children of the Corn has eight sequels. Eight! That’s one big drawback of the horror genre. It’s so difficult to come up with an equally original and scary idea that once something sticks, it’s financially prudent to run it into the ground.

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Don’t let that keep you from watching the 1984 original Children of the Corn, however. The movie is based off of a Stephen King short story and follows a group of creepy kids and their adventures in ritualistic sacrifice. It’s a good time.

The Cabin in the Woods

A remote cabin in the woods is one of the most frequently occurring settings in all of horror. What better location for teenagers to be tormented by monsters, demons, or murderous hillbillies? Writer/Director Joss Whedon takes that tried and true setting and uses it as a jumping off points for one of the most successful metatextual horror movies in recent memory.

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Like you would expect, The Cabin in the Woods features five college friends (all representing certain youthful archetypes, of course) renting a….well, a cabin in the woods. Soon things begin to go awry in a very traditional horror movie way. But then The Cabin in the Woods begins doling out some of the many tricks it has up its sleeve. This is a fascinating, very funny, and yet still creepy breakdown of horror tropes that any horror fan can enjoy.

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Pet Sematary (2019)

After the classic Stephen King novel of the same name and Mary Lambert’s 1989 movie, what could there possibly be left to say about Pet Sematary? Quite a lot actually! Directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer breathe new life into this old tale…not unlike a certain “sematary” itself.

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Jason Clarke stars as Louis Creed, an ER doctor from Boston who moves his family to rural Ludlow, Maine to live a quieter life. Shortly into their stay, Louis and his wife Rachel (Amy Semeitz) experience an unthinkable tragedy. That’s ok though as neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) knows a very peculiar place that can help.

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