Rating: 9/10
Genre: Horror
Related Titles: IT, The Mist, Misery, Pet Sematary (1987)
By Leanne Harragan
I find it very rare to see a horror film that draws you in and is actually scary. Don't get me wrong, if you've seen Pet Sematary from 1987, there will be no surprises here, it is fairly similar but that's not always a bad thing.
This film jumps straight in with a classic horror movie opening, a family driving down a winding country road (see the opening of US, Dead End, The Living Dead, Axed) I could go on! There is some pretty quick exposition thrown in, new family home in the country to take away from the stress of city living. There's also a little bit of lazy foreshadowing thrown in with the introduction of the large and loud lorries that drive alongside their house constantly. Louis Creed takes a new job in the local college, meanwhile his daughter is exploring the creepy homemade sematary that is on their land. This is where the weirdness really begins.
While there are the usual jump-scares used in this film, with creepy locations flooding the home and plenty of sudden loud noises or movements being thrown in, there is also an underlying feeling of dread that you can't avoid. As the film goes on, this feeling of dread at what is going to happen next grows, this is something that I find quite rare, I don't remember the last time I saw a horror movie that really drew me in quite as much as this one.
One of the problems that always comes with a book to movie adaptation is the difficulty jamming content into a feature length film, in this case just under two hours. This film is so much more than just the Pet Sematary with the backstory of the mother and her sister coming to the forefront on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, this is kind of left on the back-burner and while it's well-developed it's almost forgotten towards the end of the movie, leaving it kind unresolved in a way.
With a horror film, it's important to have a strong cast. This was the case with choices in this film, the only one that was slightly annoying was John Lithgow, this was less to do with his performance which was great, and more to do with the fact that I could only see him as the Grandad in Daddy's Home 2, for some roles it's important to be able to disassociate actors from their previous roles. Personally I think the best performance came from Jete Laurence playing Ellie. As the young daughter she, solidified herself as the cute, ideal daughter but this all switched as the movie went on. Her character switch towards the end of the film is what truly puts her as the best performance for me, I don't want to give too much away but it's amazingly acted!
If you enjoy being scared or generally just appreciate a well designed horror movie this is definitely one to catch. Stephen King's content continues to amaze and shows that where there's good content, there's potential for a strong on-screen adaptation. I really enjoyed Pet Sematary and it has left me feeling even more excited for the upcoming IT: Chapter Two! If you're a Stephen King fan don't forget to watch out for the cameos and mentions of his other material!
Rating: 8/10
By Rebecca Mannick
So I'll start off and announce that I did in fact scream out loud in the cinema as I was so terrified. It just got the better if me as I was so captivated. Pet Sematary in my opinion s a great horror film. There was suspense, there was a solid storyline and actual proper characters. It was based on the book by Stephen King so you already have expectations and I feel like it liked up to them. I usually judge horrors on how scared I am and to be honest I was pretty scared.
It starts off how most horror films do - a car ride into the woods with a family with young children. The Creed family had moved from Boston to Ludlow, a tiny village in Maine. The property had lots of land and they are soon to discover that that land also contains a 'Pet Sematary'. Children do a procession and bury their animals in this long standing burial site. The Creed's family cat dies and their friendly neighbour Jud shows Louis (Jason Clarke) a part of their land which cannot be humanly explained Things turn south when the cat returns however not the same as before.
To be honest my attention was grabbed from the start. There was no real messing around in getting into the main storyline and there were small kind of side stories which added to the overall suspense of the movie. I did also think Jason Clarke did a great job as Louis - he was believable but also kind of crazy but the audience also got to reason with his decisions which was also super clever. I do highly recommend watching this as there were moments where I was actually pretty terrified and that usually doesn't happen often.
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