It…wasn’t bad, but…..it wasn’t that great, either?

I liked the idea of changing to Ellie. You can get a better, more realistic performance out of an older kid. I liked how they did Church much better. In the original movie, he comes back evil right away. In the book, and in this movie, he’s meaner and something feels “wrong” about him, but he really doesn’t show his true colors until much later.

There’s a great fake-out with the road scene, and if you haven’t seen the trailer, you’ll appreciate it much more. But, because the trailer gives away which kid dies and comes back, it’s kind of moot.

There’s a lot of jumpscares. The truck in the beginning and the Church fake-out in Jud’s house are the only ones it should have had. The rest are really cheesy and annoying.

I feel like a lot was cut out of this movie. Even Ellie befriending Jud felt like a meetup and suddenly this standoffish old man loves her like she’s his own grandkid. He explains nothing to Louis about the burial ground, just picks up the trash bag with Church in it and heads for the deadfall, asking only if Ellie really loved the cat and if Louis would do anything for Ellie- and Louis just kinda….goes with it? Like, c’mon, the first movie had time to tell Louis about the burial ground before going there the first time. Even when Louis goes back for answers later, Jud dances around the subject. It’s not until Church attacks Gage that we get something of an explanation and it’s bare bones.

The burial ground makes everything evil. This is not supposed to be the case. The whole idea of the town being complacent with bringing their pets back was because they were okay when they came back, unlike the one case of a person. Jud tells the story of his dog and states that it tried to attack his mother, so his father put it down a second time. This isn’t right. Pets coming back “all right” is a major plot point. It puts the idea into Louis’ head that burying a child will be okay, because they’re too young to have been damaged mentally like Timothy had been. The Wendigo, however, does have presence, and we even see him, which was great!

Norma is mentioned in passing. This would have been okay, but, when Ellie and Church attack Jud, her face morphs into that of Norma’s and asks him “Do you remember what you did to me?” Hell if I know, lady- you were talked about for two sentences! I get the feeling Jud was meant to have tried to bring Norma back and had to kill her, but it was cut.

We never see all of Zelda up close. She is shown partially in all her close shots, and always at a distance for full body. We never really even see her full face! Rachel also inadvertently kills her because she doesn’t want to take her food up to her, and uses a malfunctioning dumbwaiter to send it up. Zelda falls down the shaft and dies in front of her. It completely ignores the whole point of Rachel’s fear and guilt about Zelda. She struggles with the feelings about her sister because she resented her, hated that she was left alone to take care of her, and when she did die, ran down the streets practically singing about it. Her nightmare/hallucination of being in her sister’s position was quite well done, though, I’ll give them that.

Finally, Louis does not kill his reanimated child. He does not lose his mind and bury Rachel, justifying it with whatever he can. THIS WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE STORY. Louis cannot handle his grief of losing those he loves. He realizes far too late that bringing back Gage was a mistake, and while he does “make it right”, he’s too late to do so, and repeats the process with Rachel. Ellie kills Rachel, and cracks Louis over the head with a chair. She buries Rachel, and when Louis wakes up, he goes to try and make right, but just before he can kill Ellie again, Rachel kills him. She and Ellie bury him. Gage, who was put in the car when Ellie attacked wakes up to see the three walking toward him. The screen cuts and the car is heard unlocking. As the car door is open in the opening scene (which takes place at the end of the story) we all know what happened.

The movie had it’s good spots. But they just don’t outweigh the ignoring of the point of the story. Pet Semetary isn’t a zombie/ghoul story. It’s a story about how we deal with grief and death. It’s a dark look at the idea of “just one more day”. This movie….is not that.