Original Vs. Remake: Pet Sematary

Coming along thirty years after the first film, the new PET SEMATARY tells the same story as the original, but with some changes that subvert expectations. Once again we see Dr. Louis Creed and his family moving to Ludlow, Maine. The family cat dies, neighbor Jud Crandall leads Louis to the burial ground beyond the pet cemetery. The cat comes back. But then, instead of losing his toddler son Louis loses his daughter Ellie on her 9th birthday. Making the child older allows them to discuss the experience of being a living dead thing, which is a nice addition, but eventually she starts to seem like just another slasher who talks too much. This film deals with grief and death just like PET SEMATARY always has, but for some reason I don't feel the emotional element as strongly this time around.

Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz do strong work as Louis and Rachel, and this time the actors are aided by dialogue that tends to sound much more natural than what King wrote for the '89 film. Child actress Jeté Laurence is also quite impressive as the new Ellie, at least until the movie starts to let her down once she's an undead killer. I thought it would be impossible to replace Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall, but while he will always be the definitive Jud to me John Lithgow is also great as this version of the character. His line deliveries can't compete with Gwynne's, but he works in his own way.

We don't get quite as many cool gore effects in this one, but that person with a nasty head wound is back and even more mangled. Despite the effect being larger here, I prefer the effect in the original. There's also a reprise of the slit Achilles tendon. You have to have that, and it's even nastier this time – both in the moment when the cut happens, and when the injured foot is stomped on later. While the girl with spinal meningitis isn't as creepy here, the effects used to show the affliction are still good. There is a great subtle effect on little Ellie's face when she comes back from the grave, something left over from the accident that killed her.

Even though the actors are better at displaying the emotions of their characters, PET SEMATARY 2019 feels less intense than its predecessor. People are torn up, sure, but there aren't the cries of grief – the film even goes silent (except for music) after the big accident – or things like the coffin-side altercation. When the kid comes back from the dead, she chills for a while before getting to the scalpel slashing. The intensity does pick up in the last 20 minutes.

Directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer did well following in the footsteps of Mary Lambert but making their film in their own style. There are some goofy things in their movie (the masked pet funeral, the death of Zelda), and they go over-the-top with some things, like the truck accident… but there was an over-the-top element to that accident in the original, too. Still, they showed a dedication to the drama and got solid performances from the cast.