Based on the 1983 novel and 1989 film, “Pet Sematary” follows Louis Creed, his wife Rachel, his two kids Ellie and Gage and their family pet Church. After moving into the home Ellie discovers the pet sematary where she meets her neighbor, Jud Crandall. Not long after meeting Jud, Church is hit by a car. This leads Jud to take Louis past the pet sematary to an ancient burial ground deeper in the woods. After learning about the power of the ancient burial grounds, Louis uses the powers to bring back someone he loves, unleashing chaos.
Like any remake, there are going to be differences and similarities. The first difference that I noticed was the funeral march towards the beginning of the 2019 film. This is because, in the 1989 version of the film, Jud explains the pet sematary to Louis versus the 2019 version where Ellie stumbles upon the pet sematary curious to what these kids were doing. The original film also makes it look more uncommon for the people to bury their pets in a sematary whereas the new movie has kids dressed in masks putting on a ceremonial parade.
The next difference I noticed was Jud’s introduction. In the original film, Jud is introduced by picking up Gage right before he is hit by a semi and introduced immediately to the Creed family. In comparison to the new film, Jud meets Ellie inside the pet sematary, and later on, meets the rest of her family.
Another change between the old and new film was the absence of the character Missy Dandridge, who served as a house cleaner to the Creed family.
The absolute biggest change between the two movies was the Creed child who died. In the original film, Gage was run over by the semi-truck. In the new version, Ellie was hit by the semi. The final change I noticed was how the movie ended, but that is not for me to spoil.
The retelling of Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” is a movie that is definitely worth the watch. It has a great, dark storyline that will keep you both emotionally invested in the characters and on the edge of your seat. Therefore, even though some things should remain dead, this movie is not one of them.
