‘Pet Sematary’ review — Kill it, bury it, and don’t let it come back

Pet Sematary, a remake of the 1989 film, follows a young family struck by disaster and the lengths they’ll go to undo it

30-second review: Pet Sematary is appropriately creepy and tense, but with a weak screenplay and direction to match, this horror movie remake is dead on arrival. There are moments in where you can appreciate the craft that went into it. But without characters or a strong story to ground those moments in, they all feel cheap and fleeting. It makes you think why they’d remake it in the first place. Based on the final cut, I’m thinking it has something to do with $$$.

Where to watch Pet Sematary: Available to buy or rent on Amazon.

Go bury yourself in the Pet Sematary and come back. Full review below ?

Pet Sematary has an interesting story, strong visual style, and a keen sense of atmosphere. However, all those elements that work are betrayed by a bloated script, underwritten characters, and directorial choices that could have been scaled back by at least 75%.

It’s unfortunate considering the Stephen King story that the movie is based on — it was adapted into a 1989 film — could be mined for incredibly rich subtext on grief and guilt. However, the movie doesn’t find those themes until the final third, which delivers, but ultimately falters because the movie before it doesn’t earn those final 30 minutes.

The Creed family, consisting of Louis (Jason Clarke), Rachel (Amy Seimetz), and their two children Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and Gage (played by twins Hugo Lavoie and Lucas Lavoie), move from Boston to Maine to live a calmer life. Louis was an ER doctor in Boston and seems to have some PTSD from his experience — the movie, unfortunately, doesn’t explore this thread.

As she explores their new house and acres of property, Ellie stumbles upon a “Pet Semetary” (sic) where dozens of the town’s deceased pets are buried. There she meets their neighbor Jud (John Lithgow), a widower who quickly takes to Ellie and the rest of the Creeds — though we’re not shown much of their bonding.

Throughout the film, both Louis and Rachel are haunted by terrifying visions. Louis by a patient he recently lost at his university clinic job, which was supposed to be a relaxing career change and Rachel by memories of her sister who died at a young age from spinal meningitis. The visions are appropriately unsettling, but lose their impact because the trauma that is causing them is overly simplified.

One day, Jud discovers Ellie’s beloved cat Church dead on the side of the road. It’s assumed that he was hit by one of the trucks that often come barreling down the country road. Instead of devastating his daughter with the news, Louis decides to bury the cat with the help of Jud. However, Jud has another plan.

Deep in the vast stretches of the swamp on the property is an ancient burial ground used by Native Americans. There Jud tells Louis to bury the cat, leave a tower of stones on top of the grave, and go back home. Louis is disturbed to find Church with Ellie the next morning.

However, Church isn’t the same. He’s aloof and aggressive. At one point he even attacks Ellie and threatens Gage. Louis, realizing his mistake, takes Church and releases him into the wild. Jud reveals that though the grounds can bring the dead back to life, the returned don’t return the same as they were.

Pet Semetary has themes built into its concept. Naturally, the plot explores death, our reaction to it, and the guilt we feel after it happens. The issue with this incarnation of the story is that it chooses to emphasize the horror over the characters and their journies. With a story as grounded in real human emotion and experience as this, you need both for it to be effective.

Look at last year’s Hereditary, which similarly dealt with guilt and grief. If you pulled out the horror elements, you still had a compelling family drama. Do the same to Pet Semetary and you’re not left with much.

On top of that, the movie has some real structural issues in a screenplay that also has too much clunky exposition to forgive. I truly think directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer do their best with the material but end up making choices that emphasize the issues in the screenplay rather than hide them. In particular, the pacing makes the movie feel both too drawn out and too short at the same time.

I wish there was more for me to recommend in Pet Sematary. I had high hopes after a run of great horror movies about loss — The Babadook, Under the Shadow, and Hereditary being chief among them. But horror is evolving and it’s not enough to just be atmospheric and scary. Pet Sematary delivers in that aspect, but without the other elements, it’s dead on arrival.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos

Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.