Entry 106: Pet Sematary (1989)

Pet Sematary (1989)

Dir: Mary Lambert

"Sometimes dead is better."

   

Lock up your pets and small children, 'cause tonight I'm leaving the Basement and wandering down that dark path in the woods to the Pet Sematary!

Chicago doctor Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff, Nightmare Weekend, TV's Time Trax and the prototype for Nathan Fillion) moves to rural Maine with his wife Rachel (Denise Crosby, 48 Hours, TV's Star Trek: the Next Generation) and children Ellie (the excellently-named Blaze Berdahl) and Gage (Miko Hughes, the son of John Hughes and a prolific child actor) to take up a residency at a small college.  Unfortunately, the Creed's new home is situated directly next to an insanely busy highway.  Louis befriends folksy next door neighbor Jud (the late, great Fred Gwynne, TV's The Munsters, My Cousin Vinny), who reveals to them a surprisingly well-stocked pet cemetery hidden in the woods behind their house (it's decrepit sign, misspelled years ago by a child, gives the film it's curious title).  When Ellie's cat is killed on the highway, Jud reveals a secret to Louis: beyond the pet cemetery lays an ancient Indian burial ground with strange powers.  Jud implores Louis to bury the cat in this ancient holy ground and, much to Louis' surprise, the cat reappears the next day, but with a noxious odor, dead eyes and a surly disposition.  Louis is astonished, but agrees to keep the secret with Jud.  When toddler Gage tragically wanders in front of a speeding semi, a grief-stricken Louis decides to bury his son at the Indian grounds, much to Jud's objection.  Gage returns, but as a terrifying, unhinged, scalpel-wielding monster.  Can Louis put his own risen son down before further tragedy strikes his family?  Fuck no, and the result of his folly leads to a satisfying (if mildly predictable) punchline of a conclusion.

Full disclosure: I went through a Stephen King phase in junior high and high school, but I never got to this film's source novel, so I can't make any comments about it's accuracy/effectiveness as an adaptation.  I do know that it was one of King's favorite novels, and he protectively refused to sell the film rights until his close friend George Romero and his producing partner, Richard Rubinstein, showed interest.  Romero was set to direct, but had to bow out when Monkey Shines proved to be a difficult and overlong shoot and would have delayed the start of this film (he ended up doing a King adaptation anyway; 1993's The Dark Half) and music video vet Lambert was brought onboard (she directed the promos for Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and Janet Jackson's "Nasty," among others).  While having no desire to direct again after the fiasco of Maximum Overdrive, the overprotective King insisted on being present during filming and required the film to be shot on locations near his Maine home.  Okay, now that the goddamn history lesson is over, what about the film?  It's a good one; in fact, it's among the finest of the King adaptations.  Lambert doesn't quite ratchet up the tension or create much of a sense of impending doom in the beginning, resulting in a pretty slooooow first 45 minutes.  Once things kick into high gear, however, she brings the house down with effective, claustrophobic framing and the occasional break into manic, Raimi-inspired camerawork.  Hughes (who I normally find irritatingly cloying and cutesy) is chilling as the reborn Gage.  Scenes of him stalking and terrorizing Gwynne and Crosby are pants-shittingly scary and evocative of similar scenes in Cronenberg's The Brood.  Gwynne is phenomenal as the good-hearted neighbor who harbors a dark secret and Midkiff, though initially coming off a bit bland, really ratchets up the intensity of his performance as the horrors pile upon his character.  The film's only real problems (aside from the aforementioned languid beginning) lay with King's script.  The idea the Ellie has some sort of psychic powers is touched upon a couple of times in the film, but never explained or expanded, nor are the visions Rachel continually has of her deceased, spinal meningitis-suffering sister or the bizarre hatred that her father exhibits toward Louis.  Most jarring is Victor Pascow (Brad Greenquist, Mutants in Paradise, Lost Souls), a college student killed by a car on Louis' first day of work.  Because Louis tried to help him, Pascow appears to him in dreams to warn him of the evil of the burial ground and appears as a spectral figure occasionally watching over Rachel.  Pascow ultimately does nothing to help the Creeds and his presence adds nothing to the story; instead, he comes off as a less-effective copy of Jack from An American Werewolf in London.  I'm sure these were all meaningful subplots in King's lengthy novel, but they don't really belong in a 100 minute film.  Script issues aside, some strong performances, fantastic production design and an intense final half that never lets up makes this well worth your time.  Oh, I almost forgot; the score by Elliot Goldenthal (Alien3, Blank Generation) kicks fucking ass!