Mary Lambert’s ‘PET SEMATARY’ (1989): Still Scary After 35 Years – Retro Review

The original film adaptation of Stephen King‘s Pet Sematary was released in 1989, when I was just four years old. It was a year or two later when I saw it for the first time, and that memory is indelibly seared into my brain. I was scarred. Traumatized. I was HOOKED. It was my very first horror movie experience, and although I can vividly remember crying in terror, somehow that experience turned me into a lifelong horror junkie. 

Synopsis

After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.

Pet Sematary was directed by Mary Lambert, and stars Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed and Denise Crosby as Rachel Creed. Miko Hughes stars as the ill-fated and subsequently terrifying Gage Creed, and the incomparable Fred Gwynne, of The Munsters fame, plays Jud Crandall, the neighbor who introduces the Creed family to the otherworldly power of the Pet Sematary. 

As a child, the scariest part of Pet Semetary for me was always the returned from the grave version of little Gage Creed, particularly his vicious attack on Jud with his father’s scalpel. I was terrified to walk past furniture for MONTHS, so strong was the fear of undead scalpel-wielding children potentially hiding underneath. Rewatching the film as an adult, it is the infamous truck scene that bothers me the most. That single bloody shoe on the blacktop at the end of that scene will never cease to be gut-wrenching. I almost always have to look away, because my heart just cannot take it. 

Final Thoughts

Pet Sematary was the first horror movie I ever saw, and nothing since has lived up to the terror it instilled in me. I have spent the rest of my life attempting to be that scared again, but the closest I can get is rewatching it. I honestly believe that this movie started my obsession with the horror genre, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

It’s safe to say I’m not the only one who feels that way. You can check out fellow Pop Horror staffer Josh’s article here. 

Pet Sematary is available now to rent and own on digital platforms and is streaming on HBO Max.