Halloween Countdown 2018 – Day 3 Pet Sematary (1989)

Greetings my Undead Movie Geeks!

Last year I kicked off my Horror intake by reading Stephen King’s novel IT, followed by watching the 2017 remake. I actually then went through a whole series of King books during and past last year’s Halloween Countdown. These included The Dark Tower Series, The Shining, The Stand and Insomnia to name a few. I’m currently reading American Gods but that’s a different author!

Pet Semetary

Now, I could say that I saw Pet Semetary on the Planner and thought ‘good a Stephen King film’. But I didn’t. This one is Mrs Movie Geek’s choice. I hadn’t seen this but am looking forward to it. She’s the big reader of the family and has read most of King’s work.

Released in 1989, it’s an interesting film as it’s quite dated, and in parts a little cheesy. At the same time, it’s completely watchable and very enjoyable. In parts, it is quite scary, especially the make-up of the sister.

But it also raises the question:
How far would you go if a loved one died, and you knew a way to bring them back?

There’s always an Indian Burial Ground somewhere and here it’s located behind the Pet Semetary. Herman Munster explains that it has powers over the dead, but warns the dead shouldn’t come back.

Having not seen, or read the book (yet) I can see its influences and how it has influenced media. From its beginnings in Frankenstein to a character in American Gods, the concept has been used for a long time. It’s a great concept, with this film not really relying on it too much. There are hints to it, using flashbacks to when the ‘Semetary’ was used before. But for this story, everything is left for the final act.

There’s a lot of build-up, and a few story threads that don’t really go anywhere. For example, there is a cleaner who is poorly, she kills herself and then is forgotten. But these could be just to emphasise how individuals treat death.

Thanks

I won’t go into any more detail. But I will urge you all to watch or read Pet Semetary if you haven’t. You can watch our review here, and check out the other articles in our 31 Days of Horror.

As always, thanks for watching and reading, and don’t forget to comment in below and Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Remember, don’t hang your feet off the bed, or you may get woken by something tickling your toes.