ranked #4 out of 11 movies	rated 4.18 out of 5	total 33 votes

Pet Sematary

Sometimes dead is better. (Jud Crandall)

Year: 1989
Director: Mary Lambert
Screenplay: Stephen King
Actors: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby, …
Runtime: 103 min


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Summary of Pet Sematary film plot

The family Creed moves into their new home in a small village. Everything seems to be perfect, except for two things: huge trucks roar past the road next to the house and close by is a mysterious pet cemetary.

The Creeds feel from the first day that this pet sematary, which was a burial ground for native Indians a long time ago, is creepy. Only their neighbor Jud Crandall knows the secret of the place: if you bury someone there, he comes back to life.

But noone is the same when they come back. Crandall knows: Sometimes dead is better.

Main differences between film and book - Pet Sematary

• Louis’ troubled relationship and his grief upon his son’s dead is very shortend in the film.
• The repeated line from the book about “Oz the Great and Terrible” doesn’t occur in the movie.

What TheDarkKing thinks about the Pet Sematary movie

This Stephen King adaptation of his novel Pet Sematary won’t disappoint you! Of course there are some things you could pick on, but the film is quite loyal to the book.

A lot of the horror movies in the 80s were full of mindless violence without a real story behind, they made you jump and maybe scream, but they were nothing really special. Pet Sematary is different, it’s a first class horror movie, it horrifies, frightens and saddens you - all at the same time. It gets to you and touches you deeply, because it shows us the greatest fear we all have - the fear of death - and respectively the fear that someone we love dies. What would we do if someone tells us we can bring our loved ones back? Would we be willing to pay the price?

This great gripping story is brought to live by good actors and by a good director. Especially Dale Midkiff is very believable as caring and then grieving father.

The movie also features many make up effects that make the movie even more frightening and creepy.

The scariest scenes were with two supporting acts - the ghost Victor Pascow, I needed quite some time to understand that Victor is a “good” ghost, and Zelda. Zelda is Rachel Creed’s sister who died years ago, but Rachel is still haunted by her. Zelda appears only a few times in the film, but she scares the hell out of you. Only the returned cat lacks a bit of scariness.

Pet Sematary is a first class horror movie with its script following quite close Stephen King’s brilliant novel, with good acting and scary make up (considering it’s the 80s).

If you’re now interested in watching the movie or reading the book, click on the following link to buy the DVD “Pet Sematary” or the book “Pet Sematary” at amazon.com!