Year of Release: 2019
Director: Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer
Starring: Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz, Jete Laurence, Obssa Ahmed, Alyssa Brooke Levine
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review:
After the success of the adaptation of Stephen King's "It", a new array of adaptations of his work has stated to come along. This one in particular, is a new adaptation, since there's a previous version of "Pet Sematary", directed by Mary Lambert, which premiered in 1989. The film follows the story of the Creed family, who move to a new property, in a somewhat rural area, in order to escape the stress of living in a big city. The property they've bought is expansive, and they come to find out through their friendly neighbor Jud, has a Pet Cemetery (which has a plaque with the designation "Sematary"). When the cat's family, by the name of Church, is killed by a passing truck, they decide to not reveal it to their young daughter Ellie. Jud informs Louis there's a way to avoid inflicting the pain of loss on the young girl. He takes Louis to the Pet Sematary and informs him that the locale has special abilities, which allow to bring things back to life. While in discredit, Louis does as Jud indicates, and much to his surprise, Church shows up at the house not much later. While the cat is indeed back, he's not really the same, and while the family is getting familiar with the area, tragedy strikes when Ellie is killed in a car accident. Not wanting to deal with that suffering, Louis takes his daughter's body to the Sematary, in hopes she'll also comes back to life. And she does, just not the same way he expected.
Directors Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer have had a brief career thus far, mostly specializing in suspense/horror films. Their take on "Pet Sematary" is close in tone to most of the narrative penned by Stephen Kind, save for the final act, which goes in a somewhat different direction. The film and the directors, succeed in building an environment of unease and veiled menace surrounding the cemetery, however, they're less successful in establishing the central characters as more than shallow archetypes for a perfect family. While Louis is a physician, and deeply pragmatic, his wife Rachel, lives with the guilt of feeling responsible for the death of her sister, when she was much younger (her sister suffered from spinal meningitis), and therefore shies away from dealing with that topic (in general and with her children in particular). The character that brings some extra depth and nuance to the proceedings is of course Jud, the friendly neighbor played perfectly by John Lithgow, who unwittingly sets the tragic set of events in motion, when he reveals the power behind the "Sematary". It's a film that doesn't necessarily add much to the previous adaptation, but does manage to feature more polished production values, including the beautiful cinematography from Laurie Rose and the effective score from Christopher Young. While not a bad adaptation, it isn't a memorable one.
Directors Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer have had a brief career thus far, mostly specializing in suspense/horror films. Their take on "Pet Sematary" is close in tone to most of the narrative penned by Stephen Kind, save for the final act, which goes in a somewhat different direction. The film and the directors, succeed in building an environment of unease and veiled menace surrounding the cemetery, however, they're less successful in establishing the central characters as more than shallow archetypes for a perfect family. While Louis is a physician, and deeply pragmatic, his wife Rachel, lives with the guilt of feeling responsible for the death of her sister, when she was much younger (her sister suffered from spinal meningitis), and therefore shies away from dealing with that topic (in general and with her children in particular). The character that brings some extra depth and nuance to the proceedings is of course Jud, the friendly neighbor played perfectly by John Lithgow, who unwittingly sets the tragic set of events in motion, when he reveals the power behind the "Sematary". It's a film that doesn't necessarily add much to the previous adaptation, but does manage to feature more polished production values, including the beautiful cinematography from Laurie Rose and the effective score from Christopher Young. While not a bad adaptation, it isn't a memorable one.
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