"No brain, no pain...think about it."

-Gus Gilbert













Several years after the events of the first film, Jeff Matthews (Edward Furlong) witnesses the violent death of his mother, Renee (Darlanne Fluegel). His father, Chase (Anthony Edwards), takes him to live in Ludlow, Maine, which has a few dark secrets. Jeff befriends Drew Gilbert (Jason McGuire) whose dog dies soon after. Drew shows Jeff the Indian burial ground and buries his dog there. Soon enough, Drew's dog is back from the dead, but very different. But the boys have an even bigger problem in the form of Drew's stepdad, the town sheriff, Gus (Clancy Brown).









What Works:





Pet Sematary Two is an extremely strange movie and I'm still not totally sure how I felt about it. In the first half of the film, there are a couple of out-of-nowhere, bonkers moments. Most of them involve dreams of Renee with the head of a dog. These moments are completely insane, but pretty great. The second half of them proceeds to get crazier and crazier. I didn't love the first half of the film and wasn't super engaged in the story, but the second half reeled me right back in with the insanity. There are lots of words I could use to describe the second half of this film, but one of them is entertaining. Some of what I saw was beyond my comprehension, but I think I enjoyed it.





The true star of this film is Clancy Brown, who is a fantastic actor and brings it every time he is on screen. He is great as playing the abusive stepfather, but he kicks his performance into overdrive after he comes back from the dead. Zombie Gus is an amazing character and should be talked about more in the horror genre. Brown gives a balls-to-the-wall performance and is 1000% the best part of the film.





Finally, I did really like the opening sequence. The movie begins on the set of a horror movie and an accident on set is what causes Renee's death. It's different from anything else we see in either Pet Sematary movie and it's definitely a memorable way to kick the film off.









What Sucks:





I gotta say that the first half of the this film is very boring. For the most part, I just couldn't get into the story. Besides the opening sequence, the sprinkles of weird moments, and Clancy Brown, there is nothing in the first half that is very interesting.





Apart from Clancy Brown, I didn't like any of the characters either. Edward Furlong is our main character and is never very relatable. He just whines for most of the movie and goes kinda crazy by the end. Anthony Edwards simply isn't very interesting and the acting from the supporting characters just isn't very good.









Verdict:





For the first half of this movie, I was really not into it. Most of the characters suck and the story isn't very interesting. The second half goes off the rails with a fun performance from Clancy Brown and some really insane moments. I can't recommend this movie because the first half really sucks, but I can't say it's bad either because I did enjoy the second half.





5/10: Meh...



