A solid reanimation of a Stephen King classic.

At its best, horror is a simple beast. It’s a genre that works from the gut and while brains are of course needed to make it really tick, a good horror operates on a distinctly primal level.

Beneath it all, the genre clicks when it keeps things simple and the same applies to Stephen King films. Going all the way back to Carrie, the very best adaptations of his work come from a fundamental understanding of their visceral simplicities and require a desire to play to these strengths. 

King knows how to scare. He’s made a ton of cash from it. But, more than that, he knows precisely what terror buttons to push in all of us. While his books can often come laden with subtext and subtle complexities, almost all of them can be boiled down to a single killer concept that works directly to our biggest fears and if a film adaptation can tap into this without overloading things, you have something potent on your hands.

The list of Stephen King adaptations across both TV and film is far too long for a mere mortal to truly comprehend and the end product has often been pretty hit and miss (to put it kindly), yet there’s been a real upswing in quality of late. There are still duds of course (looking your way The Dark Tower), but the overall improvement has been marked, thanks largely to the talent hired having a clear understanding of what makes a King story tick and the drive to make it succeed. 

It nailed it in 2017 by digging down into the dark heart of King’s beloved novel and here we are two years later with an adaptation of a book that’s no less iconic, although perhaps slightly more obscure. But does Pet Sematary have what it takes to breathe new life into Stephen King’s material? Or has it been left for dead?

In a bid to escape the stresses of their Boston life, Dr Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) and his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) relocate to rural Maine with their two young children. Once there, the couple are welcomed by grizzled new neighbor, Jud (John Lithgow), and introduced to the mysterious ‘Pet Sematary’ hidden deep in the woods. When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to Jud for help, but as the true resurrecting powers of the ancient burial ground come to light, it sets off a perilous chain of events that unleashes an incomprehensible evil on the entire family.

While beloved in many circles, there’s something about the original Pet Sematary that never quite got a handle on the source material. Although effective in it’s terrifying imagery and proficient in its scares, the adaptation failed to get to the heart of Stephen King’s book. It’s certainly one of the better King adaptations out there, yet when you consider some of the dross we’ve had over the years, that’s probably not saying much.

The absolute bare minimum you can ask for from a remake is that it’s an improvement on its predecessor and, while that’s far from the case with many efforts out there, it’s a relief to see that there’s some solid, if not spectacular, progress made here. It’s nothing mind-blowing, yet the incremental improvements are just enough to feel some form of satisfaction.

Unfussy and uncomplicated, Pet Sematary is a tightly-packed, efficient horror that knows precisely what it’s doing and how to go about it effectively. In the tradition of the better Stephen King adaptations, its scares know just how to get to you, as they lurk in the shadows, ready and willing to attack your deepest, darkest fears. 

Crucially, the film spends a decent amount of time on building both character and emotional stakes. It’s one of the most important aspects of any good horror, yet so often sidelined to make way for blood, guts, and cheap scares; however, Pet Sematary shows willing to put in the groundwork on the Creed family, their motivations, and the root of their fears before really digging into the horror. 

As things unfurl, the film actually grows into a succinct and poignant meditation on death and grief, as it becomes impossible to ignore the tragic power of what the parents have to go through and the lengths they’ll go to avoid facing the bleakest of truths. It’s a real sucker punch of emotion that threads itself through the entire film which, even in its silliest moments, allows Pet Sematary to resonate deeper than one might expect.

As one might expect, jump-scares are Pet Sematary’s preferred form of currency. It appears to be a widely accepted element to even the best modern horrors and we’re there once again as Pet Sematary turns to the formula at almost every turn. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a good old jump-scare, so long as they’re used correctly and, while Pet Sematary’s are as predictable as hell, they’re generally well-earned.

If you like your horror with a bit of adventure, however, you might want to look elsewhere. While the film spices things up a tad by making some interesting narrative deviations from the novel, there’s very little about Pet Sematary that pushes the boat out. Yet, in many ways, this simplicity has its appeal and in keeping it uncomplicated and clutter free, the film can double-down on getting its fundamentals right. 

Creepy undead animals and murderous demon children have always been a bit of a mainstay in the horror genre and with good reason – they’re goddamn terrifying. These are also Stephen King in his absolute element and this revamped version of Pet Sematary honours this by bleeding both nightmarish images for all they’re worth.

Inevitably, all of this gives off an overwhelming air of predictability, as Pet Sematary leans heavily on tired horror tropes and clichés that do little to move the needle. Of course, we’re working off of 35-years-old material here, so this was always likely but, while there’s a certain cosiness in the film’s old-fashioned, straight-shooting approach, its undeniably underwhelming as a whole. 

Myopic in its focus, Pet Sematary’s story is lean and gets where it needs to go with minimal fuss. With emphasis entirely on the Creed family and neighbour Jud, the film cranks up the heat from the word go and refuses to let up once things really start cooking.

Because of the singular focus, Pet Sematary desperately needed to give us reason to care about our central family and, thankfully, we’re just about on safe ground. While the script does labour on certain characters and their actions at times (some of which fall squarely into the “what the hell are you thinking?” bracket of horror screenwriting), they are largely sympathetic and well-rounded for the most part. 

Obviously, it helps hugely if you have a good cast behind you and for all the writings faults, everyone on show gives everything they’ve got to make the film work. Although compact, Pet Sematary’s cast all put in solid performances, with Jason Clarke leading the line well as a father stricken with grief and at the end of his emotional tether, backed up sturdily with solid shifts from Amy Seimetz and John Lithgow, as well a suitably unnerving dual performance by young Jeté Laurence.

Low key but effective, the film’s style certainly has its moments, including many genuinely wince-inducing set pieces, however, there’s really nothing on display to write home about. The image of Church the demonic cat will definitely live long in the memory, as will the gang of creepy kids in animal masks marching through the woods, and the rather terrifying Zelda moments, yet these are few and far between, as directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer trade heavily on by-the-numbers horror imagery.

Although relative directing rookies, Kölsch and Widmyer clearly know their way around a scare with a number of horror projects already in their back pocket, as they pull off a solid, if unspectacular, job here. Despite a shaky final act as the plot struggles to hold itself together, the directors manage to tell a well-paced, solidly balanced horror story that gets the job done in effective, efficient, and – most importantly – horrifying fashion.

It’s rare to find a remake that manages to outdo its predecessor and, despite a number of shaky moments, Pet Sematary is a solid improvement on the original. Now, whether you consider it much of an achievement to improve on an original that hasn’t quite stood the test of time, is up for debate. What Pet Sematary does do, however, is understand its source material and uses this to lay down a sturdy, frequently creepy entry into the Stephen King movie cannon. While it won’t win any awards for originality and falls well below the high standards set by the modern horror boom, there’s a lot to admire in Pet Sematary’s straight-shooting, old-fashioned approach which, in true Stephen King tradition, understands where your fears are buried and knows exactly how to go about digging them up.