PET SEMATARY (2019) (4K UltraHD Review)

PET SEMATARY (2019) 

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. 

THE SACRAMENT (2014)

THE SACRAMENT (2014)

Label: Magnet Relesing
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English, Spanish Subtitles 
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Ti West 
Cast: AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Kentucky Audley, Amy Seimetz, Gene Jones

Director Ti West has made quite a name for himself since coming onto the indie--horror scene with The Roost (2005) and the one-two punch of The House of the Devil (2009) and The Inn Keepers (2009). I'm a fan of his style and the meticulously composed shots with a deliberate build-up. I even love the maligned Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009) which West disowned when producers re cut the film with additional footage, even with it's problems it's a fun, gooey comedy with a lot of icky moments. 

Afterward Ti West kept busy with contributions to the anthology films V/H/S (2012) and The ABCs of Death (2012) both of which I strongly disliked, particularly the V/H/S entry which I felt was the worst of the bunch. Coming into The Sacrament (2014) I didn't have a lot of expectations one way or the other. I try not to get too excited or down on a film prior to watching it, even if I feel the filmmakers previous few outings were duds. The proof is always in the pudding. 

The Sacrament is a modern retelling of the final days of the Jonestown cult and the mass suicide that occurred there in 1978. Framed as a documentary shot by two VICE Media correspondents Sam and Jake (AJ Bowed, Joe Swanberg) who learn through photographer friend  Peter (Kentucky Audler) of a hippie-styled commune located outside of the United States. The photographers formerly drug-addicted sister Caroline (Amy Siemetz) now resides in what sounds like a Utopian paradise in the jungle and she wants him to come visit. 

The brother is concerned for the sisters safety and the VICE guys see it as a great story opportunity and set off to the undisclosed location. They arrive at the rural location known as Eden's Parish, a self-sustaining commune. After a threatening encounter with armed gunmen the trio meet-up with Caroline and things start to smooth out. The place seems pretty alright and the two hundred or so followers seem well adjusted and happy to be there, most having escaped lives of poverty and drug addiction in the U.S.. They seem quite happy to be there and follow a man that everyone calls Father (Gene Jones).

The film plays out documentary style with time stamps and location titles as the crew document the cult and interview a few of the followers of the beloved Father. Perhaps the strongest element of the film is that we get a peek inside the cult and a taste of the mentality as the followers reveal why they chose to drop out of society and what drew them to Father. 

The crew are granted permission to interview Father that night at an assembly and we see the overwhelming love and support  for him from the many followers. Gene Jones is pretty superb as the charismatic cult leader. A slow drawn out speaker he oozes charm and love, which makes it hard to interview him, he's one of those guys that can turn your question around on you twice and never once actually reveal anything. 

After the assembly things start to turn a bit dark for it seems the newcomers have created a movement of descent among his followers and Father is none too pleased. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the events and Jonestown know the direction the film turns afterward. The story held absolutely no surprises  for me which is a disappointment - this is pretty much a straight-up fictionalized account of the Jonestown cult's final days and doesn't stray from it.

That's not to say that the performances are not effective - the dynamic of the cult followers and the charismatic leader are very good, creepily so. The VICE crew keep us rooted in the story as they are a stand-in for the viewer playing both skeptic and cautious believer. To their credit they didn't make any decisions that made me yell at the screen in anger which is a plus, all too often these found footage type films are filled with dim witted decisions. The most harrowing scene for me was that of Peter and his demented sister at the end of the film, he is powerless to stop what's transpiring around him, it's a very affecting scene. Throughout the film you  can tell she's just a bit off - she's sort of the second in command at the parish - and as the utopia unravels so does she with tragic consequences. 

The camerawork is pretty decent and does feel like an authentic documentary, as is often the case the camera catches a bit too much to be based in reality but the filmmakers are making a film here and Ti West is someone with a deliberate style of cinematography and I can imagine it might have been hard to relinquish control of the camera for this as cinema verite seem at odds with West's deliberate composition, to that end does not feel like a Ti West film but the writing certainly does.  

I enjoyed it but I didn't love it just for the fact that I knew what would happen because it'd so adherent to the source material meant that there were very few surprises. I appreciated the performances and there's some decent tension being built-up but this has zero re watch factor for me. I thought Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Edward's "Safe Haven" segment from V/H/S/2 was a more interesting and original take on cult story. Not awful but definitely my least favorite of Ti West's feature films. 

The disc from Magnet Releasing looks and sounds great - shot on the Canon C300 digital camera is looks like a a nive HD documentary with a decent surround mix. There's a director's commentary a four featurettes documenting the making-of the film.