Movie Review: Pet Sematary (1989)

Pet Sematary is a 1989 horror film directed by Mary Lambert with a screenplay written by Stephen King. The film stars Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Blaze Berdahl, Miko Hughes, and Fred Gwyne. This is my second review in my Stephen King series. I reviewed Thinner earlier this week and now I'm coming back to talk to you about Pet Sematary. The premise of this movie is very interesting. The Creed family moves into a new house. They get greeted by fellow neighbor Jud (Fred Gwyne) who introduces them to the Pet Sematary (purposely misspelled) that lies next door to their house. I won't go any further as not to spoil anything, but this movie basically seeks out to answer the question: is it better to be dead and end pain, or not die and deal with pain? It's a heavy question and I was surprised at how well this movie executes that idea. While it definitely does have a slant, this film really makes you think, and I like films that make you think. That being said, Pet Sematary aside from a few greatly directed scenes sort of gets boring. It feels weird to call anything Stephen King puts his hands on boring, but this  film has very slow pacing and the acting from everyone (except Fred Gwyne who gives a fantastic performance) is very flat and had no life. Don't get me wrong, Pet Sematary is a scary flick. In fact, 99.99% of the time I was creeped out or scared by something on screen. It's a very creepy movie. Perhaps what makes this film most creepy is the character of Zelda. If you haven't seen the movie I will not spoil it, but Zelda is probably one of King's finest on-screen characters. Her role as well as Gage's role in the latter half of the film, is where this movie actually succeeds in horror. It's very emotional and that mixture of disturbing and darkness makes something actually scary. As a horror movie, this film does work, but on the level of the acting and pacing..it falls flat. Also, one other flaw I realized was how this film really doesn't have a main character. It is a story explored on this grand scale, but we never get a clear protagonist or antagonist. That's my issue above everything else which is that being unfocused. Mr. Creed is almost a main character however due to the scope of the story and how he acts, it doesn't work. The special effects are really something though. Between the dead cat and the makeup on Zelda, I was quite satisfied with how this film looks. It also really makes great use of it's location. The Pet Sematary itself is a dark and scary place that I really felt effective. Even something as minor as seeing one character's breath makes you feel cold. It's scenery is great and I really felt that by far that was the strongest aspect of this piece. Overall, Pet Sematary is an alright film with good elements, but has flat acting in most roles and the pacing is extremely slow. Two stars