Movie Review: Pet Sematary (2019)
By Devin Bulwicz ’20
It’s not uncommon to see a Stephen King novel adapted into a film or television show, sometimes even with multiple iterations over the years. Pet Sematary has seen two film adaptions, the first being in 1989, which follows the book more closely than the recently released 2019 adaption.
Both films have their strong points. If you’re one who enjoys movies that follow the book more closely or don’t want to be as scared, the 1989 film is more fitting for you. If you enjoy feeling on the edge of your seat during a movie and enjoy a film that adds its own twists to the adaptation, the 2019 remake is the better way to go.
The 2019 film takes the basic plot concepts from the Pet Sematary novel and changes a variety of details throughout and even puts its own twist on the ending, making the storyline unexpected to the viewer if they’ve already read the novel or seen the original film.
The remake opens with an aerial shot of the forest before a burning home comes into view, followed by a house with blood on its footsteps, foreshadowing what’s to come. Then the camera changes over to a much more normal scene featuring a family of four in the car (five if you count the cat) pulling up to a new house they’re moving into in Maine. It’s a little bit of a cliché done over and over where the movie opens with a family moving into a new home, but at least this time the house they’re moving into is not haunted.
With this opener the 2019 version already differs from the book and original film that closely followed it, beginning with a minor change: Doctor Louis Creed, played by Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) is moving to Maine from Boston instead of Chicago like the original story, along with his wife Rachel, played by Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), and their kids Ellie and Gage, plus their cat Church — named after Winston Churchill. Ellie is played by Jeté Laurence (The Snowman) and Gage is played by twin brothers Hugo and Lucas Lavoie.
The original film adapation was shot in Maine where the story takes place, and included some gorgeous shots of the landscape the area has to offer. On the other hand, the remake was shot in Montreal.
From here, the two films explore the pet “sematary” in different ways. In the event you’re puzzled by the spelling, the kids spelled the sign designating it that way when making the cemetery many years ago in response to their pets getting struck by trucks along the busy road their homes are set along.
The overall pet cemetery concept is the same in both iterations, but how the “sematary” is discovered by the Creed family is different. Jud, played by John Lithgow (Intersteller, 3rd Rock from the Sun), is a bit more ominous and not as upfront with information regarding the woods in the new adaptation. On the contrary, in the 1989 film Jud is cheerier and more inviting when first meeting the family. In the original Jud takes the Creed family to the cemetery, whereas in the 2019 version Ellie spots some children wearing animal masks taking a deceased dog into the woods and soon after follows their path into the woods to investigate, landing upon the area, and there she first meets Jud.
I also found that the 1989 film personalizes the cemetery more, as Jud puts more emphasis on the different pets buried there. The cemetery in the woods acts a barrier; beyond it lies something more sinister.
Cats may have nine lives, but it seems they were all used up. Church, the friendly and cuddly feline, is struck by a truck on the busy road. That night, Jud takes Louis into the woods to bury Church, but rather than burying him in the “sematary,” he takes him past the barrier to an area behind it with “sour” ground, an old abandoned Native Indian burial ground that feeds on your grief and draws you back.
Here they bury Church. The next day when Louis and Rachel go to explain to Ellie that Church “ran away,” Church reappears, but he’s changed and acts different. What was once a cute and friendly cat will now swipe at you and hiss without hesitation. Where did Jud take Louis the night before and what’s going on with Church? Louis needs answers, and Jud isn’t exactly one to easily offer up information.
Later, the family experiences loss of a far worse magnitude, and they must avoid doing what Jud had Louis attempt with Church.
Interestingly, the plot of Pet Sematary draws a lot of inspiration from Stephen King’s real life experiences. In 1979 he was renting a house alongside a major road where pets were killed by oncoming trucks, his daughter’s cat being no exception. From there he let is imagination wander to supernatural elements and made the story more tragic.
While my opinion on the two films may vary a little had I watched the original before the remake rather than the other way around, I feel confident in saying that I would still prefer the 2019 remake over the 1989 version. Even if I had viewed the 1989 version first, its differences in the storyline would still have made the 2019 version fresh to me in that I would not know what to expect. Coupled with the jump scares and overall eeriness and terror, the 2019 film is solid and takes on a more disturbed tone.
The entire duration of the film I felt tense and stressed as I sat in my chair at the theater, not knowing what to expect. In one scene when Louis was going into his basement, I found myself opening my mouth, covering it, and silently exclaiming “no!” Add in that the 2019 film has special effects and other cinematic elements that were not possible thirty years ago, it makes for a darker and scarier atmosphere.
My only gripe with the 2019 film is that it felt like the story was sluggish and time was moving a little too slowly in some parts, whereas the 1989 version felt more compact and forthcoming with the story even though both are films are approximately the same runtime. Nonetheless, it’s a fine remake and one very much worth watching, as it takes the classic story and adds its own horrifying and bone chilling twists.
