Movie classic: Cemetery of Favorites (1989) – Puliwood

This year, it’s been 35 years since the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Animal Cemetery, The Cemetery of Favorites, was presented, so we’re going to revive our memories of it a little with the help of an article. Although it is not on the top shelf in terms of critical acclaim, if we want to choose between King adaptations, it also has its memorable moments, and the sequels and remakes prove that some kind of cult has been built around it over the decades.

The story is about a middle-class family who move to the countryside next to a rather busy national road. This road is so notoriously dangerous that there is already a cemetery in the nearby forest where people bury run over animals. However, all of this is only on the surface, the new inhabitants of the apparently idyllic environment (along with their cat) have no idea that whoever is buried there will return to the living again and again.

35 years after the premiere, I think that some minor spoilers can be included if the topic so requires, but the article will not be primarily based on plot twists. Originally, the rights went to George A. Romero, but he eventually backed out due to his work on the filming of Monkey Love (1988), and after that the opportunity to film it landed at Paramount. At that time, Stephen King was already ready with the script, and even he could make the final decision in the selection of the director, and thus the choice fell on Mary Lambert, who previously mainly directed music videos, but whose name is also attached to the 1987 Big Dreams. So he could not be called a routine filmmaker, but it cannot be denied that he had potential (which ultimately did not materialize, looking at his entire filmography).

Graveyard of the Favorites, compared to being a horror, made quite a lot of money with its $12 million budget (the five-year-old A Nightmare on Elm Street grossed around $1 million), but in the end, it narrowly avoided financial collapse with its $54 million revenue. Critics liked the film much less, but this did not prevent a sequel to be made three years later.

Now let’s stick to the first part, which still has memorable moments to this day. It is enough to think of any scene of the mother’s (Denise Crosby) sister, who was otherwise played by a male actor, Andrew Hubatsek, because during the casting process they could not find a woman with a body shape that suited the character. In this regard, the mask work can also be classified among the lasting moments: Lambert did not elaborate when it came to an opened skull or a gouged out eye.

At the same time, there are also scenes of the film that are less effective or have aged worse, for which the slasher moments of little Gage (Miko Hughes) could be cited as an example. Let’s just say it’s not a Damien. Another serious flaw of the film can be traced back to the acting and the acting. Only Fred Gwynne, who plays Judo, can be said to have brought everything out of his character, but the performances of the actors playing the parents (Dale Midkiff and the already mentioned Crosby) sometimes rival the performance of the members of an amateur theater company. This is a problem because most dramaturgical turning points can be linked to them.

The 1989 Favorites Cemetery is a strange film. On the one hand, its story has a particularly bold and striking ending, there are sufficiently bloody scenes, The Ramones song is unforgettable during the cast list, and if the viewer really wants to, they can even associate additional meaning with it, but in terms of direction, acting and script, it is not nearly as mature , how could it be. In any case, we can state that this is one of the few King adaptations that the legendary writer not only likes, but also took part in the works, as well as delighted the audience with a cameo. And that’s no small thing!