Pet Semetary

Starring: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow, Jeté Laurence

Director: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer

Based on the novel "Pet Semetary" by Stephen King

Louis (Jason Clarke), along with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and children Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and Gage (Hugo and Lucas Lavoie), are hoping for a fresh start and have moved to the quiet Maine countryside so Louis can take up residency at a college campus clinic. Shortly after moving in, Rachel and Ellie observe kids from town in some sort of funeral procession, taking a dead pet to be buried in the woods at a pet cemetery. It is here that they meet their neighbor, Jud (John Lithgow), whose childhood pet is buried there. He seems nice but also appears to be hiding something. When Ellie’s pet cat Church is found dead, Rachel and Louis have conflicting thoughts on how to tell Ellie about the death. Before they tell her, Jud and Louis go to bury Church at the pet cemetery. Jud instead takes Louis deeper into the woods to a mysterious overlook. The next morning, Church is back and alive. What appears to be a blessing soon turns into a curse, leading to unforeseen and horrific consequences.

I have not read the Stephen King book or seen the 1989 film, so I don’t have much to compare this to on that front. What I can say about this film is that it does a great job with its set up. There is a constant dread that the directors are able to capture leading up the death of Church. However, I kind of got bored once the film reached that point. I can chalk that up to a trailer that reveals a great deal of the movie and a key plot point happens much later in the film than I was expecting. This killed the suspense for me that was created prior.

The writing was ok for me. Horror like this has a low bar to clear in the writing department, but the film kind of goes off the rails in the last act and I was missing character payoffs. There was also a subplot of Rachel being haunted by her sister's death in her childhood that didn't pay off for me. Like I said, horror writing doesn't need to be high caliber, but I think a lot of the jump scares were predictable and weren't well orchestrated and this is coming from an incredibly jumpy person in horror films.

I do give the movie props for its practical gore effects, especially one early in the film of a college kid who was hit by a car. If you’d seen the directors' previous film Starry Eyes you’d know that they were capable, but it was good to see a studio horror film put their talents to use.

I will also say, this is probably the best I’ve seen Jason Clarke in some time. While I wasn't a fan of the direction his character went in towards the end, I liked his performance. It's always great to see John Lithgow in a horror film and he doesn't disappoint. Jeté Laurence is effectively creepy, although her role doesn't really take shape until late in the film.

Weak writing, too revealing marketing, and poor character payoff sink this otherwise well filmed adaptation.

C-