Review of Pet Sematary

From the trailers, I was so excited to see this. I'm a huge fan of the novel, and whilst I'm well aware a certain amount of artistic licence goes into putting a book onto the big screen, they changed so much of the story that it was barely recognisable. I understand why they changed which child was killed, you'd be hard pushed to find a toddler that can act as the living dead, but it didn't work with the older child either. In the book, the resurrected 'being' was taken over by a demon-in the film, Ellie is well aware she is dead, and she's living an unwanted 'afterlife' of which she is also aware, and it turns her evil. There is no atmosphere in the film, the setting should be creepy and atmospheric, but I'll be honest, the scenes in the woods look very much like a stage set with dry ice covering the floor. It looks cheap and thrown together. The story is patchy and nonsensical in many places, it feels rushed to get to the end, and none of the characters are padded out enough for you to actually care about. The one shining light in this is John Lithgow as Jud, he's incredibly well cast, but the let down with him is they didn't utilise him like they should have. One of my favourite parts of the novel is the friendship that develops between Louis and Jud, it's beautiful in places, and we learn a lot about Jud, his life, the burial ground, what becomes of anyone or anything that's buried there etc. But in the film he's just some old guy that pops up every now and then, with no real background-and there isn't a single whisper of the MicMacs and their part in the burial ground. I also didn't like how in the film, they justified Rachel's irritating and bizarre neuroses about death by having her be responsible for her own sisters death, that was a completely new plot line addition for the purpose of the film As for the ending, I'm not even sure I have it in me to comment, the ending turned it into a pseudo comical farce-the book left me feeling bleak and slightly bereft. However, I'd like to give a special mention to the cat, the cat played his part beautifully!