The directors of the Pet Sematary remake, Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, have detailed their approaching to filming the story’s iconic Zelda scenes.
Stephen King adaptations are all the rage once more and one that is getting a nice amount of attention is the remake of Pet Sematary. One of the most memorable moments of the original adaptation were the scenes involving the spinal meningitis suffering Zelda – an image that truly stuck in the minds of audiences.
However, co-director of the remake Dennis Widmyer says that the new film will stick more closely to the book when adapting these moments. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he said:
“It’s more accurate to the book, I’ll just say that. In the original movie, it’s a 21-year-old guy in drag playing it, and in the book, as you recall, it’s a 10-year-old girl.”
The images of Zelda from the original film with actor Andrew Hubatsek were certainly unsettling and Widmyer understands the task at recreating these moments for a new audience:
“You go, ‘How do you top Zelda?’ It was big and scary and awesome, but if you think about the reality of the Zelda situation, what that would do to a family, with her wasting away in this bedroom, and a younger sister being frightened of her older sister’s debilitating illness, that on its own is pretty scary.”
The directors are also going for a more relatable approach to Zelda’s scenes in the remake, with Widmyer explaining: “The grounded nature of that horror would actually be scarier than a supernatural version of it.”
The remake will attempt to truly show “how scary” it would be from an eight-year-old’s perspective.
Are you looking forward to seeing the new Pet Sematary? What moments are you hoping will stand out the most?
SEE ALSO: Watch the first trailer for Pet Sematary here
“Based on the seminal horror novel by Stephen King, Pet Sematary follows Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), who, after relocating with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and their two young children from Boston to rural Maine, discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near the family’s new home. When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences.”
Pet Sematary is set to open on April 4th 2019 and sees Jason Clarke (Winchester) takes on the lead role of Louis Creed, while the cast also includes Amy Seimetz (Alien: Covenant), John Lithgow (The Crown), Jeté Laurence (The Americans), Hugo Lavoie and Lucas Lavoie.
