October 20th, 2010 - Pet Semetary

Oof, it's rather late, so apologies for the short review. I refuse to miss even one day! Luckily, I don't have a lot to say about Pet Semetary. It's one of those movies everyone raves about when they are a teenager, saying its the scariest things ever. I haven't heard that from too many adults though. Now I know why, it's pretty mediocre. That is, until the end credits, but I'll get to that later.

The Creeds are pretty normal family moving in to a great old house in the country. Behind the house is a pet cemetery, and behind that is an old Micmac burial ground with strange powers. In front of the house is a highway where large semis go by very quickly. The Creeds have a cat, and two small children. Bad things happen. That isn't to say interesting things happen though.

I was honestly pretty bored by the whole thing. I guessed most everything that was going to happen well before I was supposed to. The acting is pretty stiff, especially the children. The screenplay, by Stephen King, is alright, but tends to stay a bit too loyal to the book. King's novel often have all sorts of subplots and side stories and character backstories, which while sometimes fascinating to read, just detract from the movie.

There are also some weird decisions from a technical viewpoint. When one of the children die, they cut away to a bloody shoe rolling across the pavement. Which is all well and good, very effective. But then it cuts to the father falling and screaming and then overlays family photos over top of the shto with the scream lingering in the background. I get what they were going for, but it jsut felt awkward.

On to the good. It's an 80's movie. And like all good 80's movies it has an awesome theme song with the same name. In this case , by the Ramones. It's catchy, silly, cheesy and awesome. I actually sat through the entire end credits so I could listen to it. It's wicked.

All told, this is one classic horror movie that doesn't really deserve to be. That said though, it seems to scare the crap out of teenagers and little kids, which is always a good thing. Rent it for a little sibling, but for a vintage Stephen King adaptation, stick to The Shining.