Guillermo del Toro is no stranger to the world of horror and terrifying creatures, with such films as Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, and The Shape of Water under his belt and his long-awaited adaptation of H.P Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness. So, it is really only a matter of time before he ends up in the world of iconic horror writer Stephen King.
Last week, del Toro sat down with The Kingcast, a self-described “Stephen King Podcast For Stephen King Obsessives," to discuss King’s iconic novel It. Eventually, the conversation turned to the subject of whether there were any King stories del Toro would want to adapt into a film, and he had this to say:
“You know the novel that I would have killed to adapt, and I know there's two versions of it, and I still think maybe in a deranged universe I get to do it again one day is Pet Sematary. Because it not only has the very best final couple of lines, but it scared me when I was a young man. As a father, I now understand it better than I ever would have, and it scares me. A hundred times more.”
Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel written by King about a family who moves to a new house near an ancient burial ground that brings anyone buried there back to life, and in true horror fashion, those who get revived do not come back the same as when they died. As del Toro said, it has already been adapted a few times, with 1989’s Pet Sematary, which then got a sequel in 1992, and the 2019 remake.
While there are obviously no real plans for del Toro to adapt the novel, it has not stopped fans from getting excited at the thought — especially considering the fact that del Toro seems to already has some ideas for the visuals he’d put in the film:
“For me, the best scene in that book is when [Louis] opens Gage's coffin, and for a second he thinks the head is gone, because this black fungi from the grave has grown like a fuzz over the kid's face. ... I think you cannot spare those details and think that you're honoring that book. One of the things I thought about Pet Sematary that we would do in post is when the dead return, when Gage returns, I'd spend an inordinate amount of money taking out the sheen from his eyes. So that the eyes are dull.”
Del Toro’s next film, Nightmare Alley, releases in theaters on December 17.