Pet Sematary (2019)

It's following the same beats as the book and initial movie: family moves in sleepy town, family cat gets runs over by a truck, dad buries cat in local pet cemetery, cat comes back wrong, kid gets hit by truck, kid gets buried in same cemetery cat got buried in, evil not-dead kid goes on a killing spree.

Same beats...but there's one significant twist this time. One that is probably causing an uproar as we speak...

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Feb 7th 2019 at 3:09:23 PM

People are pissed. I'll probably end up seeing this one even if I don't really want to, but I have the patience to see what makes this one worth it other than that Not His Sled moment.

I guess we're not gonna get a baseball cap full of blood in this version, either.

I figured because I'm never watching this movie, it'd be fine if I see what's the commotion about, but after reading that Ellie is the one that gets run over and resurrected rather than Gage, which is the inverse of what went down in the initial book, I felt...different.

Anyway, the directors and producer (or as Deadpool 2 would call them, the real villains) explain the change.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Mar 18th 2019 at 4:01:58 AM

That suggests a dramatic shift from the book, regarding the mechanics of the "sematary".

The resurrected don't need to have been smart to do incredibly cutting and cruel things; the book makes it clear that they're not who they were at all. The book has Gage taunt Jud with things he would have no way of knowing, using words he doesn't have the capacity to understand. If Ellie retains her sense of self after being resurrected, it's a drastic shift. Could be more effective depending on how it's used. Could just be another generic Came Back Wrong horror movie.

Edited by Prowler on Feb 7th 2019 at 2:06:29 AM

Reviews are out.

I only know about this because Barry made a reference to it in Justice League. >.>

The book is insanely, ridiculously heavy-handed... but it works. The 1989 film was equally heavy-handed, but came off as silly on the screen. It was a faithful adaptation to a fault. It sounds like this one works better at delivering chills.

Edited by Prowler on Mar 20th 2019 at 8:03:39 AM

What's odd is that the book was never meant to be published in the first place. King thought he had gone too far, but he had one more book left on his Doubleday contract, so he just threw this one out there, and it (like most of his books) became a hit. Something tells me we wont hear the Ramones song over the credits for this one however.

Nope, it still played!

This movie was okay. I feel like it probably needed more time to coalesce production-wise because it hits the climax and everything escalates from that point. The ending is also pretty dour, though it's sorta happy. I mean, they kill their kid but at least they'll be undead together?

Looks like the reaction is mixed. But I guess a lot of people might be still hung up about the first movie.

Either that or they think the ending is shit like the end of The Mist.

I don't think the original is actually widely considered particularly good, except in a cult following kind of way. Certainly not so much modern audiences would be that hung up on it.

This. The movie has a bit of a following, but it was critically savaged then, and I don't think it really fares that much better now. It just has vocal admirers.

True. The reason why the original is so well known is mostly because of the shock effect and because it might be the best of what I lable "schlocky King" (as opposed to actually good King adaptations). Also, in some countries it has a pretty memorable title (in Germany it is called "Friedhof der Kuscheltiere" - "Cemetery of cuddly pets").

But if you have already sit through it once, hoping against all odds that the terrible thing you predict will happen won't happen, you certainly don't want to do it again. The movie is pretty depressing overall.

Which might be another factor. I suspect that people aren't really in the mood for depressing endings. The crave a little bit of hope.

As a rule, I do not...save for horror movies.

I was disappointed that the film still didn't include my favourite scene in the book - when Pascow takes Louis to the Sematary, and the deadfall has changed into a heap of chattering bones. Even the theme song references that.

Saw it today, thought it was pretty decent. The girl playing Ellie was suitably creepy, and I thought the ending was interesting.