Pet Sematary (1989) by Mary Lambert

Director: Mary Lambert

Year: 1989

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Moving to a new home in the Maine countryside, a man finds a special burial ground behind his house said to have mystical resurrection powers and tries to use it to save his family only for things to take a wrong turn when the returned beings aren't the same that they were before.

Review:

Overall, this was a rather curious affair as this one's reputation tends to make it far better than it really is. About the main aspect that works for this one tends to be the central setup of the location and what it’s really all focused on. The idea of the location housing a curse that goes back into history that even the Native Americans who lived there were afraid of using which manages to work its way into the series of exploits with the husband using it to try to keep his family together switching up both pets and others. After hearing about it and the kind of power the site holds, the temptation to use it and resurrect their pet cat to keep everyone happy after its accident spurs its use and the discovery of what happens when they come back from the location. This has a great setup into the final half as the themes of grief and depression force him into desperate measures that put everyone in danger as there’s some rather chilling work here in that part of the film to give this some likable features.

There are some big issues here that hold this one down. The main issue here is the generally disjointed and lackluster storyline about the means of the cemetery actually working that just leaves everything feeling immensely confusing and scattershot. There’s a history retold about how the site had been used in the past and tried to be used in bringing people back to life who had been killed and buried there only for the returning person to be a vastly different entity than what they were like before dying, yet that’s never used as a reason to prevent stories about it from being told. The history and legacy of the site’s sordid past is a fine enough reason to keep its location and purpose a secret but here it’s brought up with little genuine motivation for doing so which is then confusingly turned into a series of ethical debates over what he’s been told. It should’ve been plainly obvious how bringing it up would’ve been taken and being a source of temptation for future use especially once the idea is floated about using people so everything has very little focus or purpose in how it all comes together.

The other issue here is that this takes forever to get started. It lasts about an hour and a half, but the main plot kicks in about fifty minutes into the movie where there's nothing more irritating when a movie offers up a plot then abandons it and starts a new plot. Although there's a fine cast and certainly worthwhile talents behind the scenes, this one tends to abandon what had been rather fine material with the cursed burial ground and his growing realization of the area's powers in favor of family melodrama which really isn't that interesting or exciting at all. That seems to be what the film is mostly going for since there are very few scares or chilling moments since the first burial doesn't occur until nearly an hour into the film, and very little happens once that starts becoming commonplace. While it does have some pretty decent killings and bloodletting on display, especially once it gets to its end where the action really kicks in and are even treated to a spectacular burning-the-house-down finale, the main focus on actually offing a child seems to be the main selling point here and what happens once that plays a part in the plot, not based on any other real determining factor. This one's gotten by on reputation rather than anything else.

Overview: *.5/5

While they are a lot better Stephen King adaptations, there are also a lot worse ones you could watch than this. It has its moments, but those are pretty rare if that matters. With this one, see it if you love Stephen King and his adaptions or are fans of the creative crew while most others out there turned off by its issues should heed caution.