No one would ever accuse Stephen King of understatement, and the new "Pet Sematary" is as outright disturbing as one would expect. In fact, thirty years ago, having loved King's original, 1983 novel, I went to see the 1989 film, which I thought was no great shakes, but, having read online how many consider it a masterpiece, especially since it was directed Mary Lambert, but who the hell is she, and where did she go, from there????????? I did not even remember, till I saw clips, that Fred Gwynne was in the 1989 film. John Lithgow, another good actor, plays his role now.
"Pet Sematary," in print, was frightening. But it also needled me, because this is when I stopped reading Stephen King regularly. Because, when you strip it down to its essentials, this story is simply a reworking, by King of the superior W.W.Jacobs short story, "The Monkey's Paw." In fact, to prepare writing this post, I watched several dramatizations of the earlier story, and the resemblance is unmistakable. Several years later, when King published "Needful Things," I discovered King had reworked Ray Bradbury's masterpiece "Something Wicked This Way Comes." I was through with him.
However, on print, "Pet Sematary" was chilling, without a bit of campiness. The two films, however, want to be taken seriously, but there is a bit of camp in both.
I swear, when I saw the main grave site sets for both films, they looked almost the same. The 1989 version was true to the tragedy of toddler Gage dying, but, when he came back as a soulless creature, he had the campiness of Chucky in the "Child's Play" movies. I expected Brad Dourif's voice to come out of his mouth.
Aside from Lithgow, the only pro cast, the scene stealers are Church, (short for Winston Churchill) and Jete Laurence, as Ellie, who, in this version, is the child to return from the dead.
It took four cats--Leo, Tonic, Jager, and J.D.-- to pull off the singular Go-For-The-Animal-Oscar-Gold performance given collectively as Church. I cannot tell which cats are the cute Church or the evil one, but both score. I love when Church turns evil, and the Oscar meter is really revved up! I was horrified, yet wanted to crack up, at the same time! Pure camp!
Same with Jete Laurence, as Ellie. Her death is horrifying, and she gives an insightful performance when a normal kid, but, once back from the dead, she creeps about, like Linda Blair in the early possession stages of "The Exorcist," and then morphs into Karen Cooper, from George Romero's "The Night Of The Living Dead." The scene where she stabs her mother, Rachel (Amy Seimetz) with a knife, repeatedly, while chanting, "You bitch! You left me out on the street to die, by that truck!" is, simply high camp hilarity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And when she wears the cat mask, and stabs John Lithgow, below the stairs, on his Achilles tendon, well, it is just hi-larious fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe I am too jaded. Or maybe this was supposed to be campy. As for the ending, well, let me say that while other movies are referenced along the way, this film closes on a final one. Remember in "The Others," when Fionnula Flanagan, as Mrs. Bertha Miles, in the 2001 film, walks up the path to the house of Nicole Kidman and her children? With her assistants in tow? That is something akin to the ending of this version of "Pet Sematary." The film leaves Gage alive, but his future uncertain, if not downright predictable. It is properly horrifying, though nothing of the chill of King's novel's ending. But maybe that just works on print.
The presence of Rachel's tragically ill sister, Zelda, I had forgotten was in the book, as the children's masked ritual to the grave site, which added an eerie touch. The only weak link is Jason Clarke, who looks like your dumb straight jock, and has no business portraying a member of the medical profession. He is the least convincing of the actors, and, if he had been killed off, and not brought back, I would not have minded a bit.
I saw "Pet Sematary," out of curiosity, and because nothing else is out there. For those reasons, or unless you are a Stephen King aficionado, there is no real reason to see it.
Except for some feline and kiddy hilarity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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