What is it about Stephen King’s writing that makes it so susceptible to the medium of film? His works have been consistently turned into films or miniseries since the 1970s, to mixed success, and there seems to be a renewed demand for films based on Stephen King’s writings, with there being 8 films alone since 2017, again to mixed success and levels of quality. ‘Pet Sematary’ (2019) is one of those 8 films. But which side of the spectrum does it land on: good or bad? The film follows the creed family after they move from Boston to the town of Ludlow to escape the hustle of the city. What they didn’t realise is that their new home neighboured a ‘Pet Sematary’, a site said to hold mysterious powers which has been used by the town for generations. When the family’s cat, Churchill, is killed, Louis Creed and his neighbour, Judd, bury him in the ‘Pet Sematary’. This brings Churchill back to life, but he is not the same cat that he once was.
I should probably kick off this review by saying that, for those who didn’t know, this is the second film based off the ‘Pet Sematary’ novel. The first film was released in 1989 and is a bit of a cult classic of the horror genre. Personally, I think that film is pretty shit. I don’t think it has aged well and is more hokey and funny than it is remotely scary. I also prefer it to the 2019 version, which should answer the question of whether this film is good or not. I’m genuinely going to struggle to say anything good about the film so I will start with the one thing I can think of that I liked, and that is John Lithgow as Judd. This isn’t an Oscar worth performance or anything like that, but it is a good John Lithgow performance. He brings more emotion and heart to the film than the rest of the cast or writing combined. Maybe it is just the character I like because Judd is also easily the best part of the original film, that time played by Fred Gwynne. But yeah, other than this I’m struggling. The other performances aren’t necessarily bad, but they are just kind of nothing. They are there and they happen, but I felt nothing from them. The film is also technically a mess. A lot of it is fine, but then there are some really amateur moments of editing and basic composition that are quite laughable for a film which clearly has a large budget. Also, one of the only effects shots in the film looks like pure ass and it is meant to be the major event of the film which sets our final act in motion.
I feel like I have said this about a lot horror films I have reviewed but this one commits the biggest crime a horror film can make by being not scary in the slightest. Its not even tense or chilling, nothing. I think the film could actually have benefitted from being along the same lines of so many other modern-day horrors and just gone in on jump scares. Yeah, I would have hated it but at least I may have had some tension from anticipating being made to jump, instead I felt almost nothing. It is a film you can put on, watch, have no emotional reaction to at all, turn off, and completely forget immediately. Genuinely, I can’t say I had any feeling towards the film at all. I wasn’t even angry that I was sitting through the film, I just sat back and let it happen. The only feeling I had of any note was one of pure boredom. Yes, I also think the original film is pretty shit, but at least it was consistently hokey ad stupid to the point where it became somewhat comedic. This had a couple scenes that made me giggle but mostly I just stared blankly at my screen and let it wash over me. And I think that is the key difference between the two films. The 2019 version is the better made film, even if it is still poorly made, but it lacks imagination and creativity, whereas the 1989 version is a hot mess in terms of a horror film but it is creative enough to keep your attention and more importantly be memorable. I can remember several scenes from that original film despite not seeing it in over a year. I finished the 2019 version about 40 minutes ago and I’m not sure I could tell you any scene.
As you can probably already tell I am not going to recommend this film. I am a huge fan of horror, so much so that I even find some sense of enjoyment in some of the shittier ones, but there is very little here to get excited about. Like I already mentioned, I’m not even angry. Sometimes if I watch a terrible film it makes me mad, but this made me feel nothing and I would argue that is worse. So yeah, don’t bother with this. If you want to watch a Stephen King film from 2019 watch ‘Doctor Sleep’. That was surprisingly pretty great.