Pet Semetary Review
Written by: Rileyofthedead
Seeing the contest that's popped up, I thought I'd put my two cents in about this adaption of the Stephen King novel. As a big fan of Mr. King, it should be no surprise that I absolutely love the book Pet Semetary. It's a scary concept and along with Carrie, Christine, and The Shining, Pet Semetary has become one of his classic novels.
The story is about the Creed family who moves into a new house in Ludlow, Maine. The family consists of Louis and his wife Rachel, their kids Ellie and little Gage, and their big grey cat Church. While away on vacation, Church gets killed on the highway so Judd, neighbor to the Creeds, takes Louis up through the Pet Cemetary and onto a sacred indian burial ground to burry his cat. The next day that cat returns alive but a little bit on the corpsey side with the family none the wiser. When tragedy strikes the family in the death of Gage though, Louis conjurs up a horrible idea to burry his son on the same grounds as Church. This can only end in murderous disaster.
The movie in all honesty, doesn't own up to the standards of the book. If you watch the movie without having read the book, you won't be very surprised or scared, because the movie sort of fails at capturing the essences from the novel. A major change to the movie that I don't like because it doesn't make sense, is the removal of Judd's wife whose character serves a purpose to the story. Without her in the movie, the reasoning for showing Louis the cemetary in the first place is none existant, there isn't a point really. Another thing that neither the book of movie addresses is what happens at the end. What happens to the Creeds daughter Ellie? I hear it's explained in the sequel, but I don't consider that officially canon. That's always bugged me though.
Also I didn't really care for the actors who played Louis and Rachel, maybe because she was on Star Trek and had a terrible hair cut. (Like Tea Leoni in Jurassic Park 3, oh that's a movie I'll review some other day). The actor who plays Gage is no stranger to the horror genre, for he plays Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, though in this one he is a lot scarier. Judd Nelson is played terrifically, probably the only character who is spot on. Although, I will give major props to the movie for increasing the role of Victor Pascow, and the effects used throughout the movie. He is the best character in the whole thing.
The movie is so-so for an average viewer and disappointing for anyone as a fan of the book. If I were ever to become a movie director, I would love to get my hands on this and remake it. (I know I just bitched about remaking Jacob's Ladder but that movie is original and great, this one is not). Anyway, it's not the best Stephen King adaption. It's not different enough from the book to be original (ala Kubrick's The Shining) but not good enough to be a thorough adaption (Like Christine or Carrie).
Tis a blah movie.
-Rileyofthedead
(PS: This probably hurts my chances at winning the DVD...oh well).