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PET SEMATARY (2019)
Director: Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer Cast: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, Jeté Laurence, John Lithgow, Hugo Lavoie, Lucas Lavoie, Alyssa Brooke Levine, Obssa Ahmed MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:41 Release Date: 4/5/19 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 5, 2019 The most common and most costly mistake in adapting a Stephen King story is to miss out on the human element of the author's writing. Everyone knows him as a horror maestro, but the reason that horror is so chilling is because King gives us a firm understanding of his characters. The fears into which he most often taps are everyday ones, too, and that combination is why it'll probably be a long, long time before his work stops being popular. To wit, here is the second adaptation of King's 1983 novel, which concerns an ancient burial ground that has the ability to resurrect the dead. Considering how much the new Pet Sematary changes about the story, it would be a shock if someone doesn't make a third and maybe even a fourth version of this tale while some of those now living are still alive. Maybe one of those future versions will capture the examination of desperation that comes from guilt-ridden grief, which was the core of the characters and the horror of King's original story. The first adaptation from 1989 came close. This new version seems to be heading in that direction. One can certainly feel the attempt on the part of screenwriter Jeff Buhler, who tries to cram in as much about the characters' pasts and their philosophies on death as possible, before the story provides a gut punch that forces those feelings and beliefs to be put to the test. It's clunky, to be sure, but one hopes that such ungainly exposition can be forgiven, as long as the payoff delivers on the setup. It doesn't. For those who don't know the book or the original movie, a family from a big city moves to small town in Maine. Louis (Jason Clarke) is a doctor, who arrives at his family's new home on the edge of a forest, along with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and their two children, 8-year-old Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and toddler Gage (Hugo and Lucas Lavoie). Things become eerie or downright unsettling pretty quickly. Ellie discovers an old pet cemetery (with a wooden sign displaying the title's misspelling), to which local kids in animal masks make a creepy procession whenever one of their beloved animal pals dies. While exploring the graveyard in her expansive backyard, Ellie is stopped from climbing a wall made of tree branches by the family's neighbor Jud (John Lithgow), who has lived in this town his entire life and knows a thing or two about what lies beyond that imposing obstacle. Ellie starts asking questions about death. While Rachel tries to comfort her daughter with musings about an afterlife, Louis provides a more biological and final assessment. He witnesses that reality at his new job at the university clinic, after a student is hit by a car. The body, momentarily contradicting that finality, offers a dire warning (Is there any other kind that comes from a corpse?) about the barrier in the doctor's big backyard. All of this is narrative and/or thematic foreshadowing for what's to come. As was mentioned near the beginning, the story eventually comes to the revelation that some ground beyond the wooden wall has mystical abilities to resurrect the dead. The family cat, stuck by one of the speeding trucks that regularly pass the road in front of the house, is the first to return to life, although it has changed and still smells of rot. Seemingly aware that the material takes some time to get the real horror elements, directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer use this extended setup as an opportunity to establish a sense of morbid foreboding. It's the easy path and, perhaps, the only one to take here, in light of the screenplay's assurances of dark things to come. The through line of the first half of Buhler's screenplay is death first and foremost. The characters' reactions to the concept and the reality of death are seen, through visions and flashbacks, and told, but the sense of overriding guilt, which is so vital with Louis' key decision that begins the second half, remains a vague consideration. To explain what brings Louis to that decision would be to give away plot information that would be new even to readers of the novel or viewers of the first movie. The premise is the same, but Buhler has changed the body accompanying Louis' late-night trek to the ancient burial ground. What can be said is that the shift is rather clever, since it gives a cogent, self-aware voice to the recently departed—and more recently resurrected. Buhler allows that character an opportunity to explain the experience of death and the confusion of being alive again, which starts this final act of the story with a tangible sense of dread. As for the rest of changes to the story that follow, they're far less dreadful and disappointingly routine. Whatever personal and/or existential horror could have been garnered from this setup is dismissed for scenes of a monster hunting for victims. Ultimately, Pet Sematary does make the big mistake that can happen in adapting King. It ignores the horror of the human side of the story and instead looks to superficial scariness of the story's gimmick. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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