This past weekend was the premiere of Stephen King's "Pet Sematary" remake and honestly, it was just okay. Here is my review (SPOILER WARNING AHEAD):

I am a big Stephen King fan and I have seen pretty much all of the movies, no matter how cheesy they might be. Going into this movie, I was excited because "IT" did so well in 2007 that this movie had to be just as good right? Eh.
**Spoilers ahead!**
This film starts with a family of four moving into their new home to adjust their current living situations where both parents would be home more with the kids. We got the dad Louis (Jason Clarke), mom Rachel (Amy Seimetz), and their two children Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and Gage (Hugo Lavoie). They also have a beloved family cat named Church that Ellie is very fond of.
Upon coming across a tribal march with folks dressed in animal masks, Rachel and Ellie are curious to know what it was, yet Rachel strictly advises Ellie to not venture...but she does.

Ellie curiously sneaks out of the house and finds herself in a pet cemetary in her backyard. She then notices a big blockade of branches and sticks and starts to climb to see what is on the other side, but gets distracted and falls off when an older gentleman yells for her to get down. She forms a bond with this guy who reveals he is her next door neighbor named Jud (John Lithgow). Rachel finds her and scolds her for running away and starts to lead them home after a brief, somewhat skeptical, encounter with Jud. As they are leaving the area, Ellie sees a sign and asks the question everybody is wondering, "why is cemetery spelled with an "S?"'

There are moments when you say "what the heck?" out loud, especially when Ellie skips over to Jud's house with a basket of cookies, lets herself in when no one answers, and starts snooping around his house eventually finding a gun in the drawer.
Meanwhile at the hospital where Louis is an ER doctor, a young African American man is wheeled in with urgence. He was said to have been hit by a car and he quickly succumbs to his wounds. When Louis is alone with the corpse, the lights flicker and he finds the corpse sitting up, staring at him, and gives him a warning. A nurse assistant walks in and the moment is over.
The main event of the movie starts probably 30 minutes in. It is Halloween and Ellie is just about to leave with her friends to go trick or treating. Jud yells for Louis and the two men find Church dead and mangled on the side of the road after being hit by a car. Louis is beside himself wondering how in the world he will break the news to his daughter.

This is where I am going to talk about the abundance of foreshadowing in this movie. There are moments when semi's are flying down their street, Louis and Rachel disagree with each other on the subject of the afterlife when talking to Ellie about the events of the hospital, and when we learn about Rachel's late sister, Zelda, and how she told Rachel that one day she will end up in the same position (her spine being broken). There is an excellent video from one of my favorite Youtubers explaining all this:
Jud is very antsy about burying Church and insisting they need to do it by nightfall because of the love Ellie holds for the cat. He leads Louis through the pet cemetery, up the wall of branches, and to the other side where there is another piece of land used for burial. Jud tells Louis to bury Church the same way as the other burial sites are set up.
Church comes back later in the night in a zombie like form and is meaner than usual. Louis thinks he is hallucinating, but the cat is real in the flesh. Church scratches Ellie and Gage, which puts Louis on edge. He even appears with a struggling bird in his mouth sitting on the bed abruptly ruining a moment between Rachel and Louis. Louis has no idea what to do with the zombie cat and confronts Jud what exactly happened and how it happened that night in the burial ground. Jud responds that things do not come back the same way after being buried there. The dark spirit, Wendingo, inhabits the dead that come back and controls them. Louis eventually sets Church free down the road to try to get rid of him.
Jud is quoted "sometimes dead is better".

It is Ellie's ninth birthday party and she is sad about Church's absence. After a nice father-daughter moment, she sees Church running down the street towards her. She runs to him in the middle of the road, oblivious of the oncoming semi.

Gage sees his sister in the road and starts walking towards her. Louis notices him and the semi quickly approaching and grabs Gage and pulls him away in the nick of time. Meanwhile, the semi is swerving and the trailer becomes separated and hits Ellie, who is still in the street with Church. This part was a big deal because in the book and original movie, Gage is the one that gets killed and comes back. The directors went this route for the sake of cinema and the fact that Ellie is a developed small child that knows what she is doing, yet is still very young.
"Cinematically, (Matt) Greenberg (Paramount writer) said, killing Ellie (played by Jeté Laurence), not the toddler Gage, would make for more menacing horror once she’s resurrected in her not-quite-living body and wreaks havoc: “I was thinking, an evil 2-year-old, yeah, that can be scary. But an older, more fully formed child makes it a more credible threat.” (NY Times par. 11)."
One thing I do have to say about this film is that the camera angles are on point. There were so many good moments caught on camera and they really tried different angles and approaches that made it look very spooky, yet filled with heart and emotion. One angle in particular is when Ellie, who just came back from the dead, and her dad snuggle down to go to bed and the camera is a close up on Ellie's face giving her dad a conspicuous creepy smile.

Another appreciated camera moment was that they did not show the impact with Ellie and the trailer, but the emotional factor was top notch. I had a lump in my throat when Rachel fell on her knees and Louis walks up to Ellie, who was flung into a ditch on the side of the road. There was no blood, but the emotional factor was there full force. There were lots of camera pans between the road and the characters, showing their grief.
Now, we know what the rest of the movie is about (or one can guess). Louis buries his daughter in the cemetery, she comes back, she is creepy, and she kills people.

Gahhh nope!
Let's talk about the acting...
I felt the adults' acting was not that great. Most of the emotion was not there, especially with Jason Clarke's performance. He seemed more crazy and out of touch than sad/mourning when his daughter died. Overall, he was just not convincing. I do have nothing but praise for Jeté Laurence who played Ellie. She carried the movie, especially when she came back from the dead. Her acting, emotion, stunts, etc, were fantastic!
My favorite part was actually the opening credit. The text masking over the video of the camera flying over a field was well done and got people ready for the movie to start. The words "Pet Sematary" fade in and slowly fade out as the mask slowly disappears and reveals the field. Here is a video explaining how to achieve this effect using Adobe Premiere:
The lighting for the movie was a very neutral color and grew darker as time went by. A movie like this needs spooky, blue hue lighting that sets the tone.
Overall, I give this movie a 5 out of 10. I felt like they could of gone so much more with this film. The book is very long and the 1989 movie did a better job explaining the cemetery's origins and the tales surrounding it. It made those who have not read the book confused on this aspect. There is another subplot that deals with Rachel's deceased sister who dealt with a tangled spine and died while trying to reach the food Rachel sent up to her. I felt like that could of been explored more too.

The ending was left to one's imagination, although it is obvious what happened. I appreciated how they left it how it was because for one, nobody wants to see what would happened to Gage and two, the movie was dragging at this point so it was a good spot to end the film. Honestly, after Ellie got killed, I felt like the movie went downhill after the funeral scene. The scary parts were rushed and disconnected from the plot. All in all though, it was okay and worth the time. I can talk about this more, but we will be here for a while.
I think the Ellie plot was better because zombie Gage is too freaky...

No thanks.

What were your thoughts on this film? Comment below or post in the forums your favorite and least favorite moments of Stephen King's "Pet Sematary"!

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