Pet Sematary

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Louis Creed (played by Jason Clarke) and his family move to Ludlow, Maine in order to get a fresh start. Before long, tragedy strikes the family and terror is unleashed that the Creed family now has to deal with. As a fan of Stephen King’s work, I was really interested to see how this remake was going to turn out. The first thing I will say is that if you are a book purist, you should know that this film takes a lot of liberties. I am not going to judge the film based off of that, at least not entirely. The biggest positive I can give the film is the acting. All of the performers are well-chosen for their respective parts. I also have to commend the filmmakers for doing something different when they easily could have followed the original beat for beat. The twist they incorporate into the film has the same effect (even though it was sadly spoiled in the trailer) as the original. Unfortunately, these positives don’t necessarily make this a good movie. A lot of the pacing just doesn’t really work for the movie. There are elements in the film that are thrown out at a break-neck speed in this version, while the original kind of let then play out as needed. The film also used jump scares. They weren’t awful by means, but they could have been done far better, and it didn’t feel as though they were really needed, or that they did much of anything to serve the story. Around the third act, there was some solid tension and suspense in the film, but it wasn’t enough to save the film for me. To be fair, this is a remake that really could have worked well. The original is good, but it could easily be improved. Sadly, I can’t give this remake anything beyond and honest-to-God eh. I didn’t really have any impact on me one way or the other. 

5 / 10