Welcome to L.A. Weekly's Movie Guide, your look at the hottest films in Los Angeles theaters this week — from indie art-house gems and classics to popcorn-perfect blockbusters and new movies garnering buzz. Check here every week before you make your big-screen plans.

Opening wide

Friday, April 5

Pet Sematary is the 250th or so film adaptation of a Stephen King property, in this case the 1983 horror novel about an ancient Indian burial ground that brings back the dead. In this imaginative reworking of “The Monkey's Paw,” a family moves into a home in rural Maine and endures a tragic chain of events. The 1989 film version directed by Mary Lambert did not inspire cries of protest over the announcement of a sequel, and the cast, consisting of Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz and John Lithgow, is strong. Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer directed from a screenplay by Jeff Buhler, and David Kajganich (creator of the intelligently spooky TV series The Terror) did uncredited work on the script.


Also opening Friday, April 5: Best of Enemies; Billboard; The Chaperone; Division 19; The Haunting of Sharon Tate; High Life; Peterloo; The Public; Shazam!; Storm Boy; Super 30; Teen Spirit; The Wind

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