Stephen King Month: Pet Sematary

4 Stars - Entertaining

Stephen King's daughter once had a cat called Smucky, it was killed in the road and they buried it in a local pet cemetery, at a similar time his son had a close call in the road, these led Stephen King to think of two things, one: what if his child had been killed in the road like the cat? Two: what if they came back. Pet Sematary was born, however it was only published because of a contract as King didn't think he should publish such a personal story. Though I'm glad he did because it is wonderful.

The story is about Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago who just moved to Maine with his wife, Rachel and his children, Ellie and Gage. They move in next to a road where trucks seem to go by almost constantly, and also they meet their neighbour Jud Crandell, who takes them to see the local Pet Cemetery which the kids misspelled the sign as Pet Sematary, and his wife Norma, who later dies of a heart attack and is Ellie's first real experience of death. At thanksgiving while his family are away visiting Rachel's parents with whom he doesn't get along, Louis gets a call from Jud that he's found Ellie's cat Church dead on his lawn. He takes Louis to a mysterious place beyond the Pet Sematary, where Louis buries Church, who comes back a few days later very much alive, but not quite right, more vicious and aggressive than before. Some time passes then tragedy hits when Gage is run over in the road by a truck and dies. A week or so later, against Jud's warnings Louis, having sent his family to Rachel's parents again, buries Gage in the burial ground beyond the Pet Semetary. Gage comes back, but is now a vicious monster, he kills Jud and later Rachel when she returns home when she thinks something's wrong. Louis has to put himself through hell and kill his son again, he then takes Rachel to the burial ground, mind completely broken and waits for her return.

The book is absolutely wonderful, and deals with a subject matter that is somewhat difficult to think about. The film is very entertaining, with most of the central performances being decent, particular note should go to Fred 'Herman Munster' Gwynne as Jud Crandell, who gives a performance that charms you round to liking him even when he is a bit over the top. However the climax of the film whilst an unsettling idea does look a bit silly when you actually watch a grown man grappling desperately against a small child.

As an adaptation it is really strong, capturing everything from the book you would want it to, and though a few changes were made here and there Stephen King wrote the screenplay so I guess they're allowed.

A Pet Isn't Just For Life

In short, this a properly entertaining film and has some scary ideas, even if the execution is a little off at times. Oh and it has a theme song by The Ramones which absolutely rules.