Pet Sematary (2019)

“Sometimes, dead is better.”

Filmology Rating: 2.5 out of 4

I just want to address the poster of this film because there is literally a spoiler on the poster if you've seen the original 1989 version of this adaptation. Come on, really?

This is another Stephen King adaptation and it stars Jason Clarke and John Lithgow. It is about death/ grief. That's really all that can be said without totally explaining what happens in the film if you are not familiar with this material.

Let's start with the film's strongest aspects, don't worry this won't take long. The absolute best part about this film is John Lithgow's performance. I publically want to apologize to him because during the first trailer, I wrote him off because he is a comic actor. He's hilarious. You look at his face and he's funny without him even trying. He was even in "Daddy's Home 2." But he gives his best performance ever in this film and it's a dark and terrific performance. He is also the loud speaker for exposition being the "wise old man" character.

Jason Clarke is serviceable to the plot. He did a fine job and he is a good actor, but I just feel very bad for him because he is consistently picking bad scripts. "Terminator: Genisys" and "Winchester" were terrible. Not dissing Clarke, but this film needed a little more than what Clarke brought. Other performances were good and the child actors were surprisingly not terrible.

This is also a beat-for-beat remake of the 1989 adaptation other than a few minor changes at the end. It feels a little like Rob Zombie's "Halloween." So there isn't any tension when you realize you're watching the exact same film. Speaking of tension, there are very startling jump scares accompanied by a very loud semi-truck horn every half hour or so to make sure you're not falling asleep. They're annoying, please stop.

A lot of characters are also underdeveloped. Many main characters are given some kind of traumatic past, but the film never finishes those plot beats or arcs for the characters. The issue is that this concept is frightening. But this film is not. This film just has a Stephen King sticker on it that sells the movie. It's fine. You won't remember this in a month.

Rating: Rent It

-Nolan