Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's version of the story Stephen King told in his 1983 novel PET SEMATARY will be coming to home video next Tuesday, July 9th, and you can pick up a copy of it at THIS LINK. In anticipation of this release, we decided it's time to do an Original Vs. Remake Face-Off and put Kölsch and Widmyer's PET SEMATARY 2019 up against director Mary Lambert's 1989 version of PET SEMATARY. Which one did a better job of telling the story? Let's find out…
Stephen King dove into such dark, devastating subject matter with PET SEMATARY that he was even hesitant to publish the novel. Dealing with first the tragedy of losing a beloved pet and then the tragedy of losing a child, the story centers on Dr. Louis Creed, his wife Rachel, and their two young children. The Creed family's lives fall apart in horrific, devastating ways soon after they move to the small town of Ludlow, Maine. When the family cat dies, their neighbor Jud Crandall informs Louis of an ancient burial ground that lies beyond the local pet cemetery – a place where the buried dead are resurrected. Louis buries the cat there, and it soon comes back home. When his toddler son Gage dies, Louis can't resist trying to resurrect his child as well. It doesn't turn out as he'd hoped.
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.
This version of PET SEMATARY is a mixed bag. There are perfect casting choices, like Fred Gwynne as Jud and Miko Hughes as little Gage Creed, and then there are not-so-perfect choices. The role of Louis requires a depth of emotion that Dale Midkiff wasn't always prepared to convey, which is also true for other cast members. They weren't helped out by the fact that King (who wrote the screenplay adaptation) had a habit of giving characters lines that no person would ever actually speak. For every moment that a line delivery from Gwynne gives goosebumps, there's a moment from someone else that brings a cringe.
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.
There are some truly unnerving practical effects in this film, and not just the look of the girl (played by a man) suffering from spinal meningitis that everyone talks about. A character dies from a nasty head wound, then lurks around as a decaying spirit with their head still split open. You get a slit Achilles tendon, a person with their mouth destroyed, and an undead character with part of their skull revealed and green pus leaking from an eye socket – but that doesn't stop their significant other from wanting to tongue wrestle. There are some dodgy optical effects (what is that thing that flies at Louis's face at the burial ground?), but they're easy to shrug off.
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.
This movie is extremely emotionally intense throughout, and for good reason. When children and animals are dying, of course there's going to be sobbing, cries of grief, and deep conversations. After an hour of death and depression, the film descends into a nightmarish horror scenario. Terrible thing after terrible thing occurs, making the viewer dread seeing what's going to happen next. And what happens next is usually devastating.
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.
Mary Lambert made some cheesy choices on occasion and didn't always get the best performances out of the actors, but for the most part she did a good job of crafting one of the most emotionally effective horror movies I've ever seen. With this material, it'd be hard not to get an emotional response. The film has a natural look to it for most scenes, it feels like real life, then when the horror really kicks in there some great use of shadows and fog.
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.
I really don't have any issues with the new version of PET SEMATARY, but when I directly compare it to the 1989 film I find that it doesn't give the original much competition. Even though it has weaker performances, Lambert's film somehow manages to be much more effective and emotional. Kölsch and Widmyer's movie is fine, but we got the better version of PET SEMATARY thirty years ago.
Do you agree with the outcome of this Face-Off, or do you think the new PET SEMATARY bested the original? Share your thoughts on these films in the comments section below. If you have suggestions for future Face-Off or Original Vs. Remake articles, you can send them to me at [email protected].