Pet Sematary: Bloodlines

Grade: C+

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines needed to either have help/involvement from Stephen King himself, or ditch the “prequel” concept and just be an original straight-up zombie movie. It’s, of course, supposed to be an origin story; a setup for King’s novel. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the book takes place in Ludlow, Maine in the 1980s, where the Creeds, a family of four, have just moved. Beyond the pet cemetery in their backyard lies an ancient Indian burial ground. Anything you bury there, be it a pet or a human, comes back. It will be cold, awkward, dirty, smelly, evil, possessed, and will eventually kill you.

The Creeds’ across-the-street neighbor, kindly old Jud Crandall, who’s lived there all his life, has seen some things. Bloodlines takes place in 1969 Ludlow, where we follow young Jud, who appears to be in his early 20s at most. The timeline is problematic. Let’s estimate generously and say that Jud is 25 in 1969. The original Pet Sematary film came out in 1989, featuring Fred Gwynne as Jud, a senior citizen widower – and then played by John Lithgow in the 2019 remake. They ain’t 45.

Bloodlines focuses on what was a flashback/short chapter in the source material. Jud had a childhood friend, Timmy, who came back from Vietnam. He came back…different. What the townspeople didn’t realize is he died in the war, and his father (David Duchovny) – who wasn’t ready to let go – buried him you-know-where. This movie introduces a new rule on how to kill these undead things. It would have been very helpful for Jud to have told the Creeds about it in King’s book/movie – but no, it’s obviously a new thing put in by the filmmakers here. Apart from Duchovny, familiar faces in this movie also include Henry Thomas (Elliott from E.T.), Samantha Mathis (Christian Slater’s girlfriend from Pump Up the Volume), and Pam Grier (Foxy/Jackie Brown). Of the young talent, I especially enjoyed Jackson White as Jud (who reminded me of a young Matt Dillon), and Isabella LaBlanc.

Having King’s hand on the project likely would have kept these people from making decisions that are almost hilariously stupid. Somebody in danger runs PAST a car in the driveway (which could have taken them far away to safety) into a large sunflower field instead. Someone running from a killer goes upstairs. Characters decide to split up, twice – and it didn’t work out so great the first time. Somebody actually says “The house is on fire. We gotta get out of here. Let’s go down to the cellar.” Is there a palm large enough for my face?

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines isn’t terrible, but I can’t recommend it. Even though not everything jives with the King story, I admit it will be in the back of my mind the next time I revisit the OG sematary. It’s interesting that the young actors with little experience are more appealing than the old veterans. I hope to see more of a couple of them. Locations are beautiful and well-filmed. The iconic tagline “sometimes dead is better” inevitably appears here – twice. Once near the beginning, and then as the second-to-last line of the movie. It’s worth fast-forwarding to the end just to hear the final line, which is perfect.

Grade: C+