I was excited for this remake the second I heard it was coming out! I figured with today's movie tech it could be more like the original story, even more so than the first 1989 movie. The story was changed so much to stand out as an artistic original for the directors, that it became a glorified zombie movie (eye roll). I read the book and watched the original movie, so I had high expectations for this to be even better than those! But it was a huge let down.
I hated the switch in characters, the daughter brought a whole new dynamic to the story and that alone changed the entire feeling for the movie in my opinion. Plus she was older so you're not as heart wrenched at the tragedy of her death, and I hated that when she came back she had memories of her life and just spoke in a lower voice to show her "changed" behaviour. I wasn't really a fan of her acting, had she played the Ellie from the original storyline, I think I would have liked her.
I also hated Jason Clark's portrayal of Louis Creed, he was kind of rude and standoff-ish and had zero emotion towards anything in this movie. The original Louis is loving, heartfelt, and affectionate. In this movie he just made you feel like he didn't care about anything. In the book and first movie Louis' grieving is so intense for his child after he dies that you're actually scared for why he's going to do. And when the child does come back; he comes back different. NOT zombie like but actually something worse. I was not impressed with the new version of the zombie being able to talk and converse with Louis and definitely thought the dancing and trashing the place was unnecessary and quite dumb.
And I hated Louis' relationship with Judd; he treats him like some kind of old relative you just want to die already. The original friendship is so much more, Judd shares way more info about the burial ground and gives more history to its powers and consequences. This movie left out a lot, and left a lot to be desired.
I also didn't like the role of Victor Pascal, he had a bigger part to play in the book and in this movie was just sort of thrown in to show they used a guy named Victor.
And lastly, the ending was absolutely TERRIBLE! It was literally just quick deaths, and then scene jumps to zombies standing around in dirty clothes. The girl trying to bury everyone to bring them back to life was ridiculous, it made zero sense and had nothing to do with the original story. I found this to be a cheap attempt for the directors to try and make it their own and add a twist, but it totally bombed and became just another zombie film like every other movie out there.
This story is terrifying, and meant to be sad enough to make you go crazy after being witness to the worst tragedy any parent could ever face. Crazy enough to want to dig up your dead child and bury them in an evil burial ground so that they could come back from death. And then being absolutely petrified with fear when the person you wanted back is no longer there and something else stands in its place.
Instead you get no character chemistry, changed plot and storyline, and a generic run-of-the-mill zombie wannabe movie.
Review of Pet Sematary
