This year marks the 3rd annual Women in Horror Recognition Month. Every February, horror fans around the world celebrate the feminine side of fear. All month long I will be highlighting various actresses, writers, icons, films, etc. that owe a debt to a woman in horror.
Pet Sematary - Dir. Mary Lambert
Of all the Stephen King adaptations, this (along with the underappreciated Dreamcatcher) seems to be the one that no one talks about. I don’t know if it’s because it features the cutest kid ever getting run over, said little kid coming back as a demon and slicing Herman Munster’s Achilles tendon, or Zelda, but one thing is for sure: this film is scary. Many people thought the film wouldn’t be as hard-hitting as the novel because it was directed by a woman, but, as Stephen King said, “I can’t imagine it being any more horrific than it already is.”
The film’s director, Mary Lambert, has made a name for herself as one of the most prolific female horror directors, as well as helming many of Madonna’s most popular music videos when she was on the top of the charts. When Lambert took on King’s novel, she didn’t shy away from the touchy subject matter, gore, or the fact that all of Hollywood would be watching every move she made – adapting a Stephen King novel is no easy feat. But that’s what makes Lambert such a great director for horror: she doesn’t flinch. Even when someone is getting a scalpel to the eye, she doesn’t cut away. Lambert knows that the real horror lies in watching terrible things happen, and the events in Pet Sematary are certainly terrible.
The film centers on the Creed family, who move into a home that lies off a busy highway. Soon after, their toddler wanders into the street and is hit be a semi. Meanwhile, the family has learned that behind their house lies a pet cemetery that brings whatever is buried there back to life. Grieving for his son, the father, Louis, buries his son in the cemetery, who rises from the grave – but even though his son came back, what entered that house was not really his son. …And the carnage commences.
Made on a budget of around $11 million, the film went on to gross more than $57 million at the box office. It was also ranked at number 32 on Bravo’s “100 Scariest Movie Moments.”
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