Pet Sematary 2019 - The Changes I Loved and the Changes I Didn't
SOMETIMES DEAD IS BETTER
As ya’ll know, the tag line for Horror Bound comes from one of my favorite stories of all time, Pet Sematary. The book means so much to me and I find myself flicking through my favorite passages when I’m struggling. The movie from 1989 was incredible and is often watched in my house. I remember watching it for the first time when I was younger, and then around 19 years old I just kept remembering the Zelda scene, but couldn’t remember the movie. I even explained the scene in detail to my best friend and she was like, bitch you’re crazy, that’s not a movie. And then when I was 20 I ended up watching Pet Sematary and was like HOLY SHIT THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE SCENE! So, yeah, I fucking love Pet Sematary.
For #HBH31 Day 4 I decided it was finally the time to watch the Pet Sematary remake from this year and see what all the fuss was about.
Overall, I was happy with it.
Here are the changes I loved, and the ones I didn’t:
First off is Jud. Jud is a very important character to me. He’s also a very critical character to the story. When introduced he immediately welcomes the Creed family, becomes a big part of their lives, including acting like a Father to Louis, and a Grandparent to Ellie. He’s also the catalyst for the entire story. So, one of the changes I didn’t enjoy was how this movie presented Jud. He was almost like this creepy neighbor just lurking around in the background.
When Ellie and Rachel meet him, it’s with trepidation and we see a lot of him just staring off into the background while ominous music plays. Why? Whyyyyyyy? Is it because it’s 2019 and we’re super paranoid of strangers? Maybe….
But come on, it’s freakin’ Jud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Second is Jud’s wife Norma. This movie we find out that Norma passed away before the events of this story. This to me was unforgiveable. Norma is such an incredibly important part of the story. In the book, Norma suffers a heart attack and Louis saves her life. This leads to Jud wanting to repay the favor. So, when Church dies in the road, Jud shares with Louis the burial ground beyond the deadfall. He only does this to return the favor of Louis saving someone important to him.
Also, in the book, Norma does eventually pass away. And for Ellie this is a super important moment. This is Ellie’s first real experience of death and it’s shocking and changes her forever. It also affects Rachel a tone and informs a lot of the decision she makes after that.
Removing Norma, to me, takes away what this story is really about. That sometimes, dead is better.
As Stephen King says, “Perhaps ‘sometimes dead is better’ is grief’s last lesson…that lesson suggests that in the end, we can only find peace in our own human lives by accepting the will of the universe.”
Thirdly, the pace of this film is so fast. Why you moving so fast? What’s the freakin’ hurry? It’s a strange choice to make because the first hour of the film just races by shoving a lot into our faces. It actually makes the story a little unbelievable because it’s hard to understand the motives for everyone involved. Luckily, the second half of this flick moves fast and does it well.
Okay, here’s what I loved!
The Zelda change. I am SO thrilled that Zelda is alive and well in this film to scare an entirely new generation of kids. Call me in 20 yeas when you’re terrified of a young girl in a blue dress late at night when you’re 30. And you’re like, where the fuck did this come from?!
In the original, Zelda’s death is very different and effective. But in this flick, they change the way Zelda died and it’s also incredibly effective and almost scarier! She dies falling into a dumbwaiter. And we know dumbwaiters are terrifying, if used effectively in a horror movie. And they did this one well.
A really scary scene that I loved immensely was when Rachel opens her bathroom mirror and behind the mirror is the dumbwaiter tunnel and Zelda just plummets from above her. I got full on goosebumps. SO GOOD.
“I swear she was still in the walls”
Church was another great change, more specifically how evil he is. It was really easy to see that Church had turned into something evil and the way they effectively used the cat made me terrified of him. When he’s sitting on Gage in the cot, or lurking in the closet, or eating dead things. It was really scary and really effective.
Behind the deadfall I also enjoyed the changes. In the story of course, it’s terrifying back there complete with a Wendigo and tones of horrifying shit. In the original flick it wasn’t done super well. In this flick it’s a tone of CG but I like that it makes it a super fantasy like creepy dreamy environment. It plays on the deadfall origin story really well and it’s easier to imagine how terrifying it would be to walk through that in real life.
The last change I enjoyed was the ending. I loved the ending of the book and the original. But it was fun to see how this one ended. Obviously, in this story, Ellie is the one that dies and is brought back to life. I was very curious to see how they would fix that in the end. By having them all be buried in the burial ground and then ending it with poor little Gage sitting in the car watching as his dead family walks to him to ultimately kill him and bury him, was super scary.
Overall, I did enjoy most of the changes made in this flick and had a good time watching it, especially that last half.
“Don’t bury me in that place.”
