We watched the new version of Pet Sematary last night. It was pretty good, but they really messed with the story. I had thought Stephen King would have hated it, since they completely changed the child that gets hit by the truck (a major part of the story) from the toddler (Gage) to the older girl (Ellie), but it turns out King really liked the movie.

Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here, at least not if you watched the trailers for the movie. The second trailer pretty much tells the whole story, in fact. This is interesting, and I assume they figure the movie is solid enough to reveal all of the major points right upfront in the trailer, so they did that. I guess, since they already have King’s endorsement, it probably can’t lose anyway. Those millions of fans will see it, good or bad, and they’ll make their money.

Stephen King says he was sent a copy of the movie early, so he saw it before it was released. I’m assuming this was to get his reaction and possible endorsement, which apparently did the trick. He said it was watermarked with a huge “STEPHEN KING” on it throughout the entire movie, which was a bit distracting, so he planned to see it in the theater as well.

Even with the endorsement of The King, I think I still prefer the original version though. I understand how they could do more with having an older child be the one who gets killed and is brought back, but it’s just not true to the story as a whole. Then again, all of the connections, atmosphere and “feelings” that are expressed in the book can’t possibly be expressed in a movie, so I guess they have to make up for it somehow.

They also completely removed the old man’s (Judd Crandall’s) wife, but I think they pretty much did that in the original movie. She had medical issues, which Louis helped with as the story in the book started unfolding, and it set a good foundation for what was to come in the story. I guess she just wasn’t as important a character as I had thought.

If you’re a Stephen King fan, see it. If you’re a horror fan, see it. It’s decent for what it is. If you’re a huge fan of the book though, like me, it just whips by like a freight train and it’s over before you know it.

I also recently re-watched Hollow Man (2000), the “Invisible Man” movie starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Shue. I remembered a lot of it, though I forgot a few “naughty bits” that were quite fun to find again. And for a movie made in 2000, the effects were pretty awesome, especially when they injected the orange stuff into a human or animal and watched as it flowed throughout the entire body and all the major organs and then the entire body faded in or out, including the skeletal structure, all organs, and skin. Very cool.

Lastly, I re-watched “crash” recently (yes, its title is in all lowercase), an excellent movie from 2005, where all of the character’s stories are strangely interwoven, resulting in a great story overall. It is based in Los Angeles and was inspired by an actual carjacking that took place in LA in 1991. It has an awesome cast too. I love this movie.