Not-So-Sour Ground: "Pet Sematary" a solid re-adaptation that frees itself just enough from King's novel and 1989 original

Pet Sematary (2019)

101 min.

Release Date: April 5, 2019 (Wide)

In the thick of a Stephen King renaissance, the next book up for another incarnation is “Pet Sematary." The material was already successfully taken to the screen in a haunting and narratively faithful 1989 adaptation that pulled no punches, directed by Mary Lambert and written by King himself. Granted, enough time has passed that fans of that film and the 1986 source material couldn’t help but be excited—and a little trepidatious—to see what auspicious directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer would bring to it since they made their calling card with 2014’s devilish horror indie “Starry Eyes.” King’s grimmest novel, a family tragedy about mortality and morality, gets a second life with 2019’s “Pet Sematary,” and the good news is that it is not just a copy-and-paste facsimile entirely beholden to Mary Lambert’s adaptation (or even everything in King’s text). Yes, it still bears the same moniker, but rather than replace the unsettling memories of the first film, the directing duo and screenwriter Jeff Buhler (2019’s “The Prodigy”) respect the past and confidently forge their own path with enough revisionist plot deviations that are actually for the better.

In relocating his family from Boston to a country home in sleepy Ludlow, Maine, ER doctor Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) and wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) hope to spend more time with 8-year-old daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and toddler son Gage (Hugo and Lucas Lavoie), along with the family cat Church. The family's new home is a dream but set on a road where Orinoco gas trucks speed by, and the property includes a backyard cemetery in the woods where local pets have been buried for generations. Ellie is the first to discover the “pet sematary” (misspelled on the entrance sign made by the local kids) and meet neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), a wise widower who takes a shine to her and becomes fast friends with Louis and his family. Things go well for the Creeds, until Louis loses his first patient, brain-exposed college student Victor Pascow (Obssa Ahmed), on the table; even though the young man has flatlined, he warns Louis that “the barrier is not meant to be broken." Then, on Halloween, Jud finds Church dead on the side of the road; Louis can’t find it in himself to tell Ellie yet, so Jud offers him an alternative. Beyond the deadfall of the “pet sematary” is an ancient, Wendigo-cursed tribal burial ground, where, as Jud knows from personal experience, pets that are buried there come back but return as monstrous shadows of their former selves. Sure enough, Church shows up, mangy, smelly and more than a little ornery, and as a chain of tragic events unfold, Louis will learn the hard way that “sometimes, dead is better.”

As the disintegration of a nice family ensnared by doom and hopelessness, “Pet Sematary” steals our heart by developing the Creeds well enough that we care what happens to them and then breaks it with emotional blows that increasingly tear this family down. Before adopting its savage slasher-pic mentality, the film cuts to the core of the story by questioning death and what happens afterwards. When Ellie asks why pets don’t live as long as people, Louis, being a man of medicine, goes on to say how dying is natural and clear-cut, but such a tough discussion makes Rachel uncomfortable because she has experienced death first-hand and would rather have Ellie believe in an afterlife. It's a conversation that could have felt heavy-handed and too thematically on-the-nose, but it feels as honest of a talk as adults telling their children about "the birds and the bees." When the filmmakers free themselves from the inevitable setup and stray from the source, the new direction taken welcomes a sinister, ramped-up unpredictability, to the point that directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer knowingly subvert expectations in key moments that are like a bait and switch from the first film. “Pet Sematary” also wouldn’t be the same without traumatic flashbacks of Zelda, Rachel’s late sister bed-ridden with spinal meningitis that made her look like a twisted monster. While the original film’s Zelda was the stuff of nightmares, this film’s Zelda (played by Alyssa Levine) is creepy on her own and her scenes come with surprises (dumbwaiters get their dread-inducing due here). 

Prone to playing stoic, less-than-warm characters, Jason Clarke effectively brings a tender side and a man-of-science egoism to Louis Creed. As this heartbroken family man goes beyond the point of no return, the actor makes his arc easier to swallow, which is crucial for a story like this to work, as Louis' grief and loss force him to make desperate, fallible choices that aren’t intellectually logical. Amy Seimetz has the more compelling turn as Rachel, emotionally raw and truthful in every scene. In a more beefed-up backstory, Rachel has never been able to shake her guilty conscience over the death of her sister, putting a toll on her psyche and seeing (and hearing) things that aren't there. The actress particularly excels when the vulnerable Rachel is haunted by Zelda, and Seimetz with her face alone knows how to palpably sell the terror and distraught emotions of seeing her resurrected daughter walk up to her for a hug.

John Lithgow’s Jud Crandall may not have the same level of crusty charm as Fred Gwynne’s portrayal, nor does he share enough bonding scenes with Louis before they do the unthinkable and bury Church in the stony soil. But it is a testament to the well-cast Lithgow being such a dependably wonderful actor that he's able to color in a history of sorrow for Jud and make him a warm, likable codger. Last but not least, Jeté Laurence (2018’s “The Ranger”) is excellent, playing Ellie as an inquisitive, non-cloyingly sweet young girl before turning into a ruthless, remorseless killer—a cunning little ballerina with a scalpel to be exact—and when she makes that transition from beyond the grave, Laurence is up to the challenge and completely chilling as most child actors would long to be. Also, hats off to the directors for eschewing CGI and the cat handlers for making Church a Maine Coone from Hell.

As it should be, “Pet Sematary” is a bleak, upsetting macabre cautionary tale that, despite flashes of much-needed levity, refuses to shirk away from the subject of death and why death cannot be reversible. To presumably retain its tight pacing and structure, the story does feel condensed in places when a little more breathing room would have been preferred to really feel what the Creeds have before they lose it. Also, the use of Victor Pascow as Louis' spiritual guide is a bit perfunctory this time and doesn't get as much of an impactful payoff as one might hope. Nonetheless, the film is solidly made, atmospheric, and skillfully acted across the board, and diverging from how the story originally concluded, the disturbing, nihilistic ending here packs an indelible punch with a devilish grin. Diehard fans of the 1989 film may still find it hard to separate the two films, right down to the Starcrawler cover of The Ramones’ "Pet Sematary" over the closing credits. Then again, what 2019's “Pet Sematary” somewhat lacks in emotional devastation relentlessly makes up for it, being vicious in all the right ways without compromising or holding back on the dark themes at work in Stephen King’s novel.

Grade: B