Pet Sematary Review: (and yes that is spelt correctly.)
NO
SPOILERS
I’ll
start off by saying this: I am a huge Stephen King fan. So much so that I have
a tattoo of on my actual body of a line from one of his books. (10 points to
whoever can guess). And as a huge SK fan I have always been wary of his work
being made into films. There has been a recent increase of his work making its
way onto the silver screen and indeed, our homes. With shows such as ‘1922’ on
Netflix and ‘Castle Rock.’
Some
are way off the mark from the source material (The Dark Tower) and some, quite
amazingly accurate! (IT). Bar one scene in the book, that if it did make it’s
way into the film, audience members would explode in fury.
So, it
was with a mix of trepidation and excitement that I settled down to watch
(behind a pillow) the new REVAMPED ‘Pet Sematary.’
I say
trepidation because ol’ SK really doesn’t mind what people in Hollywood do to
his books. I respect that from him, his books are unchangeable. But the super
fan in me would love a five hour film, with all the details. That’s just me,
though.
Now
let me say this: Pet Sematary is a good, scary film. As someone who read the
book, I was not disappointed. Yes, I know, there were story changes from half
way through to the end that as a reader, you ask… ‘But why do that?!, why not
just keep to the book?’ But I’ll let that lie.
The
suspense in this film is relentless, it was exhausting in the best way. They
kept more in than I thought they would dare and I applaud them for that, and
its execution of it was skin crawlingly good!
In my
opinion, Jason Clarke was a bold choice to play Louis Creed. He was good! but a
bit ‘one note’ as if someone said ‘You’re doing a horror film, look haunted’
and he took that to heart. But fuck me! you went through the ringer with him!
His vulnerability and confusion was stella.
However,
a special mention to Amy Seimetz, who played Louis’s long suffering wife,
Rachel. Her back story, for me, was the most unsettling part of the film. I
admittedly closed my eyes at some points so I didn’t know exactly what happened…
But goes to show, it was hard to watch for the right reasons. Her range and
vulnerability was paramount and was the stronger of the two. Also Jete Laurence
playing the young Ellie was fantastically creepy and gross. So props to her for
pulling that off at her young age. The cast really bounced off each other
through-out and was a joy to watch (through my fingers).
I
could go on to say John Lithgow was incredible as well, but you know that.
It’s John Lithgow. He was born to play this role and your heart breaks watching
him.
I’ll
leave you with this. If you watch this film and find some of the plot points or
narrative to be a bit derivative, my retort is this: This book was written
decades ago. SK was the first, in many ways, to put this type of horror into
our psyche. And I’m glad he did. It’s escapism at its best and I’m glad it
exists. It’s hard to be truly terrified watching films these days but what SK
does is make you fall in love with his characters and then makes sure awful
stuff happens to them! and therein, lies the horror. Don’t close yourself off
from these characters and you won’t be disappointed.
I'd give this film A RATING OF 7.4 and a firm recommendation for all horror and Stephen King fans although the
ending in the book was better.
Don't forget to listen to our 'Endgame' podcast special and read Chris' blog for everything Marvel below!
Sam Adamson, out!
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