Wednesday, October 13, 2021

31 Days of Scary Movies: “Pet Semetery” (1989)

 Last night was—finally—time to watch a film from the King’s of horror body of work. I wanted to chose more films based on his fiction—IT? Part 1 or 2 or both?—but ultimately decided on 1989’s “Pet Semetery.”



The novel by Stephen King is honestly one of the scariest I have ever read. The subject matter in here is disturbing, and there is so much in here that is personally among the most disturbing a tale you could tell- the deaths of close family members, the loss of a pet—and the 1989 film version, directed by Mary Lambert, plays that up to great horror movie success. There is so much good in here, most notably Fred Gwyne as neighbor Jud Crandall. The cat, Church, is also so good, and even by modern standards, it is hard to tell when the cat is a real cat and when it is an animatronic.



It had been many years since I’ve seen this film—though I did see the 2019 film when it was released—and it struck me how solid the performances are all around. Dale Midkiff as the father, especially, does so much to sell this story. In the wrong hands—script and acting wise—and story like would be easy to become off putting to the point of stopping the film. But when the characters who are put through such misery and awful situations are as good and relatable as they are here, we force ourselves to stay along for the horrific ride with them, as they good into horror explored in such pieces as “Frankenstein” and countless zombie tales, but do so in a revolutionary, and more personal, way.

As a horror film, you can’t get scarier than “Pet Semetery.”



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