Pet Semetary (1989)

Jeez...they never learn do they? I mean, why would anyone think that raising the dead would ever result in anything positive? What I mean is this. They always come back either hungry to take a bite out of your flesh, steal your soul, or exhibit some other type of antisocial behavior. The recently returned almost never have anything positive to say, so why do the characters in these films always do what they do? Case in point: Stephen King's excellent novel turned into film back in 1989.

Doctor Louis Creed, along with his wife and two young children have moved into a new home in rural Maine. The area surrounding the home is filled with acres upon acres of forest, which houses a "pet semetary" where you bury your hamster when it dies, and deeper within, an ancient Indian burying ground that has the power to resurrect the dead. Soon the family cat gets killed in the road, is buried in the cursed cemetery, comes back to life, etc. As the film goes on, Louis will eventually progress from burying cats to his recently deceased son, with less than favorable results.

The main beef I had with this one is that, unlike in the book, you really don't sympathize with the Creed family. The actors just don't portray any type of real emotion, and I found myself not really giving a rat's ass about them. Fred Gwyne as old Jud Crandall, playing the character as if he stepped right out of the book, was the only one to give a believable performance. Positives to be found in terms of creepiness would have to be the character of Rachel's deceased sister Zelda. Damn that was one creepy looking chick. Imagine that thing popping out of your closet at two in the morning...brrrr. The scenes of the resurrected Gage stalking his prey were also pretty cool, and I really dug the kids voice, you know, the "now I wanna play with you" line. And if you don't flinch when Gage's razor meets Jud's Achilles tendon, you're either dead or have had way to many Coors for the night. "Pet Semetary" was not really to bad of a film, nothing like the book of course, but still a decent timewaster in it's own right. The sequel on the other hand, is a different story.