First, "Pet Semetary" is a generic but AWESOME Ramones song. Also, Amy Seimetz—no "t" (stoked to see getting some bigger budge roles, she can be great),

Didn't realize you were waiting for some quality drama and horror from a movie based on a Stephen King novel. ICYMI, his books rarely translate well to the silver screen. Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, The Shining and Salem's Lot were all pretty good to great. Carrie, The Stand, Cujo, Maximum Overdrive, The Mist, the werewolf one I can never remember the title of...not so much. Most of his stuff ends up looking and feeling like a Tales From The Crypt episode.

Now, the original Pet Semetary I got up and walked out of because it honestly got a few hooks into me. The scene with his wife at the end. You compared it to The Monkey's Paw, which is apt. But it was still pretty much a crappy b-movie. Probably paid for Joe Hill's summer writing camp as a teen.

I think the best movies to come out of a Stephen King story are the ones your mind comes up with.

@2: The truth about King is that he is an extremely inconsistent and extremely sloppy writer. Most of his books are complete messes that are really not even worth reading, and the lack of consistent structure or narrative momentum is what makes so many of his works difficult to film.

It is telling, as you note, that his most focused works are the ones that make the good movies.

"It" is likely the best example of this. The book is honestly terrible. It is a complete mess, as if someone baked a cake without eggs and butter, and instead added pizza and old shoes, then mashed three of these cakes together. Both movies made of the text cut out about 97% of it, leaving only a spooky clown, and both are bad to mediocre movies at best.