Guillermo Del Toro Will Murder You To Adapt Stephen King’s ‘Pet Sematary’
Guillermo del Torolikes to talk and if you’ve ever seen him in an interview or a Q&A, you understand why everyone always shuts up and listens. He’s smart, he’s hilarious, and he’s a natural raconteur. He has great taste and won’t hesitate to talk about superheroes, monsters, theme park attractions, ghost stories, and 19th century romantic literature. When he opens his mouth, he tends to say exciting things. Sometimes, this means he spitballs movie ideas in public and all we can do is sit back and watch as he picks and chooses which of his 87 potential projects he’ll make next.
Now, he’s started teasing us about wanting to make a movie adaptation ofStephen King’sPet Sematary. The chances of this happening are slim to none, but the mere concept now lingers in the air.Of coursethe guy behindThe Devil’s BackboneandCrimson Peakwould make a greatPet Sematary.
Find more on the Guillermo del ToroPet Sematarychatter after the jump.
Del Toro’s still-young Twitter feed has essentially become an ongoing list of the director’s favorite things. Through the power of social media, he has been introducing his favorite books, movies and artists to the masses. If you’re not following him, you are missing out. This morning, he brought up King’sPet Sematary, saying that he’d end your poor, pitiful life to bring the novel to the big screen:
Book of the Day: PET SEMATARY by Stephen King. Unrelentingly dark and emotional. Compulsive reading. Would kill to make it on film.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT)June 15, 2025
Look, Mr. del Toro, if a handful of blood sacrifices is what it takes to help you get movies made, just let us know. Surely there are some people willing to lay down their lives for the cause.
Published in 1983,Pet Semataryis one of King’s best and most frightening novels, following a family whose new house is very close to an ancient burial ground where things don’t stay dead. King famously found the subject matter of the book so upsetting that he didn’t publish it until he needed a quick escape from a contract. It was previously made into a pretty good movie in 1989, but it’s still awaiting an adaptation that truly captures the misery, tragedy, and horror of the source material.
And del Toro is the kind of visionary who could make that happen. But let’s be honest with ourselves here: del Toro saying he wants to make something means nothing. This guy wants to makeeverything. He’s working on amysterious indie projectshooting next year. He’s preppingSilver, aMexican wrestler versus vampire movie that will be shot in black-and-white. He claimsPacific Rim 2is still happening. He’s apparently still writing that newHaunted Mansionmovie for Disney. He still occasionally brings upHellboy 3andAt the Mountains of Madness, even though both of those are long-shots at this point. He’s not gonna find time forPet Sematary.
However, a newPet Sematarymovieisin the works…it’s just been two years since Juan Carlos Fresnadillosigned on to directand we haven’t heard anything since. If this project is stalled, Paramount could do far worse than take a meeting with del Toro. After all, we like to think we live in one of the better timelines where del Toro is allowed to make a Stephen King movie.
