Pet Sematary (1989)

Saw Pet Sematary (1989)  It was a film about a couple who move from the city to rural New England for some reason.  Their new house is idyllic save for a nearby road where trucks barrel down the road with pet-murdering speed all day and night.  The film heavily foreshadows what's to come but is a sort of slow burn at first.  In the final half of it however, it kicks into high gear and truly comes alive.  The film is fairly goofy but has its moments.  It was recently remade and I can sort of see why: the special effects are a true hinderance to the film and a lot of the performances are fairly wooden.  Not a great film, but interesting in its own way.

Most horror films derive from real-world tragedy and this is no different.  The central tragedy here is that death comes before we're ready for it.  I'll try to be vague to avoid spoilers, but there's a scene late in the film where a man is cradling a dead body in a cemetery and (officially) nothing supernatural has happened yet.  He just can't let go.  This is pretty nightmarish on its own.  I mean, can you imagine?

The film has a nice, morbid grimness that reminds me of Hellraiser's baroque S&M horrors.  There's a stand-out performance from Fred Gwynne (Mr. Herman Munster himself!) as a folksy neighbor who is the perfect mix of absurd and sincere.  The family mother is also great as a Hitchcock blonde.  Clearly she's a transplant who has yet to take.  She's always over-dressed in smart blazers or flowing silks and there's a perfect scene where he stupid high-heels are sinking into the soil with each step she takes.  Less strong is the protagonist husband who is great at looking preoccupied and brooding but who is quite wooden every time he has to emote.  Then again, it may be the script's fault.  I have yet to see someone pull off the yelled "Nooooooo!" without looking goofy.  There's some iffy child acting as well, but we can only expect so much of children after all.

The film is okay.  There's some very strange acting and some strange, pointless sequences but there's also some great sequences and some ghoulish fun to be had.  It was sort of a wash.