#357: Pet Sematary

Release Date: April 21st, 1989

Format: Streaming (Tubi)

Written by: Stephen King

Directed by: Mary Lambert

2.5 Stars

Despite withering critic reviews - including a zero-star rating from Gene Siskel (in his words, a “sickening” Stephen King adaptation) - Pet Sematary went on to become a massive box office success in the spring of 1989, ultimately pulling in nearly $60 million against its $11.5 million budget.

But why? What about Pet Sematary connected so viscerally with audiences back then, and continues to connect with horror fans today? If you read those contemporaneous reviews, the critics weren’t wrong. The script, written by King himself, is melodramatic exploitation at best, plain dumb at worst. As for director Mary Lambert, I want to say that she did a mostly commendable job, but how do we explain the performance from her lead actor, Dale Midkiff? In a film full of hammy performances (I say that lovingly), including a tremendously memorable performance from Fred Gwynn as the wise-but-haunting old neighbor across the street, Midkiff turns in a nothing performance. He’s leaden, devoid of any sort of charisma. Maybe the guy was simply miscast, but c’mon Lambert, help the poor bastard out. Scene after scene (and he’s in almost every scene in the movie) we have to watch this guy droll out his lines while we stare into his lifeless eyes. How he got this role I have no idea. There was an ocean of white male American actors in their thirties in the late ‘80s, yet somehow the Pet Sematary producers landed on Dale Midkiff. It’s unexplainable. 

So again I ask, why was Pet Sematary such a hit with audiences?

To King’s credit, I think it was because of his wicked, delicious premise: There’s a hallowed, haunted burial ground in the forest that can resurrect the dead, so when a young family’s pet cat is killed by a passing car on the highway, the father takes its body and buries it in hopes of saving his young daughter some heartbreak. 

For anybody who has lost a pet, or has had to tell a child about death, we can understand the father’s misplaced motivation. But when the pet cat indeed resurrects and returns home, it seems…not quite right. Its eyes glow yellow. It smells bad. It seems sinister.

The father decides that it was a mistake to fiddle around with matters of life and death. Never again will he trek out to that damned burial ground. 

But when the father’s toddler son (an adorable little actor named Miko Hughes) is also killed along that same highway, the temptation proves to be too much. What parent wouldn’t at least try to bring their child back to life, no matter what the costs?

This is the enduring appeal of Pet Sematary. 

It’s a simple yet effective premise, for which we are willing to tolerate a poorly executed yet sinisterly fun movie.