Pet Sematary is a 2019 horror movie about a father who finds out the hard way that sometimes dead is better.
Since author Stephen King has had had big box office success with It back in 2017 it only makes sense to repackage other film adaptations for a new audience. Taking on the helm of this new version is the directing duo of Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer. They have both received praise for their previous work, Starry Eyes from 2014. Will Pet Sematary receive the same accolades? Well, yes and no. While there are many things that are fantastic about the movie. It just ends up being a very average horror movie.
The story follows the Creed family. No not Apollo and his son Adonis. I’m talking about Louis (Jason Clarke) his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz), their two kids Ellie (Jete Laurence) Gage (Hugo Lavie) and their cat Church. They have moved to a small town to escape the problems of the big city. Which as you know will cause issues for our main protagonists later on. One day Ellie meets the neighbor Jud (John Lithgow) after he scares her and makes her fall. Yeah, she may have been trying to cross the barrier that separates the cemetery to the ancient burial ground, but that’s still no reason to shout. One day Louis finds that poor Church got run over. Rachel who is still dealing with the death of her sister doesn’t want Ellie to find out that her cat died because it would crush her. In order to help out, Jud leads Louis to the place beyond the barriers of the Pet Sematary. Legend says that if you bury someone in the ground there. They will come back, but they won’t be the same as when you put them in the ground.
Both Widmyer and Kolsch do a really good job at developing a creepy mood and atmosphere throughout this feature. There are a lot of really good moments that are tense and made my heart jump and I liked how they played with horror tropes you have seen before. If you think something is under the bed don’t bend down to see what’s there. Kick that baby over and deal with the mess later. The scene at the birthday party is another great example. However the ending of that could have used better editing in my opinion.
I also liked how the movie address the subject of death from both perspectives. It’s clear that Rachel has more of a spiritual side than Louis and both make valid arguments on the subject. I wished that kind of contrast of both opinions was a bit more present throughout the movie. While it does show Louis starting to believe in the supernatural. I never once thought he would change his mind on the notion of there being an afterlife or a soul leaving the body.
The cast in this are all really good and they have great rapport with each other. I just never fully bought the family as being a real one. They were just going through motions to keep the story moving. There is a moment when tragedy strikes and Louis has to make a tough decision and I never saw once see him struggling with that choice. Clarke is a good actor but his character felt more like an archetype rather than a real person. The only actors I bought as being real people were Laurence and Lithgow. Their scenes had more heart than ones with her own parents. It never took the time to fully develop these characters because it wants to get to the resolution real fast. This would have been slightly better if it was directed by Ari Aster (Hereditary) because that man know how to make families in horror films good. Than again it might lose money from the general public if he did.
Pet Sematary is like one of those rides that you’ve been on before but they made a few adjustments on it. You get some surprises and you have fun but you only ride it maybe once every so often. I think the same can be said for this movie. There are no deep conversations into the topics this story presents. Well maybe in the original novel there was, but certainly not in this. It delivers the goods in places but I don’t think this will hold up and we can expect to see another version in 2039.