Review – Pet Sematary

Okay, I have to admit that I read King’s novel before I saw the movie, so I really can’t claim I didn’t know what I was getting into (not, mind you, that the title by itself isn’t a dead giveaway). Still, a lot of the action in this picture strikes me as exploitative in the worst way, if not in genuinely bad taste. I’m already solidly on the record as disliking movies that dwell on violence committed against children or animals, and this production supplies both aplenty. The premise is that dead animals and people buried in a certain evil spot in the woods can come back to life, though not exactly as their former selves. Though the basic idea has some potential, by the time the movie kills a girl’s pet cat not once but twice and then devolves into a battle between bereaved parents and a demonic, zombie toddler, it’s just too stupid and tasteless to hope for redemption. Wish I’d skipped it