Pet Sematery (2019) – A reasonable remake


I’ve always been a fan of Stephen King’s original book-to-film adaptation of ‘Pet Sematery;’ it was a very competent horror which, although having numerous plot-strands that were kind of glossed over or not given the time they deserved, was still very memorable and had plenty of creepy and gory moments.  Since Stephen King’s ‘IT’ was remade it seemed that many other of his classics would, starting with ‘Pet Sematery.’


I happened to watch this remake straight after sitting through the original.  I was actually surprised at how closely the new version followed the eighties incarnation.  You get the same named characters moving to the new house in the American countryside, opposite the same neighbour and finding the same secretive ‘Pet Sematery’ (misspelt due to children creating it) where the father of the family, ‘Lewis’ (Jason Clarke) feels forced to bury the family’s pet cat after he falls foul of a lorry on the nearby road.  Naturally, things don’t go too well after that and the once-treasured animal returns from the grave with more than just a taste for a mouse or two.


It’s only at about the three-quarters of the way through mark that the film starts to take on a feel of its own and dares to throw us die-hard ‘Pet Sematery’ fans a few curved balls when things start to happen that don’t in either the book, nor the film.


I can imagine people who haven’t seen the original enjoying this film.  It’s a perfectly competent little horror film.  Yes, it’s no masterpiece, but there’s enough here for any casual horror fan to enjoy.  Then, for us fans of the eighties version, the first three quarters just kind of retread what we already know, before then changing enough up to make things different enough to be worth a watch.  I’m perfectly happy with the remake, but, due to nostalgia reasons, I’d always choose the original over the remake.  Jon Lithgow adds some acting heavyweight as the lovable next door neighbour ‘Judd,’ however he’ll never be able to deliver his lines in as memorable way as the original ‘Judd,’ played perfectly by Fred Gwynn (and immortalised for his performance in ‘South Park’).


7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that