When you try to gauge your excitement for an upcoming film, you can do so in a number of ways. You can look at the cast and see if that’s enough to get you hyped. Or if there’s no cast, such as the upcoming “Pet Sematary” follow-up (earlier reports call it a prequel), you have to look at the filmography of the new director, Lindsey Beer, and see if it’s strong enough to build your optimism for the new horror film. And well, to be perfectly honest, the work she’s been previously attached to is…well, not so great. But that said, I’m still optimistic about this “Pet Sematary” film.
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According to Deadline, Paramount Players has signed Lindsey Beer as a director and writer for the upcoming “Pet Sematary” follow-up film that will eventually debut on Paramount+. Again, not much is known about the film, other than it will be the follow-up to the 2019 adaptation of the Stephen King horror classic and that previous reports said it will serve as a prequel. And as mentioned, Beer’s filmography isn’t filled with incredible features, unfortunately.
The new “Pet Sematary” feature will mark the directorial debut for Beer, who has been attached to many major features as a screenwriter. The best film that features Beer’s name is the Netflix teen rom-com, “Sierra Burgess is a Loser.” that film served as a breakout for Beer as a screenwriter, leading to much bigger projects down the line. From there, she worked on “Chaos Walking” (ouch) and “Transformers: The Last Knight” (double ouch). She also acted as part of the writing group behind “Godzilla vs. Kong” (ugh).
But it’s important to understand that a finished film doesn’t necessarily reflect the work done by a screenwriter, particularly when you have blockbusters with multiple chefs in the kitchen, so to speak. So, you can’t really blame her for any of those film’s creative failures. And since she’s still just beginning her career, much of the work she’s done has yet to be released, like the “Magic Order” series for Netflix, as well as “The Kingkiller Chronicle” and the proposed “Silver Sable” film for Sony.
And considering the first “Pet Sematary” from 2019 was not great, there’s nowhere to go but up, right? In that case, it’s hard not to root for Beer and to hope for the best with the new film. ‘Sierra Burgess’ is great, and judging by her IMDB, that might be the best reflection of her talents, so call me optimistic.