Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Own it on DVD September 26, 2006
Director
Mary Lambert
Cast
Dale Midkiff……….Louis Creed
Fred Gwynne……….Jud Crandall
Denise Crosby……….Rachel Creed
Brad Greenquist……….Victor Pascow
Michael Lombard……….Irwin Goldman
Miko Hughes……….Gage Creed
Blaze Berdahl……….Ellie Creed
Susan Blommaert……….Missy Dandridge
Mara Clark……….Marcy Charlton
Kavi Raz……….Steve Masterton
Mary Louise Wilson……….Dory Goldman
Andrew Hubatsek……….Zelda
Liz Davies……….Girl at infirmary
Kara Dalke……….Candystriper
The Movie
There are some horror films that have stood the test of time and become classics; as the years have gone by they have aged gracefully despite the advancements in technology. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween are still horror classics despite technology advances that have made other films look dated and aged.
One of those films is Pet Sematary, based off the novel of the same name by Stephen King. Following a nuclear family just moved into a house in Maine, the film at the time was quite successful as it made almost $60 million at the box office domestically. It still ranks as one of the best grossing zombie films of all time, shockingly enough, but it’s interesting to watch it almost two decades after it came out as the shock and horror of the subject has left the film. In its place are some chuckles and some special effects sequences that are much more exposed than they used to be.
The film’s focus is the Creeds; Louis (Dale Midkiff) and Rachel (Denise Crosby) have moved to a new home with their two children, Gage (Miko Hughes) and Ellie (Blaze Berdahl). With a new neighbor who has seen it all, Jud (Fred Gwynne), the family is in the countryside atmosphere of rural Maine. With a cemetery devoted to the animals who have died on the main highway located conveniently behind their home, life is going well until the family cat is run over on the highway itself. Buried in the cemetery by the family the cat comes back to life after it dies, much to the joy of the family. Problems arise, however, when Gage gets run over by a semi and Louis does the same with his infant son. What he doesn’t realize about the cat, and eventually his child, is that the cemetery doesn’t bring back the deceased exactly as they used to be. They come back evil in a way they never were.
It’s a great concept, and in 1989 the sort of effects used didn’t look nearly as antiquated as they do now. The film also uses dolls as a stand-in for Gage on occasion and it looks much more fake now than it did then; it takes away so much from the film that it’s hard to take the proceedings seriously.
The Audio
Presented in a widescreen format, the film has a great transfer. Not showing the grain typical of some films from the late ’80s, it’s a great transfer.
The Video
Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format, the film sounds terrific. This newer edition has really been designed to take advantage of the advances in sound since the film’s initial theatrical release.
The Extras
Stephen King’s Pet Sematary: Stephen King Territory is a retrospective on how King came up with the ideas behind the book “Pet Sematary,” which would lead to this film adaptation of yet another one of his works. Using his experiences developed during a year spent teaching as a writer in residence at the University of Maine, King took many events from that year to sketch a rough outline of what he wanted to do with a story. Having written it, and had publishing delays for nearly five years, King wanted the film to be filmed in Maine and made this one of the sticking points of selling the rights to the book. Running around thirteen minutes, it’s an interesting look at the book that inspired the film.
Stephen King’s Pet Sematary: The Characters is a look at the characters of the film. Looking at the actors as well as their characters, this feature falls into EPK territory more often than not as everyone is “amazing” and “brilliant” more often than not but they combine archival footage of Fred Gwynne with recent interviews of principle members of the cast to give a couple interesting tidbits about how they saw the characters and how they wanted to bring them to life on the screen.
Stephen King’s Pet Sematary: Filming the Horror is a retrospective on how the film was shot. It’s around 10 minutes in running length and shows some of the little things about the film, like how some of the effects sequences were done.
Commentary by Director Mary Lambert
| InsidePulse’s Ratings for Pet Semetary: Special Collector’s Edition | |
The Inside Pulse
Some films age gracefully, never losing their sensibility for newer generations. Pet Sematary isn’t one of them, having lost its ability to scare and having it replaced with near self-parody. While the audio and video are great, and it does have some good extras, the film itself isn’t worth the purchase.
