directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer
It's important that the hero's father-in-law never really liked the hero or thought the hero worthy of marrying his daughter, perhaps in part because the hero isn't Jewish or successful enough. It's important that the hero himself wonders if he's living up to the patriarchal imperative of providing and protecting for his wife and children. It's important that the hero's wife resents her parents for making her a child caretaker for her now deceased sister, who had spinal meningitis.
There are number of other things like that are detailed in the book but are absent from the film or only briefly sketched in passing. However King's source material is so strong that the viewer who hasn't read the book can still enjoy the film on its own merits.
Even when King wrote the story a cursed Native American burial ground was already a cliche in horror novels and movies. But there are some writers who can spin dross into gold. King is one of them. Parts of this story grew out of King's own experiences living in a home located directly on a busy road and having to explain death to his daughter. This movie gender switched the bad guy, perhaps because an evil little girl is creepy while an evil toddler is too reminiscent of Chucky?
Louis might earn a little less money but his cost of living will be less. Louis will have a little less work and be at home in time for all dinners, birthdays, anniversaries, and other important family events. The family gets a huge farmhouse and IIRC about 50 acres of land.
Upon moving into their home Ellie comes across a procession of children wearing masks and taking a deceased dog for burial at something called the Pet Sematary. The Creeds' new neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) explains that burying pets there is a local tradition. Even so Ellie probably shouldn't be running around the woods alone.
At work Louis is unable to save the life of a student, Victor Pascow (Obssa Ahmed) who was struck by a car. That night Louis has a nightmare in which Victor leads him to the end of the Pet Sematary and warns him against going beyond. When Louis wakes he sees his pajamas and feet are covered with mud and brambles.
That night Jud leads Louis to the spot and directs him to bury Church there. The next day Louis is stunned when an apparently alive Church shows up at the house. However it soon becomes apparent that Church is not the same...or maybe something else came back with Church.
Jud says he's sorry but couldn't bear to see Ellie in any discomfort. The local Native American tribe believed that the grounds were cursed and inhabited by something malign called the Wendigo. It brings things back to life but at a price. Jud thought it might have been different this time. But Church tortures birds, stares nastily at its humans for hours on end and attacks Ellie and Gage. Louis must get rid of Church. Of course cats aren't the only dead things people have buried up there.
I thought, despite a plethora of jump cuts and similar photographic horror movie cliches that this wasn't a bad movie. The directors made the viewer feel the awesome responsibility of being a parent. Your number one responsibility is to keep your child safe. Louis and Rachel will do anything for their children, a trait which is used against them, much as with Ned Stark. I really liked the outdoors settings. The woods are suitably spooky and dark. The houses are almost as dark.
Pet Sematary touches on the human fascination with and frustration with death. Purcell used this text from the Book of Common Prayer for his Queen Mary Funeral March.
Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery.
He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
he fleeth as it were a shadow, and ne'er continueth in one stay
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour,
but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeasedThat emotion is something that is found in just about every culture, in one form or another. No one wants to die. We don't want our children or our pets to die before us. And if there were a way to stop such things from happening many of us would make that choice, even if it were morally questionable. That's the ultimate theme of Pet Sematary. The book and first film brought that theme out better. This film hits that briefly but is more interested in demonic little girls. Of course you do have to wonder why a family with two young children would purchase a home that abuts a road with speeding semi-trailers but someone has to buy it, right?
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