Pet Sematary Remake
I started my thirties in the theater watching this film; a birthday gift to myself, considering the author of the source material and the horror fandoms of which I subscribe. It was disappointing to have read such a slew of negative reviews from critics and viewers the days between its release and this viewing. From what I had gathered, many seemed to think this new Sematary missed the “point” or “essence” of King’s book. Well after having seen it myself, I really don’t understand what they’re talking about. This was an excellent effort.
From the start, I was confident of this film at least maintaining the atmospheric appeal. The brief sequence with the children in animal masks staging a funeral march through the twilit woods to the pet sematary was pleasantly creepy, an idea cleverly extrapolated upon from King’s novel. The semi-trucks going down the country roads at breakneck speeds make their presence known right away, the source of an unfortunate demise of which I’ll make no further mention here— in the possible event that someone reading this doesn’t already know what happens in the middle of this story.
Amy Seimetz (Eleven’s aunt in Stranger Things) and Jason Clarke (Ted Kennedy in Chappaquiddick) are Louis and Rachel Creed, who have unintentionally moved to the creepiest spot in the state of Maine. For one thing, there’s the semis, which appear to be fifty feet long, that cruise down the road alongside their house every five minutes or so. And there’s Jud (John Lithgow), an odd neighbor who shows them the misspelled memoriam of pets in their backyard.
The design and presentation of the pet sematary is on-point: the patterning stone cairns, dilapidated wooden signs, and the large wall of jagged sticks and branches keeping (or trying to keep) people away from the source of the real nightmare at work in this story.
This film is worth it; Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer’s new Pet Sematary is a generally faithful adaptation that also isn’t afraid to try a couple new things. The performances of Seimetz, Clarke, and Lithgow are well-realized as is that of the little daughter (creepy!). There’s a couple jump scares, but nothing that would make me think that the movie is reliant on it. The story is set up so that there are more natural, slow-burn scares, and I think that can be attributed to the astute adaptation and writing.
If you scare easy this is probably not for you. Remake or not, it’s still Pet Sematary.
My rating: ‘A.’
