Featured Blu-ray Review: Pet Sematary
March 25, 2019
Pet Sematary - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
For a while, the 1989 version of Pet Sematary was the highest grossing Stephen King film, in terms of raw dollars and not ticket sales. Is it also one of his best adaptations? Finally, is the Blu-ray / 4K Ultra HD release worth the upgrade?
The plot summary is going to be really short, because I’ve previously reviewed this movie when it first came out on Blu-ray. I had completely forgotten that I reviewed this movie. That’s not a good sign.
The movie is about the Creed family, Louis and Rachel, who move into a secluded home in a mostly deserted road. The only traffic they get are trucks speeding by at what seems like highway speeds. It’s so dangerous and so many pets have been killed that there is a pet cemetery nearby. Or “Pet Sematary” as it is called on the sign. There is also some land behind the cemetery that Louis is warned not to go to. However, when the family cat is killed, their neighbor, Jud, tells Louis that if you bury a pet there it will come back to life. It works, but the cat comes back different. It’s meaner.
Since this is a Stephen King movie, you know the cat isn’t going to be the only member of the Creed family to die and be brought back.
I stand by my previous review. The film has mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and I’m on the low end of that scale. Most of the acting didn’t work for me, apart from Fred Gwynne, and since most of the characters are not very sympathetic, it makes it very hard to care about their fates. The direction and cinematography never elevates the material, so it is never tense enough to really scare audiences. There are some good horror moments, but not enough to sustain the film.
There are two new extras on the 4K / Blu-ray release, as well as four archival extras. The new extras include an eight-minute retrospective of this film, as well as a seven-minute look at the upcoming remake. The first of the archival extras is an audio commentary track with the director, Mary Lambert. There is also a trio of featurettes, the first on the writer, Stephen King, and how he got the idea for the novel. There is also a 13-minute look at the characters and a 10-minute making of featurette. 15 minutes of new featurettes (and some image galleries) isn’t many new extras, so it is only really worth the upgrade if you really want to see the movie in 4K. It did get a restoration for this release and even the plain Blu-ray does look better than it did seven years ago.
Pet Sematary is TV movie quality. The Blu-ray / 4K release has a couple of new featurettes, but the big selling point is the new restoration. Is that enough? Perhaps, if you are a big fan of the movie and were disappointed in the original Blu-ray’s video quality.
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Stephen King