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5. Pet Semetary (1989) (Max)

I've been trying to watch this one for these past three years, but for whatever reason it just hasn't been on a streaming service. But finally, I get to watch it before the new prequel movie!

A Stephen King classic, and I feel like it still holds up rather well. If you're reading this topic, you probably know the story so I guess I can just spoil the big moment. I had difficulty trying to give a summary of it to my girlfriend who has never seen it before we watched. So if you haven't watched it yet, just ignore the rest of this because it's pretty much impossible to talk about without spoiling it.

But a family moves into a home and when their pet cat dies, the patriarch of the family buries him in a tainted burial ground that brings the cat back, only more malevolent. And when his son dies, he does the same to unfortunate results.

There's a lot to love in this movie. I think it's extremely well-crafted in every way to tug at your heart strings and send chills up your spine all at once. It's a movie that slowly escalates the terror and dread. Ultimately, you don't get to anything truly horrifying until we get to the part where Baby Gage comes back. But the feeling of dread and foreboding when we know precisely what's about to happen is tremendous.

It doesn't happen without a superb script that has us seeing Pascow warning us not to bury anything up in that cursed ground. With the cat coming back. With Jud's story about the only person to ever be buried there. And the constant warnings from Jud to never bury a person there. And then everything culminating to the wife trying to come back and stop it. It's built up so well that when we see baby Gage returning, it's just awful. The constant laughing. The baby talk. It's a terrible, awful thing to imagine.

However, without strong characters, this movie doesn't work either. The Creed family are all strong enough as characters to really become wrapped up in their motivations and their character development. Louis being an everyman really helps to sell the grief he feels, just trying to be a good father and wanting to make things right. Because what would any average person do in this situation? Then you have Jud, who is just such a memorable character. I can never forget his accent. Just a friendly old man, probably a bit bored, wanting to help the family as best he can.

There's a lot to love with Pet Semetary, and I think this review is a bit all over the place, but it's a movie that always feels so memorable to me and just hits all the right spots. I consider it one of Stephen King's best works, easily.

Rating: 9.5/10