We continue our 31 days of frights with Pet Sematary from 1989. Doctor Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) moves his family to Maine, where he meets a friendly local named Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne). After the Creeds’ cat is accidentally killed, Crandall advises Louis to bury it in the ground near the old pet cemetery. The cat returns to life, its personality changed for the worse. When Louis’ son, Gage (Miko Hughes), dies tragically, Louis decides to bury the boy’s body in the same ground despite the warnings of Crandall and Louis’ visions of a deceased patient.
The Story
Horror is a genre that people love. Despite the definition, people get their friends together and watch these movies because they are fun and exciting. Sometimes a horror movie isn’t fun, though. Sometimes it can be dark and bleak and make you feel like you need to hug your pillow at night. Pet Sematary is that movie.
The thought of losing a child is terrifying, and this movie doesn’t pull any punches. The family in this movie is a good family. They love each other, work hard, and we don’t want to see anything happen to them. Once their neighbor Jud introduces Louis to the Pet Sematary, all their luck goes downhill.
The movie bleeds atmosphere. We constantly feel dread but cannot look away. There are no jump scares here. The movie relies on its story, which is strong. The concept in itself is scary enough. After losing their baby, Louis decides to bury him to see if he will come back to life. As the audience, we know this is wrong and stupid to do. But what if we were in the same situation? Would we do anything to bring back a loved one? Would they come back the same?
Characters
Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed is very relatable, and he does a good job at losing his mind little by little after the death of his son. Fred Gwynne plays Jud, the old neighbor. He has a great warmth to him as he is well-meaning, while making terrible decisions.
Andrew Hubatsek plays Zelda, the deceased sister of the mom, Rachel. Zelda is one of the scariest things about the movie. Rachel tells a story about how she had to care for her sister as a kid, and the visuals here are the stuff of nightmares.
The best actor in this entire movie, though, has to be Miko Hughes as Gage. Being this young can not be easy for a director to work with, but some of the things that Miko does in this movie are unbelievable. I still wonder how they were able to get the performance they did from a baby.
Definitely check this one out if you haven’t. Pet Sematary is chilling to this day and a must-watch for fans of Stephen King, who wrote the book, or just horror fans all around.
Pet Sematary is currently available to watch on Paramount+
Come back tomorrow for more spooky reviews.
