‘PET SEMATARY’ (2019) Review

Adapting Stephen King is not an easy task. Some may say that most of his material is better left on the page but with King being the phenom that he is, that would never happen. Now, we are experiencing another wave of King adaptations and one adaptation that some people were looking forward to was Pet Sematary. I’m not the hugest fan of the 1989 adaptation but it does capture the dread and anguish of its source material (which I just recently finished), plus Fred Gwynne’s Jud is one of those rare examples of seeing a literary character in the flesh.

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Any paragraphs that contain spoilers will be collapsible for readers. Please click on the box to read any paragraph with spoilery content. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

If you are not familiar with the book or the 1989 film, here’s a brief rundown: Louis Creed (played here by Jason Clarke) and his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) move their family consisting of their daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and their son Gage (Hugo and Lucas Lavoie) to Ludlow, Maine for Louis’s new job at a university – which serves as a “slow-down” from the busy hustle and bustle of Boston (was Chicago in the book and the ’89 film) – they discover that their house is sandwiched between a busy road often used by speeding Orinco oil tankers and a pet cemetery built by the children of the town. Their neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), runs into Ellie as she goes to explore the pet cemetery (labeled as “Pet Sematary) after seeing children in a “ritualistic” funeral procession donning animal masks. After that, bad things happen and they get even worse.

When the Starry Eyes directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer attached themselves to a recent adaptation, I’ll admit I was excited. However, that excitement drained out of my body pretty quickly upon watching the first 30 minutes. The first two-thirds of the film moves at such a brisk pace that even though it is spanning over the period of a few months, it is hard to get a capture of time – with exception of the day of Halloween. For people who are familiar of the source material and/or the 1989 film, this will feel like a troublesome experience – almost like an emotionless Cliff Notes version of the story you know. Gone is the friendship that blossoms between Louis and Jud. Gone are ever-mounting dread. Gone is the relationship building to really drive Jud to show Louis what lies beyond the children’s Pet Sematary. Gone is most of what makes King’s story of grief and pain so memorable, relatable and potent.

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[toggle title=”SPOILER PARAGRAPH – CLICK TO READ SPOILERS”]Kölsch and Widmyer make a bold choice to switch the catalyst to the tragic events that happen to the Creed family from Gage to Ellie. By the time the scene gets there, viewers who have seen the 1989 film will notice that the directors are paying tribute to the previous adaptation with the truck driver getting a phone call on his cell phone from Sheena (referencing the Ramones song “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” that plays in the truck from the 1989 film) and the “rug-pull” where Louis actually grabs Gage from getting run over in the road but due to the trailer jackknifing and the Oil container disconnecting, Ellie is the one who dies. While I can understand the switch, especially with what the directors want to do with the last third of the film which, for the most part, is relatively their own and not from King’s source material, viewers may question the impact. Yes, losing your child no matter what age is extremely difficult and everything will be questioned but there is something a bit more powerful from a story angle where a child who has barely lived is taken away by such a careless and avoidable act.[/toggle]
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It is only in the final third of the film that viewers are introduced to something which could be pretty interesting and while there are a few scenes that are presented where we think maybe we will be taken down a different path and be forced to ask ourselves different questions of morality, the story seems to make the choice of going back and remaking the 1989 adaptation while still winking at us (Jud + the bed + Achilles heel).

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[toggle title=”SPOILER PARAGRAPH – CLICK TO READ SPOILERS”]When Ellie comes back and Louis gives her a bath, it is one of the most darkly comic things in the film. The audience knows this won’t end well but we are given a moment of reprieve due to the absurdity of the situation. Also, some of the facial expressions that Jeté Laurence gives us is straight up remarkable – and is a bit of a visual tribute to how Gage’s eyes appear in the book. When Rachel comes home and discovers her daughter who she just buried walking in the house and Louis pleading with her that everything can be ok, it brings up some interesting thoughts and the film could have totally went in a different direction that could have been maybe a bit more interesting.[/toggle]
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Ultimately, the 2019 adaptation is a failed opportunity as I think the casting, for the most part, is better than the ’89 adaptation. Amy Seimetz’s portrayal of Rachel – who is forever haunted by her sister Zelda and fears death or the discussion of it around Ellie. Lithgow is underutilized and it’s a damn shame that really our main focus is the Creed family, even if that focus is not lasered in. The majority of gothic-regionalized folklore is severely absent from this film (with exception of the Wendigo) and it feels detrimental to the story as it is difficult to really settle into the environment and let the story take ahold of you as it does with King’s book and even with Lambert’s uneven film adaptation. However, what Lambert did get right with her film thirty years ago is the atmosphere and if this film had a small iota of that, we may have had something worth talking about.

For those familiar with the source material, it is also a shame that we have two film adaptations that do not include Jud’s wife who is used to really give motive for several actions of the King’s novel. This 2019 adaptation does touch upon some of a greater force at play – other than bringing the dead back to life – where the dead that come back might be what we want them to look like appearance wise and introduces some of the psychological games at play.

PET SEMATARY is in theatres nationwide TODAY.