Pet Sematary (2019)

Pet Sematary was the first novel I read by Stephen King.  I did re-read it later in life and realized just how pulpy it was compared to many of his previous stories and definitely the later dark fantasy and straight literary efforts.  It put my initial dislike of 1989's film adaptation in perspective.  After seeing it again within the last couple of years I still don't find it to be a great film, but I can't fault it for being a campy b-movie when I take the source material into consideration.

Pet Sematary did take some liberties with the original story, but it managed to make an effort to present the story as it was written.  That was what I expected the 2019 movie would do, possibly integrating some things that were left out while giving us a bland, color-washed, CGI-filled bore fest that would make me appreciate the original even more.  In some ways that is what it delivered but, to their detriment, directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, along with their screenwriting committee, thought they were being clever when changing aspects of the source material.

Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) is a doctor who moves his family - wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz), daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and son Gage (Hugo Lavoie) - to the town of Ludlow, Maine.  The goal is to spend more time with them and less at the hospital.  Problem is they live near a narrow two-lane road frequently used by large trucks as a shortcut, something their new neighbor Jud (John Lithgow) warns them about.  

When the family's cat Church is killed on the road Jud takes Louis to a local pet cemetery to bury it.  Against his better judgment he shows Louis another place past a deadfall and, the next morning, Church comes back covered in mud and matted blood.  Only, unlike the loveable feline he was, the cat comes back with a vicious streak.  During Ellie's 9th birthday party she goes out in the road to get Church at the same time Gage wanders out.  While Louis is able to save Gage, the truck crashes and Ellie is killed.  With Rachel visiting her parents with Gage and Louis all alone he begins to have thoughts about if he can bring his daughter back.

I started noticing things wrong right off.  The homemade masks the children were wearing during a funeral procession was nothing other than the usual "masks on children can be scary" trope.  There are a few times when there are attempts to make the masks relevant to the story, but it just seems like no one ever figured out how.  The reasons for Rachel's fear of telling Ellie about death are intact and still work in an effective way, although Kölsch and Widmyer did attempt to skirt around what Rachel's sister actually had in an effort to be more politically correct.  Despite a glimpse of what haunts the other side of the deadfall being seen in the fog the first journey to the secret burial place is nowhere near as intense as the original.  John Lithgow does a good job as Jud, but he is nowhere near as memorable as Fred Gwynne. 

Another major issue is a character that figures heavily into the book and the original movie.  Victor Pascow (Obssa Ahmed) is still here but he may as well not be.  He is a ghost that appears a few times to try and influence Louis and save his family in return for trying to save his life.  However, with Ellie being the one to die on the road rather than Gage, and Ellie's blooming psychic abilities being a major plot point in the novel and original movie due to her ability to see Victor, this comes to nought as well.  The decision to make Ellie the victim rather than Gage was ridiculous and simply the hubris of the writers and directors thinking they know better than the original author.  Laurence does a great job as the resurrected Ellie but she could have also been great if allowed to play the role as originally written.

This still would not have been a great movie.  The ending is changed entirely for no reason, especially since this is one of the few Stephen King books in which he nailed the final scene.  The original movie altered it as well to get in a few more practical gore effects, so it can somewhat be forgiven, but the remake just fails to make any lasting impact.  Even without these disappointing changes it still would have been nothing other than a bland retread and one in a long trend of needless remakes in the first two decades of the 21st century.  This even comes down to a pointless cover of the Ramones' theme song. 

Pet Sematary (2019)

Time: 100 minutes

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

Directors: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer