Review of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines

 🪓🪓🪓 out of 🪓🪓🪓🪓🪓

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is not a remake, but a prequel, going back in time to when Jud Crandall--the old man from the first movie, excellently played by Fred Gwynne of Herman Munster fame--was a young man, and the wide-awake night terror happened to him.

The film is an a 2023 American supernatural horror movie directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer and written by Beer and Jeff Buhler (Buhler? Buhler?). Set in 1969, it happens fifty years before the original movie based on the excellent Stephen King novel, Pet Sematary.

A youthful Jud Crandall (Jackson White) endeavors to escape his boring home town of Ludlow, Maine--the fictional town from the book--with his lovely, blond girlfriend, Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind), taking off in his car to join the Peace Corps. 

But the town won't let him go. 

A huge black bird crashes into the windshield, and they find a dog in front of the car looking mangy and diseased that belongs to local Bill Baterman (David Duchovny of The X Files fame) and find that his son, Timmy (Jack Mulhern), has returned from the war, but doesn't act ... right. What they don't realize is that Timmy came back dead and his dad buried him in the Mi'kmaq burial ground beyond the Pet Sematary. Consequently, he came back ... wrong. Timmy raptly watches said dog attack Norma's arm, and waits before firing a shot in the air which scares the pet off. You see, the dog's been buried there, too. 

It's not long before Timmy wreaks havoc on the town, killing some and making another like him. The members of the predominant families call a meeting and, since they know the evil history of the town, realize they have to put an end to Timmy. 

My favorite part is when the founders of the town discover the Mi'kmaq village, which is overrun with zombies who'd been buried in the evil graveyard, feasting on corpses, and are told to "Aim for the eyes," as zombies must be killed by a shot to the head.

I had high hopes for this one, but instead of just showing up at the Baterman's and burning down the house with Timmy in it, like the clip in Pet Sematary, it goes too far with everyone escaping from the burning house--chasing a seemingly unkillable Timmy--and Bill Baterman getting out with them, then traveling through an underground tunnel and into a creek for more unplotly hijinks.

But, by all means, watch it and decide for yourself! 

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