Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) moves from Boston to the small town of Ludlow, Maine with his wife, Rachel (Amy Seimetz), young daughter, Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and toddler son, Gage (Hugo and Lucas Lavoie). The point was to get away from their hectic and busy lives in the city, but after a student called Victor Pascow (Obssa Ahmed) is killed in a traumatic accident things begin to get strange for the Creed family. The deceptively quiet country road right by their house turns out to be treacherously busy with fast moving, large trucks and their elderly neighbour Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) knows one or two local secrets more than he should maybe share. Including, the mystery of the pet cemetery in the woods and... what lies beyond...
An interesting retelling that stays true to the spirit of the novel whilst making some key changes. I don't dislike the changes and found them to add a new dimension to the plot. As a big fan of the novel and the 1989 film, I hadn't really known how I would feel about this version, but I found it enjoyable overall.
The film offers a few jumps and jolts throughout and I found the development and reveal of the scenes with Rachel's sister Zelda to be a well realised. The local childrens' tradition of burying their pets in the 'sematary' in creepy masks had a nice Wickerman feel to it which I felt complimented the plot overall.
Clarke and Seimetz give good performances as the Creeds, however, it's hard to contend with Lithgow's Jud who really steals the show. Even as a die hard fan of Fred Gwynne's famous take on the character, I really enjoyed Lithgow's performance. His regret was palpable by the end of the film. Jeté Laurence really shows her stuff as sweet little Ellie... and then some! And Obssa Ahmed gives a nicely creepy, and somewhat less sarcastic, performance as Pascow. The makeup for Pascow is also very juicy... mmm, exposed brain.
The effects are overall very good and the film enjoys some good pacing. The strangest thing for me was the cemetery and burial grounds themselves which felt very much like a movie set and didn't show the depth and realism I was anticipating.
Louis' spiral in his despair and his desperation to get his family back is, as ever, sad and extremely dark. Overall, I felt the changes in the plot in this respect were a refreshing option and allowed us to experience a more talkative and grim analysis of human beings' inability to accept death. Church (Leo, Tonic, Jager and JD) was also extremely well realised.
For me the ending was even more haunting than both the novel and the initial '89 film and worked very well.
Overall, it hasn't dislodged the 1989 film from its pedestal for me, but it was entertaining and dark. While some of the changes didn't quite hit home, and some of the scenes felt like they had not been taken to their full promise, the overall film was an interesting take on the novel and an entertaining retelling.
[Image: Paramount Pictures]
Hani
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