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Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Do you know what a graveyard really is?"
Review: I saw this movie way before I read the book, and it IS the reason I put off reading the book for so long. But after reading the book I can truly appreciate the script and some of the theatrical elements. The novel Pet Sematary was one of the darkest, most disturbing works by Stephen King (or for that matter any author) that I have ever read. King's adaptation of his own novel is pretty true to his book, but what made me wary about reading the novel after viewing the movie was the terrible miscasting for the film. The only person who played his part well was Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall. Everybody else seemed so terribly forced that almost every emotion was unbelievable. There was practically no chemistry between Dale Midkiff and Denise Crosby (Louis and Rachel Creed) and the girl who played Ellie (or Ellen in the film) was just plain annoying. I do have to give credit to the little boy who played Gage, although he did kinda give me the creeps (while in the book he was just a sympathetic character). The woman who played Rachel Creed's sister, Zelda DID scare the pee outta me, although I guess it was being presented with the worst case scenario of a person with spinal menningitis that did it. Great makeup for her character! But sadly this movie came off as laughable the first time around, BUT ONLY BECAUSE I HADN"T READ THE BOOK FIRST!!! Gradually, as I made this a traditional Halloween viewing, I allowed myself to fall into the atmospherics of the film and subsequently gave myself the heebie-jeebies everytime I watched it. But I must warn potential viewers: READ THE BOOK FIRST!!! It's way better, incredibly disturbing, and it will keep you up at night! Then rent the movie to see its silver screen translation (as well as Stephen King as a minister!). Sometimes books should stay books, but the movie will grow on you if you're a Stephen King fan.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Scary and Disturbing.
Review: The Stephen king book "Pet Sematary" was one of the most horrific, disturbing books that I have ever read and the movie based on the novel is probably one of the most tragic and depressing horror movies ever made. The movie starts out with a young family moving into a new home in rural Maine. An elderly neighbor introduces the family to a nearby "Pet Sematary" where neighborhood children bury their dead pets. Things rapidly go downhill from there. First the family cat is run over and killed by one of the trucks which seem to constantly drive by their home. The neighbor shows the father, Dr. Creed, the "real" pet semetary, an ancient indian burial ground located far back in the woods behind the other pet sematary that has the power to resurect the dead. They bury the cat in the micmac indian burial ground and the next day the cat returns home with a very bad attitude. Later in the story Dr. Creed's young son is killed by a truck. Well, you can probably figure out what happens later in the story. This atmosphere and tone of this movie very dark and creepy. The acting wasn't so great but the premise is chilling. If you knew that you could raise the dead would you do it? And to those who criticize the fact that the father stupidly keeps returning to the burial ground, all I have to say is READ THE BOOK because it explains that the reason that the father continues to bury people there is because he can't help himself. The micmac burial ground is like a magnet to it's chosen victim's (Dr. Creed's) brain, a magnet that becomes more powerful as is causes more tradgedies to occur. Towards the end of the film, the micmac burial ground makes the grief stricken Dr. Creed dig up his son's newly buried corpse so he can bury him again out in the woods, even though he knows deep down that more likely than not the consequences would be horrific. The ressurected boy comes home that night, murders and mutilates his own mother (yikes). This new tradgedy, caused by Dr. Creed himself, makes him go insane and he attempts to ressurect his wife, only to have his wife come back to murder him. Granted, not the most cheerful ending for a movie. All in all, I thought that Pet Sematary was a really scary movie, but it was also rather sad.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Scary is putting it lightly
Review: I took my girlfriend to see this at the theater way back in 1989. She was terrified and would not let go of me, thanks Mr. King! Anyway this movie doesn't have everything the book had (The old neighbor across the street was actually married to a cheating wife, someone buried a prize bull in the semetary, etc.) but it has enough to let the viewer know what Semetary is all about. There are some VERY disturbing scenes in this flick.

Gage getting hit by the truck then coming back on a killing spree, Sister Zelda was just downright terrifying, and of course the ending where the wife comes back, runny eye and all.

Watch this alone in the dark at 2AM and you'll have trouble sleeping, you'll search for Gage under the bed and Zelda in your closet.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They just don't make horror movies like this anymore
Review: Dr. Creed (Dale Midkiff) learns about Pet Sematary, where a lot of people who were real close to their pets supposedly buried their pets. Dr. Creed's close friend, Jud (Fred Gwynne), tells him that animals that are buried there can come back alive. Dr. Creed's young daughter's cat got killed and Dr. Creed knows that his daughter thought the world of her cat, so he takes the cat and buries it in Pet Sematary. But what Dr. Creed doesn't know is that when animals are buried there, they come back alive with an evil and deadly spirit in them. They don't come back as the same pet that everybody knew before the animal died. But has any human being ever been buried at Pet Sematary?

"Pet Sematary," like most Stephen King based movies, is scary and suspenseful in its own chilling effect. The movie has spectacular special effects, a good plot, good acting, and I would say that it's a must have for anybody who likes great classic horror movies. They just don't make great, scary horror movies like "Poltergeist" or "Pet Sematary" anymore. Don't get me wrong, there are still some great horror movies being made these days such as "The Sixth Sense" and "Stir of Echoes," but they just don't have the effect and the suspense that many of the older horror movie greats such as "Pet Sematary" had. At least to me they don't.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Scary as hell
Review: Wow! Definately King's best film to date! Seriously, this movie has everything. So, if you want to be scared senseless, Pet Sematary is well worth the money.

The movie starts out creepy enough with opening credits in the "pet sematary" with an eerie soundtrack. Then, we meet the Creeds, surgeon father and husband Lewis, mother and wife Rachel, kindergarden daughter Ellie, and adorable little infant son, Gage.

Actually, if you were watching it on TV and didn't know what the title was or what it was about, for the first 15 or 20 minutes, you wouldn't even know it was a horror movie. But then, things start getting strange when their neighbor starts talking about the mysterious path behind the house, which leads to the "pet sematary."

Then, while Rachel and the kids are at Rachel's parents house for Thanksgiving, Lewis' neighbor calls and tells him that he thinks Ellie's cat got killed and is dead on his lawn. Instead of buring it in the "pet sematary" they bury it in "the place where the dead rise," and old Native American burial ground.

Sure enough the cat comes back the next day, bring an unearthy stench back with it. That's how Lewis finally manages to convince himself that it really did work.

Then, something extremely heartbreaking happens to the Creed boy, Gage. This is where the ol' zombie-raising ground comes in. But, when the little boy comes back, he ain't exactly the innocent little tike he was in the real life...

This movie is SO SCARY! YOU NEED TO SEE IT! also the sequel is really good.

PET SEMATARY IS RATED R FOR VIOLENCE, GORE, STRONG LANGUAGE, BRIEF NUDITY AND DISTURBING IMAGES.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SCARY in parts! 4th june 2004.
Review: This film is brilliant, although in some parts of it are scary. I love these type not because they are sick because it's scary and a mystery what is goin to happen. Towards the end is scary, i could sit and cope with it but i have to look away from the screen a couple of times. The film is based on a cemetary, but there are vampires that come into it too,such as the little boy who dies, they bury him in the pet semetary way and he comes back to life again and tries to eat people. The boys dad manages to kill him though and it is dead sad cos the boy is dead cute. It goes on to a man who just lies there dead and rachel his mother[the boys] who hears him laughing, walks into the house and gets chewed into. Then his dad takes her to the cemetary to, she comes back and she kills the only person left out of there family his dad. There is one thing with this film, not everyone would like it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Sometimes Dead Is Better"
Review: Let me start off by saying if you want scary, this movie is it. By saying this movie is scary, you really cannot get the full picture. Scary is Nightmare on Elm street and halloween, but this movie is just as disturbing and scary as it would be if you were in the firey flames of hell.

When a family moves into a new house, they are confronted by an old man who seems friendly, but Judd Crandel, the old man, has been living in that neighboor hood for many years, and knows all of the secrets of the cemetary that remains in the back of the house. Judd refuses to inform the family, but eventually, when the father finds out what the truth is behind the old pet cemetery in the back of the house all hell breaks loose, especially when their youngest son Gage dies.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Lots of scares, a few laughs, and some tears!
Review: Ok, the good ghost dude is SCARY! the little boy, gage, that comes back to life...IS FUNNY! yes it is sad when he dies but he is not scary when he comes back to life! the mom is rather disturbing when she comes to life! anyway, a family moves to this place...by a road with lots of big trucks than come by...and there nieghbor shows them around to and shows them pet sematary, later on, there cat, church, dies. the dad burries it at pet sematary, church comes back..evil...later on gage, the little boy, gets hit by a truck...the dad burries him at pet semetary...and of course he comes back to life, kills the nieghbor and his mom, then the mom kills the dad...then the little girl is the only one alive, how sad! i really don't think this movie is all that great but its ok!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "I Don't Wanna Be Buried in a Pet Cemetery...."
Review: It has been the candid observation of numerous film critics that the works of literary horror maven Stephen King don't often translate well to the screen. But when they DO work, man do they WORK! PET SEMATARY is a prime example. Though some of the details of the King masterwork had to be pared down--as is often the case when well-written literature is made to fit into a two-hour visual narrative--this film captures perfectly the spine-tingling essence and atmosphere of the original novel. As with many King cinematic adaptations, it HELPS if you've already read the book. But with a really good one like PET SEMATARY, familiarity with the book is absolutely NOT a prerequisite.

PET SEMATARY tells the story of the Creeds, a young nuclear family who has moved from the Midwest to a small college town in Maine. They take up residence in a old country house a few miles outside the town, and it isn't long before they become friendly with their new neighbor, a bucolic but agreeable old coot named Jud who lives across the street. Jud quickly alerts them to the fact that the road between their two houses is a busy rural highway, and he therefore warns them to be always mindful of their young children and the family cat. Many a pet has ended up in the nearby pet "sematary," Jud explains, due to an unscheduled meeting with a speeding truck or car on that infernal highway.

Inevitably, the Creeds' cat, Church, joins the roadkill ranks, but only the father, Louis Creed, is at home when this happens. Neighborly Jud worries about how the Creed children will take the news, so he decides to let Louis in on secret. Just beyond the nearby cemetery where the children of ages past have buried their beloved pets, Jud tells Louis, is another cemetery that was long ago held sacred by the Native Americans once indigenous to the region. Local legend has it that when you bury your dead there, they will return to life before the end of the following day. Sometimes there is a price to pay for this magic, says Jud, as the dead don't always come back exactly the way they were before they died. Nonetheless, Jud thinks it is worth the risk if they can protect the Creed children from the pain of losing a cherished pet. Being a physician, Louis is understandably skeptical, but he humors his elderly friend and, with the stiffened body of Church in hand, follows Jud up to the "magical" burial grounds.

Much to the surprise of Louis, Church does indeed arrive on the Creed doorstep the next morning. In some intangible way, though, Church seems different--no longer a loving feline, but instead stealthy, aloof, and easily provoked to anger. Jud tells Louis to try to ignore theses differences, and he suggests that if Louis remains mum about Church's resurrection, the rest of the family will never know their little secret.

Of course, as one might guess, it isn't long before one of the Creed children meets his fate on the highly trafficked road. But dare the grieving Louis bury his son in the sacred soil of the Indian cemetery? And if he does, will what worked for a cat work for a human? If so, at what price?

PET SEMATARY is a very satisfying horror film that offers the requisite spooky ambiance, frightful imagery, and outright scares, and all without requiring much effort to suspend one's disbelief. Part of the reason the filmmakers pull this one off is, of course, due to the excellent job that King has done in his adaptation of his own novel. But the lion's share of the credit goes to the excellent performances from the cast. TV actor Dale Midkiff, whose acting style usually teeters on the histrionic, here turns in a subtle yet compelling performance as the family patriarch, Dr. Louis Creed. Even when things get really intense for his character, Midkiff maintains control and convincingly delivers the reactions of an educated, loving father who is grasping for a rational means of rescuing his family from a dangerously surreal situation. Denise Crosby--better known to SF fans as STAR TREK's Tasha Yar--also does an unusually good job portraying Louis' perky upper-middle-class wife.

It is the performance of Fred Gwynne that really makes the show, however. Genre fans know Gwynne from his role as Herman in TV's classic horror-themed sitcom THE MUNSTERS. As the rustic and lovable Jud, Gwynne stretches his thespian skills way beyond the limits of the slapstick of THE MUNSTERS to create a credible and convincing elderly Maine farmer. Gwynne could easily take it over the top and upstage his fellow actors here, but he instead keeps it honest and subdued and thereby makes a significant contribution towards pulling the audience into the fantasy of the filmic narrative.

As with many of Paramount's DVDs, this disc is sparse on extras. However, the digital transfer (for the widescreen anamorphic edition) was made from a very clean print, and both the picture and sound quality are great. For King fans and fans of great cinematic horror, owning this film is a must!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Big Failure at the End
Review: Read whatever everyone else said, but...

King's book ended abruptly in a way that was shocking and ambiguous: the reader could decide that the ending was either hopeful or horrible. The movie chooses for us (and incorrectly in my view) with an ending that screams WE'LL TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENED BECAUSE IF WE LEAVE YOU HANGING THE FOCUS GROUPS WILL REJECT OUR ENDING and destroys the movie.


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