Dr. Louis Creed and his wife, Rachel, relocate from Boston to rural Maine town of Ludlow with their two young children. The couple soon discover a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near their new home.

When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his neighbour Jud Crandall, setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unspeakable evil with horrific consequences.

Review

Tashneem – If you’re expecting a film adaptation of a terrifying Stephen King book, disappointment awaits you. The problematic pacing of the film complements the tedious plot, bland screenplay, dreary acting, sloppy scenes and lack of character development.

Let me rephrase that: It is a BORING movie.

The opening scene does a good job of capturing the attention of the audience and attempts to set the tone for the rest of the film. However, it fails to keep that attention and loses the audience with its biggest problem: pacing issues. Which becomes even more unbearably mind-numbing half-way through. Certain scenes are gratuitously slow and feels pretentious because it makes it obvious that it’s preparing the audience for an exaggerated scare.

The pacing might have worked in the book, but it fails in the movie and makes the film exhausting to watch. Ironically, the pacing problems and weak story makes the film feel rushed, desperate and lazy. King’s book and source material aside, the film doesn’t live up to the standards of good horror. Yes, it has scary scenes and cheap jump scares, but it lacks substance. It fails to capture the reality of the true horror of loss, grief, death and life… 3/10

THE BOOK SOURCE

The Book Source, a huge King fan and an avid King reader, hated this film. The opening scene captured her attention as well, but it was lost along the way and she too was overcome with boredom and annoyance. She had this to say;

“Kak movie interpretation for a good book. It missed the plot and meaning of the book completely, especially with the ridiculous changes. People shouldn’t change classics, because if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

 

“The Chairman” – I wouldn’t say that I went in with major hype into this movie, original was pretty cheesy, but given the trailers and images we have been getting of this movie I was actually looking forward to seeing what this new take had to offer.

Well, for the first half of the movie I was a very happy viewer but after the pivotal point in the movie (I won’t spoil this point) it goes downhill pretty fast. And with most of my recent reviews I will give my opinion on what I liked and what turned me off completely.

PROS

Score – A vital component in any good horror, it sets the mood and builds suspense and Pet Semetary does this in spades (see what I did there? Lol). If you have a weak heart, avoid this movie. You might not cope.

Set Designs – Everything around the actors seem to be better than the actors themselves, the forest and swamp are brilliantly terrifying. Lighting and the surroundings work wonderfully.

CONS

Acting (Everyone)  – Normally I would focus on how bad the children actors are here but everyone is bring their C-game. I would tolerate this if movie didn’t take itself so seriously, if you are going to having cheesy and contrived plots put them in a cheesy and contrived movie.

Motivations – The characters make decisions in the movie that are irrational and unearned given the context of the movie. It’s made very clear that the father is a clear thinking logical man, but he make some really questionable decisions. If he had the messed up childhood of his wife then maybe we could understand but there are too many right-angle swerves from his character. Yes, he is the focal point throughout and therefore the onus is on him to push the movie forward.

Jon Lithgow – Why?! Just why?! You just want to kick this guy in the face.

I wouldn’t recommend that you rush out to see this, but if you are up for something different from the current movies out there then this one is for you. The jumps scares will get you. 4.5/10

Just one other thing, the speed limit on these rural town roads really need to be investigated. The trucks in this movie seem to be from the Fast & Furious franchise.

Do you want to have you review or opinion piece published? Drop us a mail at bigscreenhooligans@gmail.com

Don’t forget to follow us on our social media platforms:
Facebook – bigscreenhooligans
Twitter – @BigHooligans
Instagram – bigscreenhooligans