Directors: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer
Writers: Stephen King, Matt Greenberg
Stars: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow
Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2RxhbtN
Synopsis
We zoom in on a farmhouse with bloody handprints on the car windows and a trail of blood leading to the door.
We flash back to a happy family in the car, moving to their new home. They’re moving to the small town of Ludlow. We see that their new house is the house we just saw with all the blood. A semi truck zooms by out of nowhere, the first jump scare of the film.
Dr. Creed goes to work while his wife Rachel starts the job of unpacking with daughter, Elle, assisting. They hear drumming and see a parade of creepy children in animal masks pushing a dead dog in a wheelbarrow. Ellie runs off to follow the other children to the “Pet Sematary.” There’s a mountain of old dead wood behind it that Ellie starts to climb when she gets scared by an old man.
The old man is Jud, and he’s their neighbor. He looks a little nervous to be there, but otherwise, he’s not too upset about life in general. That evening, the two parents have to explain all about death to Ellie. Rachel then flashes back to her own terminally sick sister whom she had to care for as a child.
Next day at the clinic, the doctor is tired of treating mildly sick people when an emergency comes in. A guy got hit by a car and dragged underneath. His brain is hanging out, and the guy dies before the doctor really has a chance to do anything. A minute later, Dr. Creed sees the man sit up and say, “Louis. The barrier was not meant to be broken.”
Louis hears something outside in the trees at night. He has a dream where he hears the voice of the dead boy from earlier. This ghost wants to help the doctor. He warns him again not to go past the barrier. “The ground is sour!” he screams. When Creed wakes up, his feet are filthy.
The next day is Halloween, and Jud comes over. He shows Creed that the family cat has been run over by a truck. We get another flashback to Rachel’s deformed sister, who was killed in the dumb waiter. Rachel still feels guilty about not carrying the food up to her sister personally.
That evening, Creed and Jud go out and bury the cat. Creed sees the barrier for the first time. Jud suggests that there may be a better plan than just burying the dead cat and starts climbs over the barrier. They walk a long way through the misty forest and eventually come to an indian burial ground. They bury the cat, and Jud remains mysterious.
The next morning, Ellie says she saw the cat in her window last night. The cat is hiding in her closet, mostly alive now, but really stinky. Creed confronts Jud. Jud explains about the magical burial ground. Creed does some Internet research and finds that this has happened before many times. Ellie quickly notices that there’s something off about the cat.
Creed hears something strange in the basement, but it’s just a jump scare. Rachel hears something really big up on the roof. Then she goes into the bathroom for her jump scare. Next morning, Jud explains more about the history of the burial ground, and something about a wendigo. “Sometimes dead is better,” he explains. Creed dumps the cat out in the woods.
At Ellie’s 9th birthday party, Ellie sees the cat walking down the street on the way home, and she goes to pick him up. The little brother, Gage, runs into the street after her. Creed rescues Gage from the oncoming truck, but the truck runs over Ellie. At the funeral, Creed and Jud exchange glances.
Rachel and Gage go to stay with her parents for a while, leaving Creed alone. We know what’s coming next, and so does Jud, who warns him about doing it.
Creed puts something in Jud’s drink to get him out of the way for the evening and then proceeds to do it anyway. He digs up Ellie and buries her in the ancient burial ground knowing full well that she’s not going to be right when she comes back, but unable to not do it. He goes home to wait.
He sees that Church the cat has also come home. He also finds bloody human footprints going into the basement. Yes, it’s Ellie, back from the dead. He cleans her up and big chunks of her hair fall out. She still has staples in her head from where the undertaker cleaned her up.
Rachel gets worried and calls Jud to check in on Creed. She’s on her way back, but won’t be there for a while. Jud tells Creed, “It’s not too late to un-do it,” but Creed shuts the door on him. On the way home, Jud spots Ellie in the upstairs window. He goes home and gets his gun, but she kills him.
Rachel returns, and she sees Creed’s dirty shoes and knows what happened. She sees Ellie and freaks out a little, but Creed explains about it. She’s not OK with it at all. Ellie tricks Creed into going outside, and while he’s out there, he finds Jud’s body.
Meanwhile, Ellie and Rachel fight, and Ellie stabs her in the back. “Don’t bury me in that place,” are her last words to Creed. Ellie knocks out Creed and drags Rachel to the burial ground herself. Creed wakes up and pursues them.
Creed is ready to cut Ellie’s head off, but he gets stabbed in the back by Rachel, who has already returned from the dead. They drag him off for his own burial.
The next morning, little Gage wakes up in the car to see his whole family, including the cat, walking back from torching old Jud’s house.
Commentary
The creepiest scene in the movie is the kids walking in a procession the pet cemetery, but nothing really comes of it; the other children are nameless and have no further role in the film. The masks don’t mean anything either. It’s just a neat-looking scene with no real plot meaning.
The movie has a cat in an important role, so of course there are going to be jump scares, but this movie is a little excessive with it. Some of the jump scares play into people having seen the older film, like Jud’s ankle being cut from under the bed scene. We see the ankle from under the bed, just like in the first movie, but he doesn’t get cut, at least not there. Everything is the same as the 1989 film, but just subtly different.
By switching it up to kill the older girl instead of Gage, they were able to get her to talk and be a lot more evil and menacing than the little boy in the earlier film. The ending is a bit different from the original, just enough to make the film worth seeing. It’s about as good as a remake can be.