Well, it looks like Paramount is digging up Pet Sematary
in order to creep out a whole new generation.
>> Sometimes dead is better.
>> Stephen King's 1983 novel about a secret burial ground that brings back
the dead was inspired by his real life experience when his son was nearly hit by
a speeding truck.
This book is the manifestation of a what if scenario that haunted King thereafter.
>> The film released in 1989 was directed by Mary Lambert and
written by King himself.
But how did they adapt this introspective tale of death during a time when the genre
landscape had gotten- >> Stabbier?
>> Ground may be spoiled, but grab your shovel anyway.
It's time to ask What's The Difference?
>> It may be no surprise to hear that Steven King stayed pretty loyal to his
original work.
Although, he doesn't adapt any of the chapters involving sex.
The book has a few moments that read like a Clive Barker novel,
addressing the two most censored subjects in our society.
>> Both the book and
the movie begin with a family pulling up to their new home in Maine.
Dr. Lewis Creed, his wife Rachel, and their two kids, Elly and Gage.
And a cat named Church.
They also meet their neighbor Jud,
who in the movie saves Gage just in the nick of time.
>> Not in that road.
>> Gage. >> In the book, though,
Gage is stung in the neck by a bee, and Jud makes his introductions yanking
the stinger out with his tender, old man hands.
He then sends him over to his wife, Norma, who is nowhere to be seen in the movie.
But she's not the only character that gets dropped in the adaptation.
The book showcases many other friends, family, coworkers, and
even the Windigo, the evil spirit that's behind all the paranormal chaos.
>> Bye bye.
>> Did anybody see what happened?
>> Later at the university clinic, a student named Victor Pascal is injured and
taken to Louis for treatment.
But the good doc can't save him and Pascal expires,
only to return as a ghostly harbinger speaking words of caution,
warning him that the barrier mustn't be crossed.
Cue the spooky lighting.
>> But in the book, the barrier shape-shifts into a pile of screaming,
crawling bones.
Spooky.
This is the last time we'll actually see book Pascale, as here on out he only
speaks to Lewis and eventually Ellie through dreams and whispered thoughts.
>> The movie, however, brings Pascale back to the screen a few more times,
a la American Werewolf in London.
Where do I know that name?
>> Pascal.
>> Jump to Thanksgiving where both book and
movie Jud discovers the family cat Church dead near the road.
He takes Lewis over the dead wood barrier to the secret burial grounds where they
lay Church to rest.
Only to find the cat alive and well the very next day.
>> It was the ragman told me about the place.
>> Movie Jud then explains how he brought his dog Spot back to life and
how it came back changed, baring his teeth and scaring his mother half to death.
But in the book, animals don't necessarily come back violent.
It's more like the body is going through the motions of being an animal without
grace or personality.
Church does come back with a fondness for mutilating small vermin, but
he doesn't target Lewis the way that Church does in the movie Amen.
>> In both meduims,
the death toll continues to rise as another one bites the dust.
In the movie, it's their housekeeper Missy who takes her own life after convincing
herself she has stomach cancer.
In the book, it's Norma who passes, suffering a horrible cerebral event and
leaving Judd a widower.
Man, there's nothing sadder than an old man losing his wife.
>> Yeah, I know.
Okay, now read the part where the little boy dies.
>> No!
>> In the move, Gage chases his kite into the busy road and
is hit by a speeding Oronoco truck.
(Sound) >> In the book,
Gage meets the same fate, but it's during a game of run away from daddy.
The kite references an earlier chapter, where Louis and
his son fly one shaped like a vulture.
>> Knowing the actions Louis could be considering, Judd tells him the cautionary
tale of Timmy Baterman, a boy who died in the war but was revived by his father.
In the movie, Timmy comes back as a feral-like monster and
seems to have devoured a young girl.
(Sound) >> Leave us alone!
>> Jud and his friends send him back to the grave,
though, by setting the house on fire in a scene that feels strangely familiar.
(Sound) >> But
in the book, Timmy Baterman isn't such a mindless creature of violence.
In fact, he has full on conversations and seems to be omniscient.
So when the townsfolk confront him, Timmy taunts the men with their deepest,
darkest secrets.
And ultimately, it's Bill Baterman who kills his son for
the second time, setting the house on fire and taking his own life as well.
>> Needless to say in both mediums a reanimated Gage returns home and
immediately goes after Judd.
>> Where did you- (Sound) In the movie he is remarkably well put
together given the fact he was hit by a speeding truck.
And he doens't say much, he just sticks to creepy little kid phrases.
>> Play hide and go seek.
>> In the book, however, Gage looks pretty ripe,
with moss covering his crudely reassembled body.
And because book Gage is inhabited by the same spirit as Timmy Baterman,
he taunts Jud with a sense of familiarity, saying things like, you (Bleep)
me once did you not think I would come back sooner or later and (Bleep) with you?
Yada, yada, yada.
(Bleep) your friends and it was hilarious.
>> But once we get to the final showdown, things really diverge.
>> Gage? >> In the book, Lewis finds both Jud and
Rachel's bodies mutilated in the same room >> Gasp, gasp.
>> Gage attacks from behind, but Lewis pins him down without much effort.
Gage's face then changes into all sorts of different people and
spirits as it panics and protests.
>> Confrontation in the movie, however,
feels like a scene ripped straight out of Child's Play.
Rachel's body drops from the attic in a gruesome display.
And Gage attacks from above.
He gives Lewis a pretty good thrashing, but ultimately,
he succumbs to the morphine and goes down whining like a little baby.
>> No fair.
>> You know how baby's hate morphine.
>> The final chapter of the book, is from the point of view of Louis's friend,
Steve Masterton.
Who spots Lewis walking the path to the pet cemetery with Rachel's body.
Lewis asks him for help,
and Steve considers it, feeling the call of the evil Wendigo spirit.
But he scampers away leaving Lewis to bury Rachel alone.
The movie instead gives this last encounter to Pascal,
who in one final attempt pleads for Lewis not to make the same mistake again.
>> Please, Lewis, no!
>> Finally, in the book's epilogue, Lewis waits at home until he feels his wife's
cold reanimated on his shoulder, as she sputters out a guttural darling.
>> But the movie takes this opportunity for Lewis and
Rachel to finally get physical.
But it's the worst kind.
>> Gross.
>> That's it for this episode.
So if you think dead is better, be sure to like, comment, and
subscribe to CineFix for more What's the Difference?
>> And more spooky lighting.
>> It got me again!
(Music)