Label: Paramount Pictures
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: R
Duration: 101 Minutes
Video: 2160p 4K UltraHD Widescreen (2.39:1), Dolby Vision HDR, 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer
Cast: Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz, Naomi Frenette, Jeté Laurence
As remake announcements go I wasn't too awfully excited when they announced Stephen King's Pet Sematary was up for a re-imagining. I am not really against remakes but I am still quite enamored with the original film, but when I found out that Starry Eyes directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer were helming the remake I was a bit more willing to re-visit the property.
The film begins exactly the same way as the first film, with Boston doc Louis Creed (Jason Clarke, Terminator Genisys) moving into the small town community of Ludlow, Maine where he has taken on the roll of a doc at a small college. He arrives with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz, Alien: Covenant) and their two young children, Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and Gage (Hugo & Lucas Lavoie), plus the beloved family feline, Church. Just as in the first film the couple apparently didn't realize their new home is right next to a road plagued by high-speed tanker trucks coming from a nearby industrial center. They meet their new neighbor, a friendly widow by the name of Judd Crandall (John Lithgow, Raising Cane) who takes a liking to their daughter, but not in a weird way, whom he meets while she's exploring the nearby pet cemetery.
On Creed's first day at work at the college he shaken when a young man named Victor Pascow is killed by a car, finding himself haunted by the man's ghost, warning him to stay away from the local burial ground. Creed proceeds to ignore is otherworldly advice when the family cat is found splattered on the side of the road on Halloween, which is when neighborly Judd suggests they go bury that cat at the local native American burial ground, the place he believes is haunted the the spirit of a Wendigo! Of course nothing good can come of this, and strangely the cat returns the very next, as if nothing had happened, but with a more ferocious disposition. You might think this would deter the father from further ideas of resurrection, but when one of his kids ends up the next victim of a high-speed eighteen-wheeler he once again returns to ancient burial ground with not wholly unexpected results.
As stated before the film sticks to the path of the first film quite a bit, a bit too much for my liking, with only a few new turns to keep things fresh. New stuff comes by way of a strange funereal procession of kids in animal masks burying their pet dog in the pet cemetery, and there's no suicidal housekeeper this time around. There's also a reversal of roles happening here which I won't spoil, the trailers do good enough work of that already.
I've always heard people slam Dale Midkiff in the first film, saying he was wooden, well let me tell you that Jason Clarke is a pretty bland Louise Creed himself, so he doesn't improve on it. However, the kids here are pretty great, with the young Lavoie twins looking quite a bit like Miko Hughes from the first film, and young Jeté Laurence carrying most of the emotional weight of the film as young Ellie who has a lot more to do in this version of the story. John Lithgow had some literally big shoes to fill stepping in as Judd previously played by the affable Fred Gwynne (The Munsters), and he does good work, but it's the sort of role he could sleepwalk through to be honest, and he doesn't have that strange menace that Gwynne brought to the role.
The film looks great, the locations and sets used are outstanding, the pet cemetery and Indian burial ground are creepy and atmospheric, plus the flashbacks to Rachel's suffering sister Zelda are even creepier and well-executed than the original version of the film .
Audio/Video: Pet Sematary (2019) arrives on 2-disc Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD from Paramount framed in 2160p widescreen (2.39:1) looking solid. Green of the forest and surrounding natural settings have a lushness, colors are HDR-enhanced and vivid throughout, occasionally giving way to more macabre darker tones in the fog shrouded pet cemetery and the burial ground. Details really shine throughout by way of fabric and wood grain texturing, close-ups of facial features and the often blood clumped fur of the family cat.
The Dolby Atmos is a potent presentation, offering solid reproduction of the score and also using the surrounds to full effect with sounds of the forest and creepier atmospherics, optional English subtitles are provided.
Extras are relegated to the Blu-ray disc n the set, we get 9-min alternate ending, 13-min of deleted and extended scenes. Separate from the deleted scenes are a series of nightmares suffered by the main family, plus another story from John Lithgow's character, not sure of these were promotional in nature or why they're not included with the deleted scenes. There's also a four-part making-of doc that runs a bit over an hour, which is cool as we don't usually get comprehensive docs for newer films these days.
The 2-disc release comes housed in a 4K keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster for the film, which looks great, it's also featured on the accompanying slipcase for the film. Inside there's a digital redemption code for the film.
Special Features:
- Alternate Ending (9 min)
- Deleted and Extended Scenes (13 min)
- Night Terrors – Family Haunting Visions (5 min)
- The Tale of Timmy Baterman (3 min)
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter One - Resurrection – Directors, screenwriters and cast discuss bringing this classic back to life (17 min)
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter Two - The Final Resting Place—A deeper look into finding the right location for the terror to unfold (13 min)
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter Three - The Road to Sorrow— Inside the film's tragic themes and creating the iconic cat "Church" (18 min)
- Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter Four - Death Comes home—Unearth the creepy elements behind the climax and final scenes of the film (14 min)
Pet Sematary (2019) doesn't surpass the original for me, but it comes damn close, with a brisk pace that keeps the chills coming at a steady clip, doing just enough differently to keep it from being a paint-by-numbers retread. That said, it doesn't do enough to set itself apart for me to see it as something better than what came before, and what it retreads it doesn't necessarily do better consistently. The new 4K dual-format release from Paramount looks and sounds great, plus the extras are plentiful, a definite recommend for fans of this macabre Stephen King story.
