Pet Sematary (2019)

Pet Sematary is the second film adaptation of the Stephen King novel first published in 1983. It’s not radically different from the first attempt in 1989, which had been one of the rare times that King adapted his own work, except it is delivered with less camp and blackly comical eeriness, and there is some flipping around of the roles that occur as it nears its third act. The premise involves a family of four who relocate from the hustle and bustle of Boston to a small town in Maine called Ludlow on a wide parcel of land that includes many acres of wooded forest. It’s in that forest that their daughter Ellie discovers a cemetery for beloved pets of people in the surrounding area (the sign at this location is misspelled, which is why it is also done so in the novel and film’s title), going back decades, including one belonging to their elderly neighbor Jud.  Turns out they may need the use of the cemetery, as their kind kitty named Church gets run over, causing the father, Louis, to have to bury the cat, though he can’t quite bring himself to tell Ellie and break her heart. Jud doesn’t want to see that happen and suggests burying Church in a special place far deeper into the woods. Lo and behold, Church is back with the family the next day, but it’s clear he’s not quite himself anymore.

This entry is co-directed by the team of Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer.  The film does rely on a few cheap jump scares, especially involving the nearby road that trucks seem to careen down at breakneck speeds, most foreshadowing the tragedy to come.  The perversity of the premise is, and will always be, that animals and children are also put into the mix as potential victims, as well as potential perpetrators of violence, in ways that some in the audience may find uncomfortable to watch. Whereas the first film tries to give a foundation for the story’s nastier moments by exploring a foundation and background of grief, Kolsch and Widmyer offer less of that and more of the scares in terms of exploiting the audience’s natural fear that the helpless won’t escape becoming victims in the whirlpool of terror any more than the adults around them.

Performances are adequate for the material, but never to the point of selling their actions as believable, given the nature of the horrific events and the extremely questionable character motivations we’re asked to swallow for the sake of pushing the story forward. They also don’t seem to be as disturbed or horrified by the terrifying developments as you would expect from people in a similar position, seemingly taking reality-shattering occurrences mostly in stride, while glossing over the heartache and tragedy of being forced into a position of harming someone or something they truly love beyond measure.  There’s something to be said about making one’s film a little too grounded before the supernatural horror takes over, as we are of a mindset to question the logic in ways that this iteration of Pet Sematary doesn’t escape. That said, the closest thing to a surprise comes from Jete Laurence as young Ellie, especially as her character begins to experience darker days. Lithgow is as solid as he usually is, but, again, even an actor as skilled as he is can’t make us buy his conflicted reasons to which he sets the wheels in motion toward the ruin of others he claims to care about.

The film retains some of the back story for the characters that also exists in the King novel as well as the first adaptation, especially when it comes to the mother, Rachel who, as a young girl, had to attend to her decrepit sister who was miserable and suffering from a debilitating disease that caused great fear in the young girl, especially after a tragic event occurs that causes her to live with a great deal of haunting guilt. Unfortunately, that angle doesn’t get tied in very well with the plot delivered in the present day except to give us more moments of jump-scares as Rachel hallucinates the tragedy of a key event repeatedly. There’s also a subplot that involving Louis, who is a doctor, being spoken to by a ghastly ghost, who suddenly turns into a sort of narrator in his mind, though there’s little explanation of his reason to exist in this film beyond the fact that he’s freshly deceased, as well as to add an additional superfluous jump-scare.  The pay-off for these plot elements is so little that it’s hardly worth keeping them in the film at all.

What’s really missing from this release is a sense of mystery or suspense, as it is very obvious where things will go practically from the outset, and the film doesn’t offer much in the way of twists or turns within the story to keep us on edge as to how things might play out down the road.  That lack of suspense also hampers the ability to swallow some of the very dumb decisions made by Louis and Jed within the film, though, to be fair, the screenplay by Matt Greenburg and Jeff Buhler does address this stupidity as a by-product of “crossing the barrier” into that cursed land that feeds on a person’s sense of grief.

While it’s a handsome production made with competence, Pet Sematary isn’t as fun as the first effort, and doesn’t stand out enough on its own to make it worth coming back to if you’re familiar.  If you’re unfamiliar, there are perhaps too many elements you’ve likely already seen and digested in other movies to not find the goings-on to be predictable, so I would limit the appeal of this release to just slash-and-gash enthusiasts who just love atmospheric horror movies, even if they aren’t giving them much that’s new or noteworthy to ponder from a story or cinema perspective.  Like the resurrected pets that come back, it looks and feels like the thing we loved, but something is off, and it keeps us at a distance to truly embracing it. As the tagline says, even among resurrecting already-told stories to a modern audience, sometimes dead is better.

Qwipster’s rating: C

MPAA Rated: Rated R for horror violence, bloody images, and some language
Running Time: 100 min.

Cast: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow, Jete Laurence
Director: Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer
Screenplay: Matt Greenburg, Jeff Buhler (based on the novel by Stephen King)