PET SEMATARY (2019) - B
I actually have quite a bit positive to say about this film. I felt there were a lot of things that this film did well. The acting was very good. The directing especially in the transitions, the pacing and overall tone was most certainly worthy of praise. The overall tension, and build up was soothing to the eye, the ear and the mind.
The story I felt while lacking more than a bit in certain elements, was rather strong in others. The characters themselves as individuals were well developed, but their relationships to one another felt distant. While easy to relate to a character in empathetic theory, it made it difficult to resonate in sympathetic reality.
Connections in this film were strong. Church coming back and causing the accident was clever, and gave the moment more meaning. Rachel's reservations about death, I felt were best depicted in this film, even compared to the 1983 Novel. Ironically her relationship with Zelda was one of the only I felt got any real attention to detail. I think they meant to with Jud and Ellie, but it was not near as developed as it could have been.
Lastly I want to praise the scene where Ellie was struck by the truck. That was done so well. The acting, the pacing, the directing. It was as shocking, devastating and depressing as any audience member could hope for.
As to the criticisms it humors me to think of how many including the director himself complained about how unscathed Gage was in the 1989 version. Yet Ellie in 2019, didn't strike me as a nine year old girl who had been hit by an oil tanker. She was actually in better shape than Gage was in the Original.
I also felt it strange upon the braggart claims of how much more connected to the novel this film was than its 1989 counterpart, how much indeed it was not. While many of the changes didn't necessarily bother me, other than the actual mention of the Wendigo & a fun little reference to Oz the Gweat and Terriblwe, this felt vastly different than the novel. Maybe because it was.
In my opinion, the purpose of a remake goes far beyond cashing in upon a bankable name. I feel that the duty of a remake should be to enhance and capitalize upon what the original film did right the first time, while focusing in on and fixing anything that it did wrong. While this film did a lot of things right, it seemed to have the same problems that the 1989 film had.
Victor Pascow seemed rather useless in the 1989 version and even more so in this film. Jud's choices and decisions seemed uncharacteristic, unwise and particularly stupid for someone who had known of the MicMac burial ground for 70 years. He seemed every bit as ignorant and foolish here as he did in the 1989 version.
Where this film falls apart is in the last 10 minutes or so. With a better ending I feel this film could have gotten an A. What the 1989 film did better than this film was tug at the heart, mess with mind and hit home the depressive devastation that a parent would have to go through realizing that they would have to send back to the grave, the loved one they fought so hard to bring back. This film lacked that moment that made the first film and the novel so powerful. They traded it in for a more Hollywood ending, and I think the film was the weaker for it.
Yet the rest of the film was pretty strong and I'll stick with the B I gave it.
