4K Blu-Ray Review: Pet Sematary

The Film

Stephen King's Pet Sematary is terrifying. That should be a given, considering it's a horror film, but time is usually unkind to these things. Especially when they're adaptations. Not so here, as Pet Sematary seems to grow more intense with every passing year.

The basic premise is as effective as it is simple: Louis Creed and his wife, Rachel, lose their infant son Gage in a horrific accident. Distraught, Louis remembers the legend of a local pet sematary where, sometimes, those we've lost come back. Weeks earlier, their cat, Church, did exactly that. How or why, nobody knows, but Louis is willing to tempt fate.

What happens after is a nightmare none of them could anticipate.

Directed with subdued flair by Mary Lambert, Pet Sematary takes its time to get going. But when it does, it hits like a freight train. It mixes together the bigger spiritual world of Stephen King's interconnected lore to a deeply distressing family drama, and somehow the whole thing works. We understand Louis and his despair, even as every fiber of our being warns us of the consequences.

When the terror unfolds, Lambert keeps the blood and gore to a minimum. That way, when something does happen, it shocks us to the core. The sequence involving a night-time terror underneath the bed had me terrified of the dark for years since my first viewing.

Despite the scares, Pet Sematary works best when it allows us to immerse ourselves into the family drama. After all, King is one of the great painters of Americana, and here the idyllic, yet strangely otherworldly small town life is both enticing and unnerving. Lambert captures the unease with which the Creed family settles in beautifully, and then does an equally impressive job with showing how quickly they accept the rules of their new reality.

Pet Sematary was unfairly overlooked upon release, but it has grown in appreciation over the past decades. It's wonderful to see the 30th anniversary warrant such fanfare, especially as it's just in time to terrify and traumatize an entirely new generation.

Video

This is how you do a restoration! The 4K print was overseen by director Mary Lambert, who consulted on the process from beginning to end, and you can tell they've put their heart and soul into making Pet Sematary look as if it was shot yesterday.

This isn't a vibrant or poppy picture. It's not the kind you'd put in to easily showcase what a film can look like on a 4K system, because to a casual viewer, it looks just like an old film would. But for anyone who remembers watching this on a grainy VHS or an old film copy in revival theaters, Pet Sematary looks incredible.

Detail is superbly sharp, skin tones look perfect, and the Dolby Vision HDR makes the blacks inky landscapes from which there is no escape from. My dreaded bed sequence is even more horrifying now than it was 30 years ago, and I was surprised at how scared I was watching it even today.

Granted, there's a little softness to the image at times, and that's probably due to the early effects work. But it's such a minimal complaint that most won't notice it. Instead, they'll marvel at how good an old film can look, and how it's possible only on a good 4K disc like this one.

Audio

First off, let's celebrate that for once the Nordic release doesn't skimp out on the options that others get. Not that everyone will need these languages, but it's nice to see that we are living up to the promise of a universal 4K release that packs everything in for everyone.

Secondly, the DTS-HD Master Audio is the same mix we got on the Blu-Ray a few years back. Which is fine, but it's surprising considering how much work went into the film restoration. Maybe there's just so much you can get out of the old tracks, and it's quite clear in places that especially the sound effects are a bit on the thin side.

Luckily, the dialog is crisp and clear and the mix emphasizes a general balance throughout. No scene particularly stands out, which is just fine for a film like this. Instead, there's a omnipresent sense of dread that works well for a subtle and terrifying soundtrack.

Extras

Some of the extras are old and directly off the Blu-Ray, but the 4K does pack in a few meager new additions.

The first one, Fear and Remembrance, is in theory a fascinating look at the legacy of the film, but it's only 7 minutes long! That's barely enough time to even dig into the basic premise, let alone the 30 year legacy.

The second, Pet Sematary: Revisited, is a bit longer by 2 minutes, and it's a fascinating, if short chat with Mary Lambert about her connection to Stephen King's material. Most of the stuff here is also in the wonderful Audio Commentary track, which is essential listening to film fans and students. Lambert is a great orator and her insight into making effective horror is a masterclass that makes the disc worthwhile.

The new Storyboards gallery is fine, but also only 16 images that barely dig into the good stuff. There's an introduction that explains where they found these original storyboards, and it sounds like a fascinating story that could be expanded upon, but isn't.

The longer featurettes, Stephen King Territory, The Characters, and Filming the Horror, are all around 10 to 15 minutes in length and are still great additions, even if they're in 480i standard definition.

Overall

Pet Sematary looks and sounds great, and features a wealth of extras that are just on the better side of comprehensive. Personally, I wish there was more, but I'm also greedy when it comes to film school like this.

As a movie, this is still one of the best King adaptations out there, and a horrific nightmare that everyone should experience even once. The 4K physical release is a dream, with some of the best visuals and audio available for this type of film.

A must have for fans of Stephen King, horror, and good extras.