Pet Sematary (2019)

Director: Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer
Stars: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow
Runtime: 101 minutes

Synopsis: Dr. Louis Creed and his wife, Rachel, relocate from Boston to rural Maine with their two young children. The couple soon discover a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near their new home.

Performances: 6/10
Screenplay: 4/10
Costumes/Makeup: 8/10
Editing: 4/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Score/Soundtrack: 6/10

Verdict: Based on a Stephen King novel of the same name and the remake of its 1989 adaptation, "Pet Sematary" revolves around a family who moved into a new house only to discover a mysterious burial ground hidden near it.

Having not seen the original movie nor read the novel, I went into this remake completely blind about its plot. And came out of the theater disappointed by the way its pretty cool concept was wasted.

Because "Pet Sematary" is divided into a classic 3 act narrative in which only the last one lived up to my expectations. In fact, the last 30 minutes or so of the movie are creepy, scary, and deal well with the story's main theme, resumed well by the poster's tagline: "Sometimes dead is better". The lead up to it, however, was filled with mediocre dialogue, which unfortunately tainted the main performances by Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz, and especially Jeté Laurence, who plays the couple's daughter, Ellie. The script also suffered from quite a few logical inconsistencies, conveniences, and unnecessary foreshadowing and flashbacks that took me out of the film's world much more than it grabbed me in. Technically, the film's mood is consistently creepy thanks to its eerie score and dark color palette, but that mood is never utilized to its fullest in the first two acts and only fits the material in the final one. The flick's editing was also off, with many quick cuts and weird transitions affecting the overall flow of the movie.

I was sadly let down by this remake that also relied a lot on cheap jump scares to scare its audience instead on focusing more on the protagonist's psychological and ethical dilemma, only really tackled in the film's ending. It's definitely not one of the best King adaptations out there, but also not one his worst. It just falls somewhere in the middle and will probably be forgotten by the end of the year.

FINAL GRADE: 5/10