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Pet Sematary (Special Collector's Edition) by Mary Lambert
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Brad Greenquist, Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, Michael Lombard Director: Mary Lambert Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO Cinematographer: Bill Pope Cinematographer: Peter Stein Producer: Mitchell Galin Producer: Ralph S. Singleton Producer: Richard P. Rubinstein Producer: Tim Zinnemann Writer: Stephen King DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Format: AC-3, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.85:1 Running Time: 102 minutes DVD Release Date: 2006-09-26 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Pet Sematary (Special Collector's Edition)Movie Review: "The Soil of a Man's Heart is Stonier" ... Summary: 5 Stars
While Romero was the first in line to direct "Pet Sematary" (he was committed to another project at the time), Mary Lambert took her job to heart. (And she readily admits that King loved her because she was close friends with The Ramones ... I respect her for that!!) She took great pains in finding the perfect house (she searched all summer for it), the perfect tree (she had that HUGE tree extricated from somewhere entirely different and planted in front of the yellow house!!), even the perfect cat (there are seven that 'play' Church ... one that excels at scratching, one at jumping, etc..). She attended to every detail with passion. Most importantly, I truly respect her choice with Gage's character. Lambert could have presented the undead Gage as grotesquely mutilated. Instead, she opted for something much more horrific: undead, unclean Gage as reanimated by Louis hubris ... with his cherubic (now daemonic) face intact. It is potent. Likewise, her choice of costume for his undead character was spot-on (and highly controversial). The dress echoes the painting in the Goldman's home and conjures a staggering sense of Freud's definition of "the uncanny." Oddly enough, even though Lambert had to fight for this choice (and King backed her entirely), it is one of the most frightening aspects of the film!!
As many of you may know, "Pet Sematary" was the one novel that King wrote (in 1979) and then hid away for fear of unleashing it dark contents. The text (based on a near-death experience with his own child) frightened Stephen and Tabitha so badly that they deemed it better to keep in a drawer. Only as a result of contractual obligation was it published in 1983. To this date, it is King's pinnacle of genuine horror.
Lambert's Director's Commentary makes this a must-have for horror-film scholars everywhere!! Her interpretation of Jud Crandall and Victor Pascow's roles are a bit unusual ... so listen to her explanation of how she shot these two characters, then watch the film with this in mind.
To this day, people ask Romero what he would alter about the film. His response is: "I would have done it BETTER." Still, I think Lambert did an excellent job of bringing King's masterwork to life. I loved it when I saw it opening day ... and I love it even still today.
I see that Paramount Pictures has a remake scheduled for 2008. I cannot help but to worry ... the director (as of yet, unknown) has a tough battle to create a more earth-shattering piece.
Suggested Readings:
Mackenthun, Gesa. "Haunted Real Estate." Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres. 3, no. 3-4 (1997): 438-55
Reino, Joseph. Stephen King: The First Decade, Carrie to Pet Sematary. Boston: Twayne, 1988.
Summary of Pet Sematary (Special Collector's Edition)For most families, moving is a new beginning. But for the Creeds, it could be the beginning of the end. Because they?re just moved in next door to a place that children built with broken dreams, the Pet Sematary. It?s a tiny patch of land that hides a mysterious Indian burial ground with the powers of resurrection. Master of the Macabre, Stephen King, will take you and the Creeds to hell and back. (But the Creeds don?t have return tickets.) Your tour guide is kindly old Judd Crandall (Fred Gwynne), the neighborhood nice guy who knows the secrets of life, but has seen enough to firmly believe that "sometimes dead is better."
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