Film director Guillermo del Toro poses on the red carpet as he arrives for the screening of the film "Mad Max: Fury Road" at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, May 14, 2015. Del Toro was a jury member for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival main competition section.

Film director Guillermo del Toro poses on the red carpet as he arrives for the screening of the film "Mad Max: Fury Road" at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, May 14, 2015. Del Toro was a jury member for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival main competition section. Reuters/Benoit Tessier

SPOILER ALERT: Pet Sematary, Crimson Peak

Mexican film director Guillermo Del Toro has thrown his hat into the ring to direct a remake of the classic Stephen King tale, “Pet Sematary”.

Del Toro tweeted that he would kill to remake the film after he read King’s book and called it “unrelentingly dark and emotional”.

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) October 16, 2015

The darkness of “Pet Sematary” would have appealed to Del Toro’s imagination, considering he is no stranger to darkly emotional films, including 2015's “Crimson Peak”. The film, which received a 68 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and stars Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston, tells the story of an aspiring author who must choose between her childhood sweetheart and a mysterious stranger. Events lead her to a house that is seemingly alive with memories of a family tragedy.

“Crimson Peak” and “Pet Sematary” share similar themes of loss, death, suffering and reanimating the dead, as well as a haunted house. In “Crimson Peak”, a family secret results in a curse for future generations. The main character is driven to a decrepit mansion, haunted by ghosts of her ancestors.

“Pet Sematary” is about a family who moves to a new town with a cemetary (mispelled 'semetary') where dead pets are buried. The buried pets are resurrected after their burial to become zombies who are not quite the same as when they were alive. A ghost warns the book's main character, Louis Creed, about the dangers of the supernatural soil where he buried his daughter's cat, and where he also intends to bury his dead son. The cemetery, the Creed residence and the road which has claimed the lives of the town's pets, are spooky and foreboding.

If “Crimson Peak” is anything to go by, Del Torro would certainly be able to interpret King’s classic story into a film which retains the Gothic elements of the book.

Gothic literature is often characterised by supernatural beings such as ghosts or zombies, gloomy or decaying surroundings and curses or prophecies. It is also linked with Gothic-style architecture, which is often ornate and gloomy. Other famous Gothic works include “The Fall of the House of Ussher” by Edgar Allen Poe and “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.

A remake of “Pet Sematary” is in the works at the moment, to be directed by “28 Weeks Later” director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Many other directors have announced a remake of the story over the years, but those projects have stalled.

However, Fresnadillo has already written a script and the budget for the movie, which he hopes will be released at the end of this year, is already up for approval by the studio. Fresnadillo hopes to explore the emotional aspects of the story in more depth in his film, as he felt the 1989 film, directed by Mary Lambert, did not explore this aspect as much as he would have liked. He would also like to focus more on how the Creed family are affected by the loss of Gage, Louis' son.

With modern special effects and a proven track record in directing gothic horror films, both Del Torro and Fresnadillo would be equally able to reanimate “Pet Sematary” and stay true to the story’s Gothic elements. As to who does it first, we can only wait to find out.

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