Pet Sematary
(2019) 101 Min.
Rated: R (gore)
Country: USA
Directors: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer
Starring: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
A family moves to a new home in a small town that happens to have a cursed burial ground that can raise the dead.
Synopsis:
Louis Creed is a doctor from Boston, Massachusetts. He and his family move to the small town of Ludlow, Maine. His family includes his wife Rachel, their two young children, Ellie and Gage, and Ellie’s cat, Church. While settling into their new home, Rachel and Ellie notice a funeral procession of children wearing masks as they take a dead dog to be buried in the nearby woods. Ellie wanders into the woods and finds a pet cemetery built by children. There she meets Jud Crandall, a neighbor who warns Ellie and Rachel not to wander in the woods.
At the university hospital, Louis is left shaken after failing to save the life of Victor Pascow, a student who has been mortally injured after being struck by a vehicle. That night he has a dream that he follows Pascow’s voice into the forest. He goes to the pet cemetery and Pascow tells him that in life Louis helped him, so Pascow wants to help in return. He warns that the land beyond the cemetery is where “the ground is sour”. Louis awakens from the dream to finds his feet covered in dirt.
Jud discovers that Church has been hit by a truck and is dead. He and Louis plan to bury Church later. Louis tells Rachel about the cat and she tells him that she can’t stop thinking about her dead sister Zelda. Rachel blames herself for Zelda’s death because her sister was bedridden with spinal meningitis and the two were left alone in the house. Rachel was expected to serve Zelda food, but because Rachel feared her sister she put the food in a dumbwaiter that didn’t always work. The dumbwaiter goes up the shaft but stops abruptly. A shuffle and crash is heard. When Rachel opens the door she discovers her sister’s dead body on top of the dumbwaiter. Rachel blames herself for the death. Jud assures her it wasn’t her fault and he promises to bury Church and tell Ellie he ran away.
As Jud and Louis set to bury Church, Jud decides to lead Louis to a place beyond the cemetery. They travel past a wall of deadwood, through a dark wood and up a steep hill. There Jud instructs Louis to bury the cat. The next day Church is alive and in Ellie’s room. Church now appears to be meaner and his fur is matted. Ellie tries to comb his hair and Church scratches her. Louis doesn’t understand how the cat came to life and asks Jud what where he took them. Jud only explains that the stony region tends to bring things to life buried there and that it’s beyond explanation.
Rachel starts to hallucinate seeing Zelda in the house. Meanwhile, Pascow warns Louis that soon his family will be destroyed. Louis then finds Church sitting on top of a crying Gage and pulls Gage away. Louis speaks to Jud again about the ground where Church was buried. Jud tells him how even Native American tribes would not live there because the earth was sour. The wall of deadwood was meant to keep people out, but still people persisted. Jud buried his childhood dog up in the sour ground, and like Church, the dog was changed. Jud’s father had to kill their dog for a second time.
Afterwards, Louis attempts to euthanize Church with drugs, but has a change of heart when Church looks at him lovingly and purrs. Louis drops Church off far from home in an area restricted from people and cars.
Soon Ellie has her 9th birthday party and while Louis is playing with the other children, she sees Church walking down the road. Ellie runs into the road to pet Church and Gage also happens to run into the street after his sister. A large 18 wheeler comes barreling down the street and swerves to avoid Gage, who is pulled out of the road by Louis. The tank resting on the back of the truck shoots forward and strikes Ellie, killing her.
After the funeral, Rachel and Gage leave to spend a few days with Rachel’s parents. While the family is away Louis goes to Jud and they drink. Jud warns Louis not to bury Ellie in the same place as Church. Louis drugs Jud and carries out his plan to dig up Ellie and rebury her.
Just as expected, Ellie appears at the house alive. Louis attempts to give her a bath and finds staples under her hair. Ellie keeps asking if she’s dead and starts to dance around in her funeral dress. Meanwhile, Pascow gets the attention of Gage and Rachel feels the need to return home. She calls Jud and asks him to check on Louis.
Jud checks on Louis, but he dismisses Jud and won’t allow him inside the house. Jud is about to return home when he sees Ellie in the upstairs window of the Creed home. This causes Jud to panic and get his pistol at home. While there he is scared by Church and Ellie slices through his Achilles tendon. Ellie’s face transforms into Jud’s late wife Norma. She chides Jud for telling Louis about the sour land. Ellie/Norma then stabs Jud to death.
Louis is home alone looking for Ellie when Rachel and Gage arrive. Ellie appears and scares Rachel. Louis attempts to ease Rachel’s fears by explaining that he buried Ellie and Church in a special place and they came back to life, but Rachel is still frightened. Louis fears Ellie is scared off and runs outside the house to look for her. Meanwhile, Ellie is still inside and manages to find where Rachel and Gage are hiding. Louis finds Jud’s dead body and returns home.
Rachel drops Gage from a broken window down to Louis who is still outside. Louis places Gage in a car and tells him not to open it for anyone. He returns to the house where he finds Rachel stabbed multiple times by Ellie. Ellie surprises Louis and knocks him out by hitting him over the head with a chair. She then drags Rachel’s body to the burial grounds.
Louis wakes up in a daze and frantically looks for Rachel’s body and Ellie. He finds Gage safe in the car and goes to the pet cemetery where he finds Ellie. She tells him he is too late and proceeds to attack him. Louis manages to fends off her attacks, but is stabbed through the heart with an iron rod from behind by a newly undead Rachel.
Gage awakens in the car to see the house on fire and his family, now all undead, approaching the car slowly. Louis presses his face against the window and the beep of car alarm unlocking is heard. The film ends.
Review:
This film is a remake of the 1989 film and Stephen King novel of the same name. Though I feel the film seems to be more influenced by the original movie rather than the book because of the shift in focus to Ellie vs. Gage.
The film itself is interesting enough that it isn’t a beat for beat remake. There is some plot variance and I feel that the actors in this film are far better than in the original film. The drawbacks being that there are a lot more modern jumpscares along the way. Zelda is basically haunting Rachel wherever she goes, so that allows for extra scares when the basic plot isn’t as exciting.
The special effects and gore in this film are far better than in the original ’89 film. Church always appears to be frazzled, bloodied and not-quite-right in this version once he’s undead. John Lithgow looked so greasy, troubled and disheveled as Jud. It was all pretty believable.
The movie does suffer from a slow moving plot. This isn’t really the fault of anyone but the original story itself. It really is one of those stories where Jud explains in several hints what the burial ground does. It’s literally about 65 or so minutes into the film before the first human is buried. Before that portion the only threat is Church hissing and scratching people. It really is the last portion of the film that is the most gruesome and generally interesting.
Pascow really wasn’t in this film as much as the original version and I kind of missed him. To be honest, his pushes and warnings to the family were useless but it was fun to see him as the nice ghost who was only trying to help and mistakenly just lead more people to their deaths.
Despite all that, I would consider this a successful remake because at the very least it deviated from the original in an interesting enough way that I was surprised where it went. I would consider it a worthwhile watch if you don’t mind plot changes to add some twists. If you’re a devout fan who cannot abide changes, this version may not be for you.