Pet Sematary
A horror film that deftly straddles the line between cheese and fright, Mary Lambert’s adaptation of Stephen King’s book and screenplay certainly has some highs, but some lows as well, especially when Church The Cat seems to be carrying the film most of the way. Dale Midkiff in the lead role of Dr. Louis Creed is passable at best, not really derailing the film but not giving anything award-worthy as well, doing just barely enough to keep us invested in his character; Denise Crosby as his wife Rachel is the same, even as she lacks the appeal or charisma to make us care about her dead sister subplot (though the added touch of having the sister played by a male actor certainly adds to the creep factor); Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandell gets some moderately good acting moments, and his final scene is perhaps the most shocking and enjoyable; Brad Greenquist’s dead jogger comes off as mostly superfluous, since whatever his character was trying to avert comes off as an EPIC FAIL, and the film could probably have been better off without his character at all, particularly with the direction they take him (if he could appear to Louis seemingly at will, why didn’t he focus on doing that to stop him instead of subliminally haunting his wife halfway across the country instead?). Indeed, the biggest flaw is seemingly unfinished plot points left hanging that were probably better explained in the book, like how the jogger knew Louis’ name BEFORE he died. The only solutions would be to make the film longer to expand on these points, or trim things down a bit to make the movie tighter. As a result, much of the middle portion of the film (right around Gage’s death) seem to suffer from a lull in pacing, save for the unintentionally hilarious brawl at the funeral. However, the film’s big redemption comes in the last 20 minutes, with Gage’s resurrection in the cemetery and his subsequent twisted killing spree. How little Miko Hughes, who was only three years old at the time of filming, was coaxed into giving such a creepy and compelling performance, is certainly a testament to Lambert’s ability to work with and coach such a young actor, and the cool end credits title song by The Ramones is like the cherry on top. In the end, a solid horror flick with a great payoff, even if it seems to take forever to get there…
7/10