Pet Sematary (2019)

[Andrew NDB]

Looks like the kid that gets killed has been gender-swapped?

http://www.darkhorizons.com/clarke-t...matary-change/

[Allio]

trying to start ****?

Plus the child himself really doesn't mean much in terms of gendered. It is just a child that is lost so that the parent commits the sin of bringing back the dead.

Honestly you can make the debate that a girl would be a better choice than a boy as we do go with the Girls=Innocence cliche so with her death would be the death of innocence.

also scary little girls are the best in horror movies.

No I will not rephrase that better.

[Leo656]

They mentioned this several weeks ago already.

The claim is that by using the older child, who has a greater awareness and understanding of "death", they can in turn be even scarier and more horrific when they come back "wrong".

I kinda get it. Could be alright, I'unno. Mixed feelings about this movie because I actually thought the first one was fine, although there's always room for improvement. Guess we'll see what happens. I'm not sure this is the thing that could make or break the movie as a whole. Other than this they're supposedly keeping it more to the novel, so that's good.

[Andrew NDB]

I just found it worth noting.

I'm not sure about this movie. It doesn't seem to be trying to be different enough from the original to justify itself as a remake. Couldn't it just have been a new family but with different sh** going on, by the same pet cemetery? Like, a better Pet Sematary 2?

[Leo656]

I'unno, that might be equally redundant from a different direction. I don't quite feel like "Pet Sematary" has enough going on for a "universe" of different stories; even 2 was essentially a rehash of 1. Like, how many stories are there? Someone dies, someone else buries 'em in the Bad Place, they come back a zombie. By the end of the first film, it was already kind of overdone and ridiculous after seeing the EXACT same thing happen 5 or 6 times. And ultimately, nobody learned anything. Which is objectively kind of dumb.

I'unno man. Generally not big on remakes and I think I liked the original film more than most people do, but I did feel there was room for improvement and so I'm okay with this.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'unno, that might be equally redundant from a different direction. I don't quite feel like "Pet Sematary" has enough going on for a "universe" of different stories; even 2 was essentially a rehash of 1. Like, how many stories are there? Someone dies, someone else buries 'em in the Bad Place, they come back a zombie. By the end of the first film, it was already kind of overdone and ridiculous after seeing the EXACT same thing happen 5 or 6 times. And ultimately, nobody learned anything. Which is objectively kind of dumb.

Well, like a whole different spin. Like, off the top of my head... there's some kind of cult that has sprung up there, and now they go door to door snatching people up, killing them and burying them in the Pet Cemetery. Like, random people are returning home, returning to work changed.

[Leo656]

Could be interesting, could be a cheap way to backdoor an ongoing franchise. Like "How to book a Slow-Burn Zombie Apocalypse", since there really can't be any "Endgame" that isn't just "Lots of zombies", eventually.

And this really shouldn't be a franchise. AND I'm kinda sick of zombies.

One thing that seems different is that they do show a "cult" of Paganistic kids burying their pets at one point, wearing animal masks and such. So that's new. Not quite what you're describing but sprinkles of it. They also supposedly go into the "Wendigo" that lurks in the woods. So there's some new-ish stuff there.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Leo656

One thing that seems different is that they do show a "cult" of Paganistic kids burying their pets at one point, wearing animal masks and such.

That smacks of a prologue kind of stuff, or a flashback.

[Leo656]

Very likely, but it wasn't touched on to that degree in the original, so it counts as "New-ish" material.

[AT-Man]

I think the original Pet Sematary might be the scariest western horror film I've seen, so I don't have high hopes this will be as creepy.


Here's a crazy idea: what if they're planning for a Stephen King cinematic universe? IT was a hit and if this one does well, they'll remake more of King's movies. I'm hoping for Silver Bullet next.

[Leo656]

Plausible, I guess. King established that his writing is all one giant "shared universe" long before it became a trend. It would feel like cashing-in since everyone else does it now, but he technically did it first so if they decide to take things in that direction, they're not incorrect to do so.

It would just annoy most people, who not knowing the history would just whine about "Great, ANOTHER shared universe." So hearing the whinging and the whining of the ignorant would be tiresome, but it wouldn't be out of bounds for them to attempt it.

[Leo656]

Some early reviews are coming out.

I haven't seen anything Spoiler-y, but most of the reviews say that it improves upon the original in almost every way, but that the third act is a bit of a mess and the ending is a total misfire.

It also says that it's more of a "dark comedy" than a horror film, especially in flashback scenes dealing with the wife's sick/dying sister. Hmm.

Apparently there are lots of inside references to King's other work, which come off as either silly or cute depending on where you stand.

Reviews are good, but... weird. They give it altogether high marks but some of the stuff as-described sounds iffy. I'm still planning to see it, but I'll need to see more before I decide to see it in theaters or wait for the disc.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Plausible, I guess. King established that his writing is all one giant "shared universe" long before it became a trend.

I thought that was just surrounding his "Castle Rock" stuff. Which I think I remember he... ended at some point. Largely.

[Leo656]

Nah, I think that with the "Dark Tower" he eventually revealed that it's all connected, although I confess I've only read about the series and not actually read the series itself, since each book has about as many pages as the King James Bible.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

We saw this over the weekend, and it was very good! Creepier than the original, and there was enough different to make it a nice surprise. The daughter was a much more frightening choice than the youngee sibling, in part because she "knew" what had happened to her, and was more directly vengeful and malignant. Not to mention tragic, given how it happened. (The scene where she dies is far worse.) Loved the ending, which was actually a bit more shocking and twisted than the original.

As for hints of a shared universe, that was established long ago in the books, since Pet Semetary takes place in Derry, just like It, Cujo, and several others, and is not far from Castle Rock as well. There was very little of that brought into the movie, though, beyond the brief nods to the fact that yes, this is THAT Derry.

[Andrew NDB]

I saw it over the weekend. Good enough. I enjoyed it. Now, I don't know that it is different enough from the 1989 movie to really *justify* itself... but it's different enough to feel like you're not watching a scene-for-scene remake if you've seen the old one. The gore was toned down in some places, yet amped up in others. I think I liked the look of the *actual* pet cemetery (not the fake one as you walk in) better in the original... it felt more spiritual and not as claustrophobic. Great child actors, especially the daughter.

I have no idea which movie is more faithful to the book. This one had a lot more going on with subplots, so I suspect this one is.

Spoiler:

Wow, what an ending. Way darker than the original's, and that was already pretty dark. Whole family gets zombied.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

The original was closer to the book, particularly the ending, but I liked the changes made in this version. Made a bit more sense, and made the deaths more tragic and darker. Also, don't know where anyone got the idea that the scenes showing the backstory of the mother's dead sister were in any way comedic- it was actually very disturbing and twisted.