Review of Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary is one of those movies on the cusp of greatness, where if you made a few changes it would surely be considered a classic along with the likes of Carrie and The Shining. The general story is terrific and chock full of potential, a once happy family suffers a tragedy that drives the husband to insanity and he turns to the sinister pet "sematary" behind their property. The issues this movie has are far more fixable. First things first, get rid of Dale Midkiff. His performance in the first half is stiff and stilted that gives way to a schlocky portrayal of insanity in the second half. Had this film been better cast, the emotional weight it was hoping for would have been much more achievable. Next, take out the attempts for over-the-top gross-out horror. Thankfully there isn't much, but you'll still see two or three scenes. It works the first few times when you just get sudden glimpses of a mangled corpse or a deformed, sickly body, but much of the last half is full of long, uncut shots of late 80s horror effects which are highly subpar and kill any legitimate terror. Finally, tighten up the dialogue here and there and remove one or two on-the-nose scenes (I'm looking at you askew picture frames during a dream sequence), and you have yourself a great film. Generally speaking, I quite enjoy the first half of this movie. It builds suspense quite well, uses jump scares rather effectively and not at all cheaply, and expertly establishes a creepy and unsettling premise. Then the second half craps the bed, but at least in an entertaining way. Midkiff's laughable performance along with the cheesy effects as I mentioned, make the climax incredibly stupid but still fun nonetheless. If you can forgive this movie for all of it's dumb and dated moments then you can get something really special out of the scenes it does right. The design of the pet sematary, Fred Gwynne's iconic performance, and some truly great scares all hold up to this day. In another timeline, this movie could be a classic, and I only wish more people in this timeline would see it.