Pet Sematary Two Reviews

I avoided this movie forever for a variety of reasons and that's a real shame. I now believe this sequel was very unfairly maligned by critics and audiences alike. Pet Sematary Two got more of what made the book great right than the horribly truncated (and terribly acted) original despite not being a direct adaptation of anything in King's oeuvre. To discuss this movie I must first briefly talk about its predecessor.

Admittedly, upon revisiting the original Pet Sematary after so many years and without my nostalgia and childhood glasses on....it wasn't a good adaptation in the least. It's major issue is that its leads are HORRIBLE actors (a downside that is thankfully countered by the magnificent Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall) but it also suffers from the mystifying exclusion of elements that were of great importance in the novel. Upon further research, I found out that the studio made the director cut out large and significant portions of the film...and it shows.

As a result, he movie glosses over what made the book most unsettling by abbreviating the nature of loss and removing the idea of the passage of time while simultaneously neutering the Wendigo entity to a relatively weak (almost non-existent) threat or presence. While there are moments where the discomfort of death are felt (Gage's death, Zelda inserts) a lot of the baggage and emotional turmoil that ensues is completely thrown out the window in favor of getting to the third act. The most unsettling, psychologically horrifying aspects of the novel are never addressed appropriately. The forced cuts are even glaringly visible. A good example is when the Creed couple disagrees ever so briefly at the beginning only to be awkwardly cut away and avoided (this scene is pivotal to character development in the book).

Then came Part Two. What i immediately noticed was that it portrayed the influence and desires of the malicious entity exceptionally. We finally get a sound feeling for the Wendigo's range of influence, it's maddening driving force, and it's trickery. Also incredibly satisfying, the move integrated elements of King that are almost revered tropes by now i.e. a small town with a big secret, distinct storylines following different characters that sometimes feel like they just revel in character building before converging, the growing influence of evil over the characters, differing points of view between children and adults, etc. And while, it doesn't linger on the more lamentable aspects of death like the book it does touch upon the varying effects it has on several people and, more interestingly, on what thought the possibility of resurrection might spur.

Directed by the same person that brought us the first one, part two made me desperately hope that one day they will release the full uncut version of the first that would surely do much to reintegrate the pivotal elements of the novel that it so woefully skipped over or left on the cutting room floor.

In the meantime, Pet Sematary Two is a VERY worthy sequel to the events of the book; following the rules of it's universe, using the confines of it's settings, revisiting themes while not retreading plot structure to a fault as most sequels tend to do, and so on. It not only does justice to what was previously established and expounds on it but does so by taking storytelling and structure risks that were a bit unheard of at the time for a mainstream studio picture.

I'd also like to think that despite King removing his name from the ads to this movie (probably because he disliked how much of his script was left out of the first version) that he later took inspiration for Collie Entragian in Desperation from Clancy Brown's awesome portrayal of Gus.

If you grew up in the 90s, you probably remember this. Clancy Brown was amazing as the creepy zombie cop "Gus Gilbert". The soundtrack (Jan King, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Dramarama) also captured the early 90s well. While not as scary as the first Pet Sematary, this one is probably gorier. And funnier. If you like cheesy horrors, definitely check this out.

Ouch. Not the followup Edward Furlong had envisioned after breaking waves in T2. This one is bad. Picture a zombie version of Cujo.