What happens to a pet when they pass away? It's a unique question, and while people have been wondering about the afterlife (or debating what they believe happens) for decades, Stephen King posed the question of whether cats and dogs can come back to life in his 1983 novel Pet Sematary. The 1989 movie was just as good as the book, something that hasn't always been the case with adaptations of King's words.
There seems to be one glaring issue with the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary, and while it was a fun experience to revisit this scary story, horror fans might not be very scared when watching this updated version.
The Pet Sematary movie from 1989 is terrifying but the 2019 film is one of the worst horror movie remakes. The movie makes one big mistake: the film is a paint-by-numbers remake that doesn't steer too far from the original story. This begs the question of why a second movie was made when the first one can be considered a fairly perfect horror movie.
The 2019 Pet Sematary has the same plot and characters as the original. This time, Jeté Laurence plays Ellie Creed, who moves to a new house with her parents Louis (Jason Clarke) and Rachel (Amy Seimetz). Ellie has a cat, Church, who she loves. While in the '80s movie, Louis and Rachel's little son Gage dies and comes back to life, this time it's Ellie who is killed and then resurrected. However, this is a small thing, and besides this change, the movies feel pretty identical.
It would have been better to give the characters new names, backstories, and hopes and dreams, while keeping the fact that the family loses a pet and a child and then sees them come back to life but this time, they're completely evil and horrifying. Instead, it feels like the movie is a carbon copy of the other one, and fans of the original are left hoping for something that they could really get invested in. There are a few underrated Stephen King movies, but this one isn't as good as some of the others. The movie's horror elements feel generic: a creepy house, some woods behind the home, and an unsettling child who becomes evil after dying and coming back to life. While these things felt unique and new in the 1989 movie, now they just feel part of the typical horror movie landscape.
Other movies based on Stephen King books have made some creative choices, like splitting IT into two movies. It would have been cool to see how different and unique a new Pet Sematary could be. While the heart of the story would remain the same, filmmakers could make some new decisions that take this story into the contemporary world instead of making a film that feels very similar to the first one.
While John Lightgow is incredible as Jud, the other performances aren't as gripping, and it feels like more could have been done to make the second movie feel like a frightening experience. Stephen King is famous for crafting characters who are fully formed, along with situations that seem impossible yet are somehow still realistic despite how magical and supernatural and strange they are. King's fans are often confused by how his stories don't often translate to the big screen and why some of his movie adaptations aren't as good as the books that came before them.
Fans of the perfect Stephen King adaptation Misery know that this movie adapts the story of a wild fan kidnapping a favorite author really well. Misery has solid characters and a chilling concept that really could happen. While Pet Sematary definitely doesn't feel like it could really take place, there's something about the original film that feels genuine and realistic anyway. The Creed family experiences real emotions that audiences can understand and empathize with.
Stephen King's inspiration for his Pet Sematary novel comes from some things that really took place. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, King shared that he and his family began living in Orrington and there was a pet sematary behind the house. He said that his daughter's cat passed away and "we buried it in the pet cemetery. That was Smucky." King wrote the screenplay for the 1989 movie, which could be why the movie feels superior to the newer one. King also said, "Everything in the book up to the point of the supernatural stuff is true," which explains why there is such heart and emotion in this story.
The 2019 remake doesn't give audiences much to talk about, and after turning the movie off, Stephen King fans will likely wish that the next movie adaptation of his amazing novels will work out much better.