Thanks mainly to the success of Andy Muschietti's blockbuster adaptation of IT (and the current popularity of horror as a whole), Hollywood is in the middle of a new Stephen King boom. According to this Rotten Tomatoes editorial, there are nearly a dozen King adaptations in the work at this very moment, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if more titles get added to that list. But here's the harsh truth of the recent King rejuvenation: most of these movies haven't been very good. Yes, IT was remarkable, but does anyone even remember the Dark Tower movie with Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba? And beyond that gnarly hand scene, was Mike Flanagan's Gerald's Game adaptation really worth the hype? I'd argue not.
Out of the many King adaptations to be fast-tracked, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's new take on Pet Sematary (the novel was already adapted by director Mary Lambert in 1989) seemed to be one of the most promising. With solid trailers and good buzz out of South by Southwest, the next King-based smash hit appeared to be inevitable, so it's all the more disappointing that Kölsch and Widymer's film is a bit more of a mixed bag. Pet Sematary is indeed very scary and often quite disturbing on a visceral and thematic level, functioning as one of those horror films where its core ideas of grief and lingering trauma are spelled out with all the subtlety of a shovel to the face. But despite its numerous virtues, when you commit to a certain mode of horror, it's very hard to switch directions in an effective way. Unfortunately, Kölsch and Widmyer try and fail.
Desperate to escape the chaos of life in Boston, Louis (Jason Clarke) and Rachel Creed (Amy Seimetz) move their family to a small town in Maine, where they've purchased 50 acres of farmland. Along with their children, Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and Gage (Lucas Lavoie), and beloved cat Church, the Creeds are hoping to set up an idyllic new abode in this sleepy community. At first, everything is pleasant enough, with Louis settling in at his new medical practice and Ellie making fast friends with elderly neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow). But it's what Ellie discovers when she meets Jud that changes the Creed family's life forever-- a pet cemetery (spelled Sematary by the local kids) hidden in the woods behind their house.
This little graveyard is obviously a little creepy, but there's nothing that terrifying about it. Unfortunately for the family, the presence of the burial site feeds into 9-year-old Ellie's newfound obsession with death, which further compounds Rachel's guilt about her own sister's gruesome passing. Things go from bad to worse when Church is hit by a truck on the dangerous road near their house, presenting a difficult dilemma for two parents who still don't know how to explain mortality to their daughter. That night, Jud leads Louis deep into the woods beyond the Pet Sematary, to a mysterious, deeply ominous location that becomes Church's final resting place.
Then Church comes home. And if you've seen the incredibly spoiler-y trailer (it literally gives almost the whole movie away), you know what happens next. Young Ellie runs into the road to find Church, gets hit by a car, and ends up being resurrected by her own father. It's an appropriately nightmarish twist, and for those unfamiliar with the book (like myself), the entire novel will feel like a pure distillation of King's preoccupation with traumatic backstories and uncommonly horrific events. Even though IT features this same emphasis on fear and deeply rooted pain, if you're coming to Pet Sematary looking for a wickedly fun horror movie, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
For the first 75% of the running time, the deadly serious tone is actually an asset working in the film's favor. In addition to the studio-mandated jump scares (some of which work quite well), Kölsch and Widmyer demonstrate an impressive knack for atmospheric suspense, adding an immersive and unsettling layer of fog and palpable terror to this grim and grisly story. Amid the haze, there's an undercurrent of macabre extravagance here, which provides just enough of an amusing contrast to the self-seriousness of the whole endeavor.
But more than any other recent film, this new take on Pet Sematary actually seems to be operating in the same horrifying vein as Ari Aster's Hereditary, where family history is imbued with an inescapable sense of dread and anxiety (the similarities actually led me to wonder if Aster was influenced by King's original novel). However, since they're forced to work in a bit more of a mainstream mode than Aster's breakout feature, Kölsch and Widmyer take these crucial themes and break them down in an almost excessive fashion. At one point, someone even exasperatedly exclaims that the Pet Sematary is preying on everyone's grief. Okay, guys, we get it.
Despite that slightly bothersome level of obviousness, the combination of decent chills, a creepy atmosphere, and some fascinating ideas puts all the pieces nicely in place for a strong finale. So what goes wrong? In short, the film gets unreasonably silly and thematically muddled. It's funny that many of the elements that have been widely praised-- Laurence's performance, the gorier, more ridiculous final act-- are actually what made the movie fall apart in my experience. By the time Ellie is trying to kill her entire family and almost cracking jokes in the process, the film's most distinctive aspect-- its steadfast commitment to a certain brand of Serious Horror-- virtually dissipates in a cloud of murder and smoke. The shift to this darkly pseudo-comic approach is sudden and strange, leading to a finale that is, well, mostly just tedious. After building a consistent tone for 75 minutes, Kölsch and Widmyer drop the ball.
Oddly enough, I remember this argument being made about Hereditary's final act-- that it was too silly and too outrageous after two acts of very vicious storytelling. For me, Aster's masterpiece avoids that trap by being consistent in its themes and by, y'know, scaring the living hell out of its audience. Pet Sematary does neither of those things, abandoning its most interesting threads in favor of a pointlessly dark finale and a series of predictable scares. As Laurence's revived Ellie sends Kölsch and Widymer into a campy spiral, a film that so explicitly spells out its themes and so intensely establishes its atmospheric intent ends up saying and accomplishing nothing much at all. When the pressure is on to deliver the goods, Pet Sematary's house of cards collapses. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for the next great Stephen King adaptation.
THE FINAL GRADE: C (5.1/10)
Image: Paramount/IMDb
Poster courtesy of Paramount
Out of the many King adaptations to be fast-tracked, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's new take on Pet Sematary (the novel was already adapted by director Mary Lambert in 1989) seemed to be one of the most promising. With solid trailers and good buzz out of South by Southwest, the next King-based smash hit appeared to be inevitable, so it's all the more disappointing that Kölsch and Widymer's film is a bit more of a mixed bag. Pet Sematary is indeed very scary and often quite disturbing on a visceral and thematic level, functioning as one of those horror films where its core ideas of grief and lingering trauma are spelled out with all the subtlety of a shovel to the face. But despite its numerous virtues, when you commit to a certain mode of horror, it's very hard to switch directions in an effective way. Unfortunately, Kölsch and Widmyer try and fail.
Desperate to escape the chaos of life in Boston, Louis (Jason Clarke) and Rachel Creed (Amy Seimetz) move their family to a small town in Maine, where they've purchased 50 acres of farmland. Along with their children, Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and Gage (Lucas Lavoie), and beloved cat Church, the Creeds are hoping to set up an idyllic new abode in this sleepy community. At first, everything is pleasant enough, with Louis settling in at his new medical practice and Ellie making fast friends with elderly neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow). But it's what Ellie discovers when she meets Jud that changes the Creed family's life forever-- a pet cemetery (spelled Sematary by the local kids) hidden in the woods behind their house.
This little graveyard is obviously a little creepy, but there's nothing that terrifying about it. Unfortunately for the family, the presence of the burial site feeds into 9-year-old Ellie's newfound obsession with death, which further compounds Rachel's guilt about her own sister's gruesome passing. Things go from bad to worse when Church is hit by a truck on the dangerous road near their house, presenting a difficult dilemma for two parents who still don't know how to explain mortality to their daughter. That night, Jud leads Louis deep into the woods beyond the Pet Sematary, to a mysterious, deeply ominous location that becomes Church's final resting place.
Then Church comes home. And if you've seen the incredibly spoiler-y trailer (it literally gives almost the whole movie away), you know what happens next. Young Ellie runs into the road to find Church, gets hit by a car, and ends up being resurrected by her own father. It's an appropriately nightmarish twist, and for those unfamiliar with the book (like myself), the entire novel will feel like a pure distillation of King's preoccupation with traumatic backstories and uncommonly horrific events. Even though IT features this same emphasis on fear and deeply rooted pain, if you're coming to Pet Sematary looking for a wickedly fun horror movie, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
For the first 75% of the running time, the deadly serious tone is actually an asset working in the film's favor. In addition to the studio-mandated jump scares (some of which work quite well), Kölsch and Widmyer demonstrate an impressive knack for atmospheric suspense, adding an immersive and unsettling layer of fog and palpable terror to this grim and grisly story. Amid the haze, there's an undercurrent of macabre extravagance here, which provides just enough of an amusing contrast to the self-seriousness of the whole endeavor.
But more than any other recent film, this new take on Pet Sematary actually seems to be operating in the same horrifying vein as Ari Aster's Hereditary, where family history is imbued with an inescapable sense of dread and anxiety (the similarities actually led me to wonder if Aster was influenced by King's original novel). However, since they're forced to work in a bit more of a mainstream mode than Aster's breakout feature, Kölsch and Widmyer take these crucial themes and break them down in an almost excessive fashion. At one point, someone even exasperatedly exclaims that the Pet Sematary is preying on everyone's grief. Okay, guys, we get it.
Despite that slightly bothersome level of obviousness, the combination of decent chills, a creepy atmosphere, and some fascinating ideas puts all the pieces nicely in place for a strong finale. So what goes wrong? In short, the film gets unreasonably silly and thematically muddled. It's funny that many of the elements that have been widely praised-- Laurence's performance, the gorier, more ridiculous final act-- are actually what made the movie fall apart in my experience. By the time Ellie is trying to kill her entire family and almost cracking jokes in the process, the film's most distinctive aspect-- its steadfast commitment to a certain brand of Serious Horror-- virtually dissipates in a cloud of murder and smoke. The shift to this darkly pseudo-comic approach is sudden and strange, leading to a finale that is, well, mostly just tedious. After building a consistent tone for 75 minutes, Kölsch and Widmyer drop the ball.
Oddly enough, I remember this argument being made about Hereditary's final act-- that it was too silly and too outrageous after two acts of very vicious storytelling. For me, Aster's masterpiece avoids that trap by being consistent in its themes and by, y'know, scaring the living hell out of its audience. Pet Sematary does neither of those things, abandoning its most interesting threads in favor of a pointlessly dark finale and a series of predictable scares. As Laurence's revived Ellie sends Kölsch and Widymer into a campy spiral, a film that so explicitly spells out its themes and so intensely establishes its atmospheric intent ends up saying and accomplishing nothing much at all. When the pressure is on to deliver the goods, Pet Sematary's house of cards collapses. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for the next great Stephen King adaptation.
THE FINAL GRADE: C (5.1/10)
Image: Paramount/IMDb
Poster courtesy of Paramount
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