Pet Sematary (2019)

There are spoilers.

Expectations:

Assumed this movie would be terrible. It had such low ratings, and frankly, “zombie” movies have never been my thing. I watched the original Pet Sematary growing up and loved it but only because the original kid who played Gage (Miko Hughes) was so damn adorable. I mean his tiny little face with his tiny little blade….are you kidding me? So cute. I was shocked to see how cute and similar the new Gage (Hugo & Lucas Lavoie) looked! Either way it wasn’t a terrifying movie for me growing up. I wasn’t expecting it to be scary, but I was expecting it to be worse.

Reality:

I have mixed emotions. Overall, it’s not a great movie. The pacing is all over the place, there aren’t very redeeming qualities about the characters, except for Jud. It had all the vibes of “high budget, low quality” and it’s a shame. I think if they had better cinematography (lingering and more intentional shots), better makeup/zombie acting (not so stereotypical zombie, but more slight and subtle changes), and a better score, it could have done really well.

The switch to killing the little girl over Gage made sense to me, and it made the ending a little bit more sad. I thought ending it with this horrifying feeling that this adorable and tiny toddler was left with his zombie family without letting us know what’s going to happen next was great.

This movie was almost really good, but it it turned out okay. I wouldn’t tell anyone they needed to see it unless they’re obsessed with the first film.