While critics were divided on the film, the original Pet Sematary was still a hit with audiences and fans. Given its success, director Mary Lambert returned to do the 1992 sequel, Pet Sematary Two. Unfortunately, the sequel was a disappointment at the box office and received negative reviews from both critics and audiences. As the decades rolled around, there were more Stephen King adaptations, but none matched the quality of what came before. However, interest in adapting King’s work was renewed thanks to the massive success of 2017’s IT. Thanks to its success, many more Stephen King works are being readapted for the big screen. One such work is Pet Sematary, which is being helmed by the directors of 2014’s Starry Eyes, an underrated gem. Now, 30 years after the original film came out, we have the highly-anticipated remake/readaptation, Pet Sematary.
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Much like the original, this movie is about the Creed family moving to home in a small Maine town. The daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) stumbles across a pet cemetery in the backyard, and meets old-timer Jud (John Lithgow). The two become friends, and he’s soon introduced to the rest of the family, including father Louis (Jason Clarke). Like before, Louis works as the doctor at the local university and runs into hit-and-run victim Pascow (Obssa Ahmed). Pascow warns him not to go beyond the pet cemetery, but when the family cat Church is killed, things change. Jud suggests they burn him in the Indian burial site beyond the cemetery, leading to the cat returning. Soon, Ellie is killed by a truck, which drives Louis to want to bury her in the burial ground. She comes back to life, but not the quite the same as before.
I apologize for spoiling Ellie being the one who comes back, but the trailer spoils it anyway. Comparing this to the original, it’s better in some ways, yet worse in some ways. For one, the acting overall is slightly better here, especially Jason Clarke as Louis and Amy Seimetz as Rachel. In addition, Jeté Laurence does a good job as Ellie, especially in the second half when she’s resurrected. Also, I appreciate the filmmakers trying to go in different directions as opposed to just recycling the original. Much like the original, this movie has a great mood, with lots of rolling fog and spooky woods. Tone-wise, this version is more consistent than the original, playing it more seriously and not adding odd bits of comedy. While not necessarily too scary, this version does have a very creepy and ominous vibe about it.
Unfortunately, for all this version gets right, there’s also a lot this version gets wrong, which is disappointing. For one, while John Lithgow is a good actor as always, he feels underutilized here, only serving to provide exposition. Also, while the original established a friendship between Louis and Jud, here it feels like they meet circumstantially. And despite Jason Clarke’s good acting, his character comes across somewhat bland and uninteresting, not really offering anything compelling. Plus, while it’s heartbreaking to lose a young child, it was more impactful when Gage was killed in the original. Without getting into spoilers, the third act, especially the ending, leaves much to be desired. The ending does play out differently than the original, but its execution isn’t very strong. That’s the best way to describe this remake: done differently but not executed well. Overall, this Pet Sematary tries but doesn’t recapture the original’s charm.
