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. 

STARRY EYES (2014)

STARRY EYES (2014)

Label: Dark Sky Films

Region: 1 NTSC

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 96 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer
Cast: Alex Essoe, Noah Segan, Pat Healy, Amanda Fuller, Shane Coffey, Fabianne Therese

Sarah (Alex Esso) is a young struggling actress, just one of the many of thousands of fame-hungry hopefuls that end up in Hollywood with starry eyes and dreams of becoming the next rising star. While she waits for stardom she waitresses at a Hooters-styled restaurant named Big Taters, nice. Love the hot pants they wear with the beer print!  She lives with her roommate Tracy (Amanda Fuller) and hangs out with a group scenesters comprised of wanna-be actresses and an aspiring director (Noah Segan). The most irritating of the bunch is the part stealing Erin (Fabianne Therese), she's quite a bitch who throws snide comments at Sarah with regularity, that one friend who just loves to bring you down. 

Things seem to be on the upswing for Sarah when she is called in to audition for the latest film from the legendary Astraeus Pictures for a film called The Silver Scream. Meeting with the casting director (Maria Olsen) and her assistant (Marc Senter) she gives a damn decent reading but the duo do not seem impressed. Sarah heads to a restroom down the hall and we see that she might be a little fucked in the head, throwing a tantrum and violently pulling hair from her scalp. An earlier scene hinted that Sarah may suffer from some form of body dysmorphic disorder, now add trichotillomania to the mix and you begin to see that maybe she has some serious body image issues, at the very least she's self-harming. The casting director walks in on doing this and strangely seems impressed by it, so much so that she invites Sarah to come back and audition again, this time with the caveat that she tear the hair from her head for them to see, which seems weird but in the dog eat dog world of Hollyweird nothing seems too strange for very long. 

The casting director and assistant as portrayed by he creepy Maria Olsen and Marc Senter are very weird, particularly Marc Senter who reminded me quite a bit of Christian Bale in the role of Patrick Bateman in AMERICAN PSYCHO. It might have been the facial expressions and the way he moved his mouth combined with his wry delivery and over enunciation. It's very creepy and unsettling, which can also be said for this entire film, it has a certain mesmerizing power about, you know it's building towards something and you cannot take your eyes off it - even during the slower moments. 

Sarah is quickly dismissed after her harrowing performance, she's confused by the experience but is pleased to be called back for a second audition just a few days later. At this audition she is asked to disrobe, she is hesitant at first but acquiesces after some prodding from the casting director who encourages her to open-up to the possibility of transformation, a theme that is carried through for the entire film. During the audition Sarah become entranced by a strobe-light, falling into a hypnotic state, during which she notices that the casting director is wearing a pentacle necklace,  suddenly the weird auditions take on a slightly more sinister tone with the introduction of a possible Satanic element. Afterward she is dismissed yet again, a few later she is called-in for a third audition, this time with the producer (Louis Dezseran) of the project. The meeting begins promisingly but she is dismayed when it becomes clear that she expected to have sex, not willing to corrupt her values she refuses and leaves. 

The character of the producer is yet another bizarre player who seems to be a only slightly more exaggerated version of legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans. Fabianne Therese gives quite a creepy performance, strangely wild-eyed, blinding white teeth, sporting a maniacal smile while he does on about his fascination with the ugly underside of Hollywood, and the desperate ambition that festers just under the surface of the town. 

Returning to her apartment she tries to console herself with a night of partying with her scenester friends, after which she begins to have second thoughts about her choice, thinking she made the wrong decision. Driven by ambition and not wanting to miss her opportunity in the limelight she reaches out to the casting director and agrees to meet with the producer at his home. This time Sarah is not only willing to swallow her pride to land the coveted role, but quite a bit more. During this encounter we have more definitive occult activity as men in black hooded robes emerge from the shadows and a pentagram can be seen carved onto the producer's hand, there's definitely some occult activity going on. 

The next day Sarah begins to act more erratic and she physically starts to deteriorate, there's a transformation occurring within her and we are not quite sure what is happening but something evil is brewing under the surface. She begins wasting away and severe skin sores start to appear, her hair is falling out and her relationship with her friends begins to become more strained. 

Up to this point one could say that the pace of the film has been a bit slow and deliberate, but it is building up to something, you can feel it, and I am pleased to report this is one slow burn with a very satisfying finish. It's a bloodbath of violence that does not disappoint, the film rewards our patience with a nail biting orgy of violence and revelation, no one walks away from this one untouched, least of all the back stabbers among the scenesters, it is quite a sight! 

I was enthralled from start to finish with this one, this is quite a watch. Alexandra Essoe is fantastic in the role of the fame-starved actress, on the surface she reminds me a bit of a very young Shelley Duvall with her slight build, pretty eyes and toothsome smile. She take it to the next level  and completely sells the character's psychological and physical transformation, there's some subtle character moments here to enjoy, this one goes a bit deeper than your average scary film. The supporting cast is just as good, Noah Segan is one of the more sympathetic scenester friends as is Amanda Fuller as the roommate, even Fabianne Therese imbues her cunty character with some genuine emotion when called upon towards the end, but backstabbers get what they get, regardless.

Of note is the awesome retro synth score from Jonathan Snipes with more than a few nods to the vintage score of John Carpenter with a few atmospheric flourishes sprinkled in. Sarah has her own key-tinkling theme which has both darker and lighter variations throughout, and then there's the standout closing credit music, which inspired me to search for the soundtrack on Amazon, sadly it's not available, but his score for ROOM 237 is, hopefully that will keep me happy until the soundtrack gets a proper release. 

You might be pleased to know that there is nudity and the gore is satisfying. Loads of blood and a visceral face destroying that is as vicious and well executed as anything I have seen in recent memory. Additionally, the gradual deteriorating make-up appliances used to show Sarah's wasting away are pretty great, at times it reminded me of the grotesque transformation of the young woman from CONTRACTED, very nicely done without going overboard. There's something for just about everyone here, we have a story that pulls you in from the beginning, bizarre occult elements, bloody violence, nudity and a fantastic retro-synth score, it rarely gets any better than this. 

Special Features: 

- Commentary with writer-directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch, and producer Travis Stevens
- Deleted Scenes (12 Minutes)
- Jonathan Snipes Music Video (2 Minutes)
- Alex Essoe Audition Video (14 Minutes)
- Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery (10 Minutes)
- Trailer (2 Minutes) 

Verdict: STARRY EYES is sure to be a film that will be talked about for quite a while, and one of the few to actually live up the hyperbole that preceded my own viewing. A nice slice of slow burn Satanic cinema, one tempered with atmospheric nightmarish imagery, and strange occult elements with a satisfying payoff and an outstanding retro-synth score, this comes highly recommended.