10 Stephen King Adaptations The Author HATES

6. Pet Sematary

The Shining
Paramount Pictures

King was actually pretty heavily involved with Mary Lambert's disturbing 1989 adaptation of his toddler death-and-resurrection tale, handling all the screenwriting duties and appearing on screen in a cameo as a preacher.

The writer didn't get unusually involved in this film adaptation above most others because the novel had a special place in his heart, though. No, quite the opposite.

For King, Pet Sematary may be the point at which he crossed the line, a book too dark, too full of grief to be appealing, and one that he only ever published in the first place to get out of his contract with publisher Doubleday.

King told Entertainment Weekly on the release of the movie's 2019 remake, that his attitude to the original Pet Sematary novel remained "this is awful, this is really f**king terrible". In the interview he explained that he wrote the film's screenplay not because he liked the book but because "maybe I can take this and make it a little bit better".

Although he speaks well of Lambert's ideas and efforts with the film, then, this was never going to be one of his favourites.

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people," is the old adage that King used to explain how something he created that he hates nevertheless remains one of his more popular works.

Contributor
Contributor

Loves ghost stories, mysteries and giant ape movies