Pet Sematary

I would never say any Stephen King book is confusing. He has an easy style that's easy to read. It is true that The Stand from 1978 and Under the Dome from 2009 are both thousand pages novels and have a lot depth but with these books you have know to know what you are getting yourself into. Along with Cujo, Pet Sematary is King's simplest novel with both an easy plot and it is one of my favorite books of all times. The plot involves a family moving into rural Maine with the property right beyond an indian burial ground with a pet cemetery and the family does not know that the both are going to tear the family apart.


Following the same plot to the movie, I've always loved the Pet Sematary from 1989. This is the type of horror to introduce people into the genre and other King's adaptations. Pet Sematary is filled with so many interesting scenarios that they are worth noting.

A) It is directed by Mary Lambert who's career highlight is sadly only this but she was a female director doing horror which is not a common thing.

B) With a cast of Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed and Denise Crosby as Rachel Creed, this is a film that led by lesser names. The biggest name you are going to find here would have to be Fred Gwynne known for The Munsters. Still, the quality of the acting is nowhere close to being an issue here anyway you look at it.

C) This is filled with some of the most bizarre and creepiest scene of child killing of child actor Miko Hughes. Hughes is a child actor who's legacy is those scenes and for his role in Kindergarten Cop.

D) Let's also not forgot the plot element involving the dead sister of Zelda which adds to the creepiness level and it tackles the concept of death quite nicely. And yes, Zelda is played by Andrew Hubatsek, a male actor which is really is something else and maybe not surprising.

E) It's quite forgotten the eerie atmosphere this film provides. One part is a lake in the back of the family's house and there is also a house that's very dated but has a nice late 80's touch. The house is off a main road where trucks are known to speed which is the site where killing happens to animals and people too. Last but not least is the "pet sematary" and indian burial ground which involve some pretty original sets.

With the song Pet Sematary by The Ramones rolling once the credits hit, I would really go as far as to say that Pet Sematary is one of the most important horror film around. It has one central idea and also puts a lot more into the subplots. This is impressive horror indeed and one of Stephen Kings best film adaptions.

4/5        

Carrie

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While living in his trailer, a very young author Stephen King started writing "Carrie" for Cavalier Magazine. After writing three pages, he thew it in the garbage but was later pressured by his wife Tabitha to finish it. King, an English teacher at the time shaped the story from two girls he knew from high school and grade school. After successful profiting from the successful novel, King quit teaching and moved full time to being an author.
    
Only two years later in 1976, a film adaption was made and directed by Brian De Palma. A classic film for it's time, it made every actor in the film to what they are today and as the saying goes "The movie made the book and the book made Stephen King". You can also say that after the Carrie movie it was the norm to make as many as possible film adaptions of Stephen King novels.

Now in 2013, there is a Carrie remake. Actually, you could say it's the second remake of this story with a 2002 tv film being the first remake but no one really saw it. To me, remakes are always a mixed bag. It's puts an older story into the present world while putting new actors in. But usually there is a question of why do need a new story of one we have seen once before and it usually shows that the director does not a have creative bones. If a remake like this goes bad, it's a waste and just a bad film to usually good story or in the rare case sometimes, a bad film to a poor story (Prom Night).

Following the same story as original and using similar dialogue, Carrie is about Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) who is an awkward teen who does not fit in well at high school. After a tampon incident in the girls locker room, Carrie learns that she has telekinetic powers that changes her life dramatically.  This is a story of horror, teen life and culture.

Carrie is a movie and more important than most remakes, where the cast is important. The story works and revolves around characters more than the other elements of the film. Chloe Grace Moretz has been around since even before 2010 with small parts but then found herself cast in larger movies like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and "Kick-Ass". She is a child actor that really has had a lot of variety to her career. Being pretty as she is, it's very hard to envision Moretz ever being an outcast in school but it's a flaw that is overshadowed by a powerful performance where she really runs with this character.

To anyone that's been through it, we know that the high school experience sometimes is not a positive one. While trying to do all the schoolwork, you have to try to fit into the cliques and the popular groups of the school. While Carrie White deals with that, she also deals with a crazy mother played by Julianne Moore.  Unfortunately, we are given no background as to how she had Carrie along with a very confusing first scene of Carrie's birth. This character is very unsettling and awkward and you want her out of every scene though that's exactly what the character purpose is and why she is there. When we will look at Moore's career down the road, this no doubt this will be one of her most different and unique roles while being still very much a positive one in this movie.

As mentioned earlier, this is a different type of remake with a really good cast and the prom scene is also very important different due to how it unfolds and it's importance to the plot and the close of the movie. There are some negatives with bad digital blood and a dated 70's feel but the prom scene does what it needs to do. It definitely shows another side to Carrie and is the big and spectacular action scene as it should be and it is very much out there.

In the long run, Carrie has a lot of  messages. A teen who in the end finds herself even though it's not a positive experience. A teen who's living with a difficult mother who never really resolves the issues with her. It is also about what really high school is and kid's manners and how they relate to each other. As with the original, there may not be a main overall message but this movie is still very powerful.

While a good movie, its is still really unnecessary. I don't think it is something that there is a big audience for and there are still much better horror movies out there in 2013. Like the 2011 movie Fright Night even with it's flaws, Carrie is a positive remake that pays homage to the original as well as bringing a good new and fresh light to this story.

3.5/5    
      

Children of the Corn

Of all the Stephen King books and films, I find the movie Children of the Corn to be about the most interesting. As a fan of horror movies, I think films with children as villains seem to work for me. Poltergeist and Insidious are two quality horror movies that involve children and families. Village of the Damned was another and this spawned others. Children of the Corn is one of the most interesting of these films because of it's originality, atmosphere and it involved many kids, not just one. This series had some sequels with the first one coming out in 1984 with mixed reviews. The most recent in the series was a remake on the Syfy Channel in 2009 eight years after the last one.

This remake uses most of all all the same ideas of the original including corn fields in Nebraska and kids with religious views who have killed their parents and looking to strike again. This time the victims are an argumentative couple who were on their way to a honeymoon trip in California.

As a creepy kid film, it is very important that there are good performances from the child actors. Here, I was disappointed in the child characters. Other than the Isaac character (Preston Bailey) just about every kid plays their part like extras. At the same time, these characters are not creepy and don't work well as villains.

Even though you could pick at it a little and get maybe something, there isn't much of a plot here. I do like the leads of David Anders and Kandyse McClure but they aren't given much to do and they really mope around a lot. There are some interesting sets here but the kill scenes are not particularly good. There are some beneath the surface ideas that do come into play here. and these include the idea of race, spiritual aspects of the corn and religious overtones throughout.

Of course you can't take any of this story too seriously, but obviously there is no way something like this could happen in our country with our government. A town full of killer kids and young pregnant girls would be responded to quickly by the police and military and would be a CNN headliner for weeks. A minor flaw maybe but still hard to overlook.

I found Children of the Corn to be disappointing and a movie with an hour and half plot that ran too long at two hours. This is a tv film that feels like a tornado stringing things and ideas around with no purpose and really just wasting our time.

1.5/5

Christine

                                                                          
As a Stephen King fan, I have high expectations for every one of the films inspired by his books. Christine is no exception and overall I think it is a good movie but also one that is missing some stuff.

Christine is the story of a nerd named Arine (Keith Gordon) who buys a car which he names Christine that as it turns out has a mind of it's own and goes on a killing spree. Christine even starts to take over and begins affecting Arine who is mysteriously attached to the car.

In many ways, this is kind of a hard film to put together but John Carpenter does a good job with it. Maybe he could put more a bit more detail into this but for the most part he offers up a quite convincing killer car that feels real through some of the characters are a little unrealistic and for example you see some of them walk away unhurt from what should be major injures in incidents with Christine. In short, Chrsitine is really a unique killer and Carpenter develops and presents Christine very well.

Some of the plot elements are a bit difficult. Also some of the characters really seem to run on a lot of emotions while working with Christine but at the same time, they are still good scenes. There are some great actors including Harry Dean Stanton, Keith Gordon and John Stockwell and Carpenter uses them well to develop some very fine characters.

Christine is not the best Stephen King book adaptation out there nor is it Carpenter's best work, but it is still a well-made 80's horror film that I enjoyed and would recommend.