Copy provided by Paramount for review
In 1983 Stephen King wrote the book Pet Sematary which is still considered one of his more iconic works, which is saying a lot considering how prolific Stephen is. It, like a lot of King’s work, was naturally adapted into a movie in 1989 and like a lot of 80’s horror movies, it got remade in the late 2010s, 2019 to be specific. The 2019 Pet Sematary didn’t get great reviews (though I personally quite enjoyed it) but what it did get was a serious return on investment with over 100 million from a film made on a 20 million budget. Normally this would mean a sequel was basically guaranteed but Pet Sematary is the kind of story that doesn’t lend itself to a follow-up… apparently it does have a prequel in it though, which kind of works up to a certain point.
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines takes place in 1969 and follows a young Jud Crandall (Jackson White) who is planning on taking the leap and leaving the small town of Ludlow along with his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind). Their plan gets changed when Jud and Norma go to visit one of Jud’s old friends Timmy (Jack Mulhern) who just came back from the Vietnam war and has just seemed different ever since coming home. He’s not the only one who seems different, as Timmy’s dog has gone from a placid little thing to something more like Cujo than anything else. It’s all part of a darkness that slowly fills the town of Ludlow that all seems to emanate from the local Pet Sematary.
As far as horror movies go, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is pretty damn effective when it wants to be. Based purely on how it plays with tension it manages to have more than a few really good effective moments that’ll have the audience jumping in their seats. There are a few particular sequences that are just viscerally disturbing, a climactic hospital scene in particular revels in slowly revealing just how incredibly messed up the situation has become and gives a satisfying payoff. There are more than a few really good moments of payoff just on a visceral gore level, this film is not afraid to throw around the red stuff when needed to get a genuine gasp from the audience and it all works well in service of the story.
If the first Pet Sematary was all about grief and loss, specifically the grief of losing a child and how it can slowly kill you from the inside, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is taking on PTSD in a very direct manner. The inciting incident revolves around a war veteran who died and was brought back wrong, effectively traumatised to the point he still thinks he’s in a battlefield and what he does ends up impacting the people around him. There’s also some cultural trauma brought to life through Manny (Forrest Goodluck) and Donna (Isabella Star LaBlanc), though their story often feels like it’s just off to the side and only interacting with the main cast when they need someone to either scare the shit out of Norma or call Jud sexy which is an interesting choice, let’s say that.
This isn’t to say that everything about this film is rosy. Like a lot of prequels, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines has a habit of insisting that everything needs to have some kind of origin story, from why Jud sits in a specific chair to where he first heard the phrase “Sometimes dead is better” (because heaven forbid, they don’t throw in that iconic line in the film somewhere). It also has the unintended consequence of making Jud from the 2019 Pet Sematary look either stupid or evil.
Depending on how you view someone who goes through what Jud does in this film and doesn’t do everything in his power to destroy the pet sematary that brings everyone back. It’s the natural issue with a prequel, no matter what happens here the events of Pet Sematary still need to happen and the fact they do means none of the growth shown here matters. At best we get an explanation of why Jud thinks dead is better and we really didn’t need that, if anything explaining why he thinks that robs that phrase of its power.
It also doesn’t help much that the big names attached to Pet Sematary: Bloodlines don’t get to do much. David Duchovny is mostly just there for a few small moments where he has to basically look after his kid, scenes that are kind of underplayed and don’t really end up mattering. The big stunner is they got icon Pam Grier to deliver the mail and give her almost nothing to do. Sure, the few scenes she gets are captivating because Pam Grier is a goddamn icon for a reason and those scenes work because of her, she’s elevating the work so much that it’s startling. Indeed, the entire cast is bringing it, this is not like the original Pet Sematary where the main actor was just phoning it in, this cast is brilliant but a lot of them don’t get much that’s really exciting to do. They’re there to up the body count, which is absolutely fine but god damn if you’re going to hire Pam Grier or David Duchovny to up your body count can they have a moment to really show off?
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines has got a lot going for it, in particular some great scenes of tension and fun horror moments that will give fans of the genre a lot to sink their teeth into. The performances are universally good and there are enough clever nods to the 2019 Pet Sematary to make it feel like a half-decent expansion of the world created by that movie… however it also falls into the traps of a horror prequel, over-explaining things that don’t need to be explained and retroactively making any characters who survive till the next film look incredibly incompetent. It’s a wild mixed bag, having moments that are really cool and enjoyable wrapped in a context that makes you wonder why the film even exists in the first place. There’s definitely something here worthwhile for a horror-loving audience, just pretend you don’t know a damn thing about any other version of Pet Sematary if you want to enjoy this as much as possible.
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