With Pet Sematary 2019 I was bracing for a bad movie because I enjoy the original so much, although much of that is nostalgia. Even though I was guarded, Pet Sematary proved itself to be a stellar remake that I would venture to say was better than the original.



This remake used the first movie as a foundation to build a
familiar but different enough movie that had lots of call backs, and was, in many ways, a response to the original.







Skip to Intro - 0:25Skip to Trailer - 7:44Skip to Synopsis - 10:07Skip to Review - 16:28Skip to Score - 17:04Skip to Spoilers - 22:00Skip to The Rotten Tomatoes Game - 1:12:03Skip to Outro - 1:20:57







Pet Sematary (2019) Synopsis



Pet Sematary tells the story of the young Creed family. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) is a doctor moving to the small town of Ludlow, Maine with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and his two children Ellie and Gage. After following a procession of spooky children through the forest, Ellie meets the kindly old man Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) who is their neighbor. Jud warns Ellie and her mother against the Pet Sematary



The crux of the plot, however, relies on what lay beyond
yonder Pet Sematary. A Mic Mac Indian burial ground holds the secret to
resurrection.




https://youtu.be/zK0LNzU2TQI
The 2nd Pet Sematary 2019 Trailer



After the loss of a family cat “Church” Jud takes Louis to the Indian burial ground which has the
unique feature where whatever is buried
there will come back to life while the
feline resurrection saves Elle the grief of losing her favorite cat. The
knowledge of a power to restore life is a Pandora’s box that only results in
misery for the Creed family.



Pet Sematary (2019) Review



This movie surprised me in a lot of welcome ways. It was
similar enough to the original that it felt like you knew what was coming,
which would be boring. The great part of this remake, it twisted and moved
around your expectations to surprise and titillate. There were moments where
you were sure you knew what was going to happen, the setup was there, and then
nothing - a deep breath. Other places where You expected A and got Q - who
expects Q? 



Pet Sematary (2019) Score



8/10











Pet Sematary (2019)Pre-order this movie for your collectionBuy on Amazon





Pet Sematary (2019) Spoilers



If you want the bare bones of how Pet Sematary spoilers play out, I would suggest listening to the episode of HMT right before this one, where we talk about the original Pet Sematary from 1989. The spoilers section on the remake is mostly going to be talking about how the remake differs from the original, things that it did well, and where it could have been better.




https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/04/03/pet-sematary-1989-review/




They Fundamentally Changed Jud



Pet Sematary begins with Ellie finding the pet sematary because she saw a procession of children walking on her property down the path. In the original movie, Jud brings the family to the cemetery, which kicks off the whole downward spiral. This is relevant because it shifts a bit of the blame from kind, old Jud, to no one in particular.



This is kind of like, “Han shot first” in Star Wars. In the original cut, Han shoots Greedo in Mos Eisley, implying that he is a bad man, a murderer. In the late 90’s re-release, they changed it, so Greedo shot and missed Han, implying Han was a good guy all along. This is a fundamental character shift, and while it’s not as weighty in the Pet Sematary remake, I think it’s at least relevant.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKxOEUhRMt0
A great side-by-side comparison of the Han shot first debacle.



Jud takes to Ellie and begins to form a relationship with her, the kind, old man has a soft heart for the little girl next door - it’s sweet. John Lithgow does the role of Jud proud, which means that I have to eat my words from our review of the original Pet Sematary.



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