2019's Pet Sematary marks the second film adaptation of the Stephen King's horror novel of the same, after Mary Lambert's middling interpretation from 1989. Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's new take on the popular work hopes to surpass that low bar, making a few adjustments to the story that will hope to keep audiences firmly planed on the edge of their seats. Does this new effort dig up something new and exciting? Or was it simply not worth getting out our shovels for?
When the Creed family moves from Boston to a small town in order to spend more time together, they inherit acres of land that features a peculiar landmark dedicated to the town's dead pets. After an accident causes the death of the family's cat, Louis (Jason Clarke) is encouraged to bury it in the Pet Sematary, quickly discovering the restorative powers of the mysterious graveyard. Co-starring Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow and Jeté Laurence, is this thirty-years-later remake worth a visit?
Almost entirely absent of worthwhile scares and unable to extract much emotion from a premise that promises otherwise, Pet Sematary is an incompetent horror film that frustrates at every turn. Very much like the original's attempt to translate King's work in the late 80s, Jeff Buhler's screenplay wastes compelling themes of psychological trauma and mourning on far more surface-level basics found in every run-of-the-mill genre flicks going. Worsened by wooden dialogue that leaves these characters seeming unnatural, it's hard to teether yourself to anyone or anything in the film.
At the risk of avoiding wading too deep into spoiler territory, the grief of Pet Sematary's should-have-been-shattering moment is never fully-realised before it speeds along to further developments, making a subsequent decision to repeat the action wholly unjustified; had the film's consideration of our reluctance to accept death been more profoundly pondered before charging ahead, we would have been in a far stronger, more convincing position to accept that choice. But the film seems in such a rush to reach its empty conclusion, hesitant to spend time crafting bigger moments that would enhance their weight. Weirdly, Pet Sematary needed to be longer - but it's such a slog at 101 minutes that you wouldn't care to see anymore.
Maybe that problem rests in the book's DNA - as someone who is yet to read it, it's difficult to comment - but as a medium, the film could have at least attempted to ease those troubles. There are a few narrative diversions from the source material that would have landed more successful had they not been so heavily implied in the film's marketing, or if the standard of the filmmaking surrounding those moments had been substantial. For example, the modified finale (which would have been fantastic on paper but delivered on the back of a feeble penultimate scene) fails to register more than an indignant sigh as it cuts to black, and you dart out of the auditorium as quickly as that speeding truck that causes so much destruction.
Kölsch and Widmyer land on some impressive imagery but their direction is far too reliant on cheap thrills and jump scares that frequently fail to leave a lasting impact. It does a decent job of maintaining the foreboding atmosphere - mainly thanks to Christopher Young's uneasy score - but when it becomes clear that the film has no intentions of parlaying that atmosphere into anything to sink its teeth into, it hastily dies. Featured heavily in promotional material, the masks that summon such dread are scarcely an element at all and more could have been done to heighten their impact and prominence in the story.
Performance wise, the cast is serviceable but rather lacklustre - though you can't expect much more with such weak material. Clarke, in what can only be described as a mid-career crisis, is a stronger supporting actor than he is a leading man, and while he bears the weight of the poor filmmaking surrounding him admirably, managing to extract some grief from the tale of loss, it's certainly not his finest hour. Seimetz is most held back by the writing, ladened with an unnecessary subplot that barely serves the main narrative, while Lithgow's performance lacks both the warmth or menace to make Jud an effective presence throughout the film.
For a film about revival, Pet Sematary is lifeless. Plodding and dull, despite requiring an extra half an hour or so to really flesh out the narrative developments and thematic musings, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's remake painfully fails to surpass the lows of the 1989 attempt. Unable to convince emotionally, no thanks to such an inept script, Pet Sematary is without a pulse. Thankfully though, it's really rather forgettable, so it shouldn't be haunting your life too long. Let's hope this one stays dead and buried this time.
3.5/10
Summary: It's back to the graveyard for Pet Sematary, a painfully dull and thematically unfulfilling Stephen King adaptation that struggles to salvage a single scare from its unsatisfying script. Let's hope it stays buried this time.
Almost entirely absent of worthwhile scares and unable to extract much emotion from a premise that promises otherwise, Pet Sematary is an incompetent horror film that frustrates at every turn. Very much like the original's attempt to translate King's work in the late 80s, Jeff Buhler's screenplay wastes compelling themes of psychological trauma and mourning on far more surface-level basics found in every run-of-the-mill genre flicks going. Worsened by wooden dialogue that leaves these characters seeming unnatural, it's hard to teether yourself to anyone or anything in the film.
At the risk of avoiding wading too deep into spoiler territory, the grief of Pet Sematary's should-have-been-shattering moment is never fully-realised before it speeds along to further developments, making a subsequent decision to repeat the action wholly unjustified; had the film's consideration of our reluctance to accept death been more profoundly pondered before charging ahead, we would have been in a far stronger, more convincing position to accept that choice. But the film seems in such a rush to reach its empty conclusion, hesitant to spend time crafting bigger moments that would enhance their weight. Weirdly, Pet Sematary needed to be longer - but it's such a slog at 101 minutes that you wouldn't care to see anymore.
Maybe that problem rests in the book's DNA - as someone who is yet to read it, it's difficult to comment - but as a medium, the film could have at least attempted to ease those troubles. There are a few narrative diversions from the source material that would have landed more successful had they not been so heavily implied in the film's marketing, or if the standard of the filmmaking surrounding those moments had been substantial. For example, the modified finale (which would have been fantastic on paper but delivered on the back of a feeble penultimate scene) fails to register more than an indignant sigh as it cuts to black, and you dart out of the auditorium as quickly as that speeding truck that causes so much destruction.
Kölsch and Widmyer land on some impressive imagery but their direction is far too reliant on cheap thrills and jump scares that frequently fail to leave a lasting impact. It does a decent job of maintaining the foreboding atmosphere - mainly thanks to Christopher Young's uneasy score - but when it becomes clear that the film has no intentions of parlaying that atmosphere into anything to sink its teeth into, it hastily dies. Featured heavily in promotional material, the masks that summon such dread are scarcely an element at all and more could have been done to heighten their impact and prominence in the story.
Performance wise, the cast is serviceable but rather lacklustre - though you can't expect much more with such weak material. Clarke, in what can only be described as a mid-career crisis, is a stronger supporting actor than he is a leading man, and while he bears the weight of the poor filmmaking surrounding him admirably, managing to extract some grief from the tale of loss, it's certainly not his finest hour. Seimetz is most held back by the writing, ladened with an unnecessary subplot that barely serves the main narrative, while Lithgow's performance lacks both the warmth or menace to make Jud an effective presence throughout the film.
For a film about revival, Pet Sematary is lifeless. Plodding and dull, despite requiring an extra half an hour or so to really flesh out the narrative developments and thematic musings, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's remake painfully fails to surpass the lows of the 1989 attempt. Unable to convince emotionally, no thanks to such an inept script, Pet Sematary is without a pulse. Thankfully though, it's really rather forgettable, so it shouldn't be haunting your life too long. Let's hope this one stays dead and buried this time.
3.5/10
Summary: It's back to the graveyard for Pet Sematary, a painfully dull and thematically unfulfilling Stephen King adaptation that struggles to salvage a single scare from its unsatisfying script. Let's hope it stays buried this time.