Pet Sematary (UHD Blu-ray) review

[David Vaughn]

Plot
The terrifying tale by Stephen King is also a beloved adaptation of the best-selling author’s work. Newly remastered in 4K for its 30^th Anniversary, it follows the tragic story of the Creed family. After their cat is accidentally killed, a friendly neighbor advises its burial in a mysterious nearby cemetery. When the cat comes back, it’s only the beginning of an unthinkable evil leading to hell and back. Sometimes, so it seems, dead is better.

My Thoughts
 I’m not a fan of scary movies and don’t like being creeped out and no matter how old I get, I never seem to learn my lesson. This arrived unsolicited so I decided to give it a viewing while my wife was out of town and the house was empty other than my trusty best friend, Rollo—my dog. Wow was that a mistake.

Even though I’ve seen the movie before, it didn’t make me feel good sitting in the house all alone with my dog staring at me in some strange way. What was going on behind those eyes of his? Was he scheming or plotting against me? Yes, I have an overactive imagination, but one thing’s for sure, when Rollo eventually dies, he’s getting cremated. I’m not taking any chances!

Director Mary Lambert supervised the 4K restoration and the results are magnificent. It shows that as long as some TLC goes into the process, a 30-year-old movie can look amazing. There’s plenty of depth to the image, colors are stable, and shadow detail is very good. The audio track didn’t get updated to Atmos, but the DTS soundtrack is very good with excellent clarity and dialog reproduction

Video 9/10

Audio 9/10 (DTS-HD MA 5.1)

Special Features:

Blu-ray

• Audio Commentary
• Pet Sematary: Fear and Remembrance (New)
• Pet Sematary: Revisitation (New)
• Galleries (New)
• Stephen King Territory (Vintage)
• The Characters (Vintage)
• Filming the Horror (Vintage)
• Blu-ray + Digital Copy

 Conclusion
This home video release coincides with the impending remake of the film hitting theaters soon (trailer below). I won’t be seeing it given my lack of fondness for the genre, but I’m sure at some point I’ll lose my mind and request the 4K UHD for review when it comes out this summer. The reviews are very good, which shows that King’s original novel holds up well after all these years. If you’re a fan of the film, it’s never looked better so be sure to pick it up.

[DavidHir]

Nice review.  I watched it this past weekend (got it early) and it's indeed a big improvement over the original Blu-ray.

So, I have a story to tell about this movie. 

I saw this on opening night during my 11th grade year with a friend of mine.  About an hour or so before the movie started, we walked around the mall and he was going on and on about how ridiculous it was that people got scared in horror movies.  He claimed it made no sense since none of it was real, etc.

Once we were finally in the theater and the movie started he suddenly became so tense and then freaked out with the rest of the audience (mostly high school kids) with the scene where Pascow woke up on the emergency room table.  He goes to me, "Dave - I think we're going to have to leave!  I can't take this!  Oh my God!  I can't take this!"  I couldn't believe how scared he got and laughed.  On any rate, we stayed and he got through it.

[David Vaughn]

Nice review!  I watched it last weekend (got it early) and it's indeed a big improvement over the original Blu-ray.

So, I have a story to tell about this movie. 

I saw this on opening night during my 11th grade year with a friend of mine.  About an hour or so before the movie started, we walked around the mall and he was going on and on about how ridiculous it was that people got scared in movies.  He claimed it made no sense since none of it was real, etc.

Once we were in the theater and the movie started he suddenly became so tense and then freaked out with the rest of the audience (mostly high school kids) with the scene where Pascow woke up on the emergency room table.  He goes to me, "Dave - I think we're going to have to leave!  I can't take this!  Oh my God!  I can't take this!"  I laughed.  On any rate, we stayed and he got through it.

That's a great story! Honestly, the scariest movie I think I have ever seen was "Fatal Attraction." Glen Close scared the crap out of me in that movie. 

[TRainH2O]

It's been a long time since I've watched this one but I loved the book and thought the movie was pretty creepy.

If it hits the usual rental outlets, I would love to give it a spin. Thanks for the review.

[tripplej]

I agree, it has been a while since I saw this so will have to check it out again once available on amazon prime/netflix.

[TRainH2O]

I agree, it has been a while since I saw this so will have to check it out again once available on amazon prime/netflix.

I just checked Prime. It's there and free for members but it says that it is "Leaving Prime on March 31, 2019". Better watch it soon.

[tripplej]

Great. Thanks. I will check it out soon.