Out of the many books written by famous author, Stephen King, which have been adapted into movie form, the original Pet Sematary released in 1989 was one of the few that got a few decent scary and seemed to effective capture the creepy premise and deathly atmosphere of the original story. While definitely coming with its own goofy elements that are typical of a King adaptation which did hold it back for critics and some audiences, many were decently pleased with the results. Remaking it seems like a weird choice (especially considering how many of King’s stories have been told much worse), but a remake was posited in 2010 and it was eventually released in 2019. After being evicted from their home in Boston, ER doctor, Louis (played by Jason Clarke) and his wife Rachel (played by Amy Seimetz) move to the small town of Ludlow, Maine with their two children, Ellie (played by Jeté Laurence) and their youngest, Gage. Settling into their new home, their elderly neighbor, Jud (played by John Lithgow) warns them that out in the forest is a Pet Sematary, filled with the various pets that have died over the years which has a way of returning those that have died back to the world of the living. Things prove to be more than just speculation as after the death of their family cat, Church, he is buried in the Sematary, yet seemingly comes back to life, although changed in some way. After tragedy strikes where Ellie is killed in a car accident, Louis refuses to move on from this grief and proceeds to bury his daughter in the haunted area and soon, she returns to him. Though things feel normal again, it quickly dawns on him that whatever was brought back wasn’t his daughter, and he soon realizes the severity of the situation when the bodies start to pile up that will put, he along with the rest of his family in danger. The movie did well from a box office perspective, but was met with middling reviews from critics, and that does make a lot of sense. While the film captures the deathly atmosphere and gloom the original possessed, as well as getting good actors and containing some nice spins to the original tale, it does suffer from lacking much of an identity and not featuring very good scares.

The story, in its lamest terms, is roughly the same as the original 1983 novel, just featuring altercations surrounding the specifics. It is still about a family suffering a death, the child is resurrected, and chaos ensues, but most of the changes to the story done by writers Jeff Buhler, Matt Greenberg and David Kajganich are well done and add more to the film’s uncomfortable mood. Expansions to the other cast members as well as the environment itself just causes this horrific and oppressive feeling of dread and hopelessness that this story thrives on and opens up opportunities for scares that can be as scarring physically as they could be psychologically. While the idea of changing the child that gets killed may seem like a drastic change, it doesn’t distract too much from the overall story and it allows for much more dialogue opportunities that can’t really be done with an actor that is underage. This does create an obvious difference between both versions and the film does use this change well, but the image of a dead four-year-old coming to kill you does have a more unsettling premise than a 10-year-old child coming to kill you, so it does lose that element a touch. However, because of the film’s instance of mostly keeping to the outline of the story, it leaves very little room for surprises and the movie in general is very much a by-the-numbers kind of story. The film isn’t overly long, and it follows the original story fine enough, but the biggest weakness comes from the fact that the film doesn’t really stand out very much. A Stephen King product would often, whether good or bad, have a very defined personality, and this film not only feels very unlike King’s atmosphere, but it’s just kind of bland in general and feels like any other horror flick. The directors for this film were Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, who both were associated with horror short films prior to their work here (which looks like their first feature-length project) and while you can tell they have an idea of how to film horror and create a scary atmosphere, they don’t succeed in making the film interesting, new, or even really that frightening. Also, the ending is very bad, feeling way too much like an excuse to milk another movie (which does not need to happen), and feels almost reminiscent of a bad ending in a video game; coming out of nowhere, not feeling build up at all, and basically rushing it out before it can explain the specifics of these results.

The characters are very archetypal of any other horror story, and none really stand out that much despite there being elements within that could make them interesting, but what does help them out is the acting. When they are forced to act normal, they do it fine enough, even though for the most part, it is quite reserved and not the most memorable, but when they go evil or crazy, it is so much more interesting and memorable. Jeté Laurence as the daughter has this amazing broken stare that really gives off the image of a walking corpse, and her passion as an evil creature is dripping with grotesque detail and enthusiasms that it’s clear she’s having the time of her life, proving to be enjoyable to watch, but is still overall a genuine threat that is unnerving to watch, it’s a very impressive performance for someone so young. Amy Seimetz as the mother captures fear and panic very well, mainly demonstrated in her flashback scenes, so despite the character not really having much of a role, she survives through these scenes alone. Jason Clarke is kinda basic as the generic dad, but when he has to go crazy, he does get more into it and it feels like the movie, and he himself, clicks on. The previous moments were done fine, and it felt at least believable, but it wasn’t particularly interesting until it reached this point. John Lithgow is surprisingly real good in this bit role, for someone who seems to easily encompass a slimy unlikable jerk, he is amazingly kind and endearing in this film, (outside of Laurence, he’s the best performance in the movie). They even manage to make the cat look menacing every once and a while, though not as striking as in the original.

The scares throughout the whole film are largely very basic and contain all the typical loud noises, spooky images or jump scares that you can predict from a mile away, again making the film slightly underwhelming and adds to the films lack of any identity. Every jump scare is either an easy to spot ”boo’‘or solely based around gore, which doesn’t truly invoke fear and the more these moments are used, it ironically takes away from the atmosphere of the film which draws on being horrifying on a personal and psychological level, against the scares which are more physically threatening. The build up to each scare is good and does show that these directors understand horror, but when the payoff doesn’t deliver, it doesn’t matter how well it’s done. The location and environment do help build the atmosphere thankfully, as some of the locations feel right out of a classic horror movie, like the fog-covered swamp, the blue-tinted woods, etc, and the unsettling music handled by Christopher Young does add to the overall feel of the movie. While you’d imagine the movie would get ugly quite quickly with the number of grey tones that are constantly shown in the movie, it doesn’t feel like it ruins anything as the lack of color and light does make everything feel bleak and miserable, meaning that the lack of unique visuals adds to the film rather than takes away from it. The cinematography by Laurie Rose is able to make this environment look cramped and washed-up while still being able to show some sweeping shots of the landscape, but other than that it’s pretty standard.

For a Stephen King adaptation, Pet Sematary is a fairy average horror movie, but debatably doesn’t really work as a Stephen King movie. For all the aspects that are good, there is an equal amount that doesn’t really work. With a concept this disturbing and full of juicy creeps and messed up drama, the film feels incredibly standard and by the numbers; it produces a functioning film that has some good qualities, but not one that will go in the record books. Parts like the acting and the atmosphere give this film some nice ups, but the film’s bland scares, unsatisfying ending, slow opening, and lack of any personality leaves the film a little dead in the dirt. Nowhere near one of the worst Stephen King movie adaptations (ironically given the track record of some of the horror films, it’s probably still one of better ones) but coming off the heels of a film that already succeeded in its place with the 2017 film of IT (which was still flawed in its own right, but got more right than wrong), it’s doesn’t quite reach the same heights. Check it out for yourself and see if you would have rather that this film stayed dead or not.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,