PET SEMATARY
US, 2019, 101 minutes, Colour.
Jason Clarke John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz, Jete Laurence, Hugo Lavoie, Lucas Lavoie.
Directed by Kevin Kolsch, Denis Widmyer.
It’s no secret that Stephen King has a morbid imagination – and he has been developing it for more than 40 years. And, his success has been beyond his imagination, morbid or not. And, not only with the number of novels sold, not only with his millions of readers, but also with the very many film and television versions of those stories and the millions who have watched them.
Pet Sematary was filmed in the late 80s. It was a scary show. And this version, 30 years later, is also a scary show.
The poster features, very prominently, a group of youngsters in procession through the woods, animal masks on their faces, carrying dead pets to bury them. This certainly creates an atmosphere – but it is brief, at the beginning of the film, the only time such a scene is shown. On the other hand, there are several visits to the sematary itself with its many crosses and headstones. The sematary has an eerie atmosphere – but it is even more eerie once you pass by, climb steps, more woods, swamps, to a special burial ground.
However, the film starts with great hopes. The family has moved to the country from Boston, slowing down a bit, bonding. The father (Jason Clarke) is a doctor. The mother (Amy Seimetz) stays at home. The daughter is somewhat precocious – and comments on the wrong spelling of cemetery in case anyone is misled. The young son is very young. The daughter, Ellie (Jete Laurence), sees the procession of children and wanders off to the cemetery. There she encounters the neighbour, Jud, a widower who has lived in the area all his life.
The film also brings in some other ominous sequences, especially concerning the mother whose sister had a twisted spine, one of the little girl’s duties being to bring her her meals, using the dumbwaiter at one stage, with disastrous results which have haunted her all her life, and her blaming herself for her sister’s death.
Then the doctor has an ominous experience in his surgery, a young man victim of an accident who dies, sits up, haunts the doctor for the rest of the film.
But, it is the pet cat, Church (the young girl explaining to Jud that it is short for Churchill, asking whether he knows about him and John Lithgow, who played Churchill himself in The Crown, assuring her that he did – giggles from those in the audience who were knowledgeable!).
What Jud does is to help the doctor to bury Church after he is killed in an accident on the highway. Here, the screenplay draws on stories connected with Native American folklore, especially those buried beyond the pet cemetery coming alive again. In fact, in the early part of the film there has been a lot of discussion about the nature of the afterlife and whether it is possible or not, the doctor not believing it.
However, when Church is resuscitated, he is not the nice pussycat he was in the past…
As to what happens to those who die after this, to those who are buried after this, that is the point of Stephen King’s story, morbid as it is. In fact, the final scene being especially morbid for the audience either sitting grim through the credits or leaving morbidly.
1. Stephen King and his imagination? Horror? Morbid?
2. This film as a remake, the 21st-century and its styles?
3. The title, the misspelling, the focus, the burial ground, the children in their masks and the ritual, the native American traditions?
4. A family story, the background in Boston, the move, arriving, a slower way of life, Louis and his being a doctor, his practice and patients?
5. Rachel, devoted mother, going to the country, the flashbacks with her memories, a sister, the spinal disorder, bringing the meal, the use of the dumbwaiter, her sister coming down in the dumbwaiter? Rachel being haunted by these memories?
6. Ellie, the precocious daughter, curious? Gage, his age?
7. The secluded house, the sudden shock of the truck going past? Seeing the children with their pets, the pet masks, the pet cemetery, the crosses and graves? Ellie following, trying to climb, falling, meeting Jud, his helping her? Rachel coming, taking her home?
8. Ordinary life, settling in? The boy with the accident, Louis treating him, the hallucinations, his sitting up, living dead? His continuing to haunt Louis?
9. The atmosphere of hauntings, Louis and his dreams, Rachel and her memories?
10. The cat, his name of Church, pets, the stories about pets, Jud’s dog?
11. The discussions about the afterlife, Heaven, possibilities? Louis not believing?
12. Church and his being killed, the decision not to tell Ellie, Jud and Louis burying the cat, going through the pet cemetery, climbing the steps, to the far area through the marshes? The burial, the cairn of stones?
13. Churchill returning, different, aggressive, Louis taking him away, his return, malicious, on the road, Ellie seeing him, going to rescue him?
14. Ellie upset, the birthday party, the gift, Church on the road, the truck swerving, Ellie rescuing Gage? The skidding tanker, Elia and her death, her mother’s helplessness?
15. The burial, the grief, Rachel and Gage returning to Boston, with her parents? Louis alone, going to see Jud, Jud warning against the new burial? Louis drugging him?
16. Digging up the body, carrying it, the burial place, going home, sensing Ellie’s return?
17. Ellie, malicious, interventions, harsh yet her memories, going to Jud, his wife appearing to him in Ellie, her killing him?
18. The mother, phoning Jud, her return, Ellie with the knife, killing her mother? Burying the mother, her return, their attacking Louis, burying him?
19. Leaving gauge in the car for protection?
20. The family returned, zombielike, the family together?
