Pet Sematary Review: 4 Ups & 4 Downs

Pet Sematary isn't going to blow you out of your seat if you're a big horror fan. In essence, it's a fine enough movie with some solid jump scares, and is produced in typical large-scale Hollywood fashion befitting of Blumhouse's style of blockbuster movies. This is a film that is at home with the Ouija: Origin of Evil and Truth Or Dare films of the world, that functions well as your average scary movie but don't really break free of genre trappings.

What makes this a Down rather than an Up is that it had all the potential to do otherwise. When 2017's It took the world by storm, it was because it was a classic horror story span itself into childhood and nostalgia, bringing horror to another dimension that was aptly appealing.

Pet Sematary has the chance to do this with its representation of death and grief, unpicking the desperation of a family being permanently scarred by loss and the devastating consequences of what it means to cheat the natural order of the life cycle. We got the surface level to that which functions as the 'scary', but the clout behind it was notably lacking.