Pet Sematary
Sometimes, dead is better
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Young doctor Lewis Creed (Dale Midkiff) moves his family into a more rural setting after accepting a job in a smallish town. He and his wife Rachael (played by Denise Crosby) look forward to raising their two children, Ellie and Gage, in a more peaceful environment, away from the noise and bother of the city. Unfortunately, Lewis' new perfect life begins to fall apart on his first day on the job. A runner was brought in who had been hit by a car. The man, Victor Pascow, had sustained massive head injuries and Lewis himself knew that there was little or no chance of saving him. Just before Pascow dies, he says something to Lewis, something he never would forget. Shaken, Lewis returns home and tries to put the incident as far behind him as he could. Of course, when Lewis begins to see Pascow in his dreams, leading him on a midnight trek deep into the woods behind the Creeds' new home, he begins to take the man's warnings about never returning to this place again, no matter |
| how badly he may want or need to in the future. In the
morning, Lewis awakens to find that perhaps he hadn't been dreaming at all. Flipping back
the covers, Lewis discovers that his feet and calves are covered in mud from his
"walk" with Victor Pascow. The Creed's soon befriend old Judd Crandall (Fred Gwynne) who had lived in the neighbourhood all his life. The first thing Lewis was to learn from Judd was that the highway in front of their house was not to be messed with. Flooded with big-rig traffic throughout the day and evening hours, death and heartache seemed to stem from it. |
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Eventually, the time came for Judd to teach Lewis something else about the local area. After Lewis' daughter Ellie's cat is killed while crossing the road, Judd takes Lewis on a journey into the woods. They reach a seemingly insurmountable cliff garnished with razor-sharp branches and the like. The two men struggle upward in the failing daylight and Lewis is awestruck by what they encounter at the top. An ancient burial ground, used long, long ago by the Micmac Indians as a 'resting place' for their deceased. Judd handed Lewis a shovel and instructed him to start digging and then place the cat's body in the hole and seal it up. Lewis attempts to hide his confusion, altogether unsure of why the old man had him doing such a thing. His confusion subsided into shock and terror the next day when Ellie's "dead" cat greets him with a mouthful of glistening white teeth. |
| Lewis heads once again to Judd, desperate to know why the cat
he buried just the other day was now back from the grave, and meaner than ever. Judd
explained to him the nature of the place where they had buried the cat. Evidently, the
Indians had used the place to "bring back" those who had died. However,
somewhere along the lines, the ground had turned "sour", thus turning everything
buried there into a virtual monster. Judd explained to Lewis that he knew taking him up
there was probably wrong, but that he didn't want young Ellie to have to learn about death
in such a way. So he let him in on the secret powers of the cemetery. Lewis' fascination with the place never ceased, so when the time came once again to call upon the land's power, Lewis was drawn to it once again. Only this time, the consequences would prove to be far more dire. |
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Pet Sematary, like most successful films, spawned a sequel which starred Terminator 2: Judgement Day poster-boy Edward Furlong, but in my opinion (and I'm sure most of you will agree with me) this second installment didn't even come close to matching the suspense and intrigue of it's predecessor. From what I saw, Pet Sematary 2 had a lot more blood and gore, but a lot less of the mystique and...well, (at the risk of sounding foolish) ambiance. Obviously, I commend the original film wholeheartedly, however, as it creates in the viewer a sense of impending doom, and it does it without a lot of eye catching, yet useless and overbearing special effects. Really great makeup effects here, though.
In all, I have to say that this film really lives up to Steven King's ability as a novelist. A lot of his stories end up sucking ass hardcore once they're lamented on the silver screen, but Pet Sematary was classy all the way.
** NOTE: Be sure to look for Gunnar Hansen (yup, you guessed it: Leatherface!) as the young man who was buried in the Pet Sematary in Judd's story to Lewis**
P E T S E M A T A R Y I M A G E G A L L E R Y
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