Pet Sematary Review

Pet Sematary is directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer and stars Jason Clarke, Amy Semeniz and John Lithgow and of course is based on the best-selling book by Stephen King.

This film follows a family of four who move to the countryside for a fresh start, but very odd things start to happen to them once they find out that part of their property is a pet cemetery.

For performances, no one here is bad and Jason Clarke as Dr Creed is especially good. He plays a man who is one hundred percent sceptic, so when all kinds of strange things start to happen he has to question his beliefs. And we see him give a very attention-grabbing performance as an everyday man slowly descending into madness.

The film was scripted by Jeff Buhler and of course he has adapted his script from Stephen King's book. It's full of all the usual horror clichés, from jump-scares to overly intense scenes and not forgetting horror-movie music stings to go along with some of the jump scares. I have not read the book, but from what I know about the source material all the key characters mostly transition faithfully from page to screen. There were some liberties taken, but more about that later.

The film was shot by Laurie Rose. I was satisfied with the cinematography for most of the runtime, but what struck me the most were without doubt the shots of the cemetery at night. They create an unsettling feeling and atmosphere in the viewer. And then you start to wonder, is something going to happen out here...?

The score was composed by Christopher Young, and he's done an average job of it. As mentioned before he uses horror music stings many times, but the standout moment for the score takes place in the middle of the movie during the funeral scene. Just by the sound of the score being played in the background, with not a single word being said, we can feel the grief being experienced by everyone in the scene.

The flaws which I think diminished the experience a bit for me were as follows. In an attempt to (I imagine) stay faithful to the source material as much as possible, the movie features a recreation of the novel's most famous death scene. It plays out almost in exactly the same way as it does in the book, except with one very notable difference. A difference I'm not even sure was required because up to a point, the outcomes of both situations remain the same so I don't believe it was an improvement.

Another flaw I found with the film is that I don't feel it's really a Stephen King adaptation. I think he is best known for memorable plots and characters, whereas this feels more like an above average, but fairly standard horror thriller. While it keeps your interest and is an intriguing  mystery with a well-rounded group of characters, it doesn't say 'Stephen King' to me.

The conclusion I draw from this is that Pet Sematary has good performances, a cliched but still satisfactory script, and a score that works when the moment is right.
Having taken all my pros and cons into account, I'm going to give Pet Sematary
B-.

Thank you for reading.