This piece was published during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
One of the most exciting moments in my moviegoing adventures was the making of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines in Montreal and the Montérégie region, with some scenes even shot close to my house. A few friends also worked on the project and passing through “Ludlow, Maine” felt exciting. Seeing countryside Québec passed off as 1960s Ludlow was quite cathartic, but you can immediately see why director Lindsey Anderson Beer and the production chose this location to recreate the town. It’s also a testament to its production design work, with locations with a rustic feel, which the late 1960s certainly seemed to have captured.
It’s also the only good part of the movie; one of the most unnecessary second installments I’ve seen in quite some time. The 2019 original, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name and the second film adaptation after Mary Lambert’s 1989 turn, did not warrant any sequels, spinoffs, and/or prequels.
But since Paramount+ exists, the studio is undoubtedly on the route to diluting many of its famous brands to capitalize on pre-existing IP. This reminds me of the mid-to-late 1990s when cheaply constructed direct-to-VHS sequels were made to capitalize on the original film’s success and drum up home video sales. Disney was the biggest culprit, with almost every original animated movie in the Renaissance era getting poor direct-to-video sequels. But the model worked, and plenty of studios joined in on the fun.
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So here we are with Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, a second installment with almost no redeeming qualities, apart from the neat production design work in making the greater Montreal region look like Ludlow, Maine. In this prequel, we meet a younger Jud Crandall (Jackson White, whom John Lithgow portrayed in the 2019 film) as he is about to leave for the Peace Corps with his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind). However, they encounter Bill Baterman’s (David Duchovny) dog in the street, forcing them to return it to its owner.
Timmy Baterman (Jack Mulhern) meets them at the front door when they arrive. It is explained that he has returned from Vietnam with a Silver Star but doesn’t look at all like himself. The dog violently bites Norma’s arm, which sends her to the hospital. It is quickly revealed that Timmy was killed in Vietnam, but his dad resurrected him through its Pet Sematary. But as Jud said in the 2019 film, no one returns the same. From there, Timmy goes on a killing spree, targeting the town’s mayor (Pam Grier) and his once best friend Manny (Forrest Goodluck) alongside his sister Donna (Isabella Star LaBlanc). The city must unite to stop Timmy before it’s too late.
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines‘ Plot is Too Paper-Thin
Suppose you haven’t seen the 2019 Pet Sematary (or read King’s book). In that case, you may be lost in how the mechanics of the cemetery itself work because the film never bothers to explain how Timmy (or Bill’s dog) is magically alive.
There is a drawn-out flashback where white settlers attempt to colonize the land where the Mi’kmaq tribe lives. The flashback explains the origin of the “Ludlow” name. However, they give little insight into the nature of the Pet Sematary itself, which its producers promised would get further expanded in this installment. From my understanding, you must bury a body deep in the cemetery’s ground for it to return THE FOLLOWING DAY. That occurred in the original when Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) and Jud buried Church.
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However, as the bodies pile up, all of them come back in an instant, and without much question from the characters, as if this is now a Zombie film instead of something more potent and terrifying, where a once-dead body comes back fully alive, but with their mind corrupted. That’s not being “Undead” because it’s far more psychologically active than the state of a Zombie. However, Beer and co-screenwriter Jeff Buhler seem more interested in dumbing down King’s material than raising it in ways he didn’t explore when he wrote the book. Pet Sematary is not a baseless Zombie horror title, but this prequel makes it out as such.
Few Elements of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Work
Even worse, none of the scares or action sequences are particularly effective. The film is far too frenetically edited, blunting any impact the action scenes could have if they took their time building up the dread and tension as they slowly reveal Timmy has been resurrected from the dead. Had this been a twist that crept up viewers instead of being shown at the top of your movie (it opens with Bill digging up Timmy’s body, losing all of the intended suspense as he explains to Jud that “Timmy’s back from Vietnam with a Silver Star” in the VERY NEXT SCENE), it would’ve been far more effective than what we had.
It’s also a shame that none of the acting is particularly good. Apart from Pam Grier delivering the best line of the entire film, showcasing how she never lost her touch when she had the final word in films like Coffy and Foxy Brown, most actors give pitifully shoddy work. Duchovny, in particular, seems the most uninterested, even if he is the core of the film and the reason why Timmy has been “brought back.”
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A shift in his arc occurs near the climax, but it’s so truncated that we never get to invest in him or any other character that populates Ludlow. White never embodies the spirit Lithgow had in the original, which makes his iteration of Crandall feel more distanced than closely connected.
As a result, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines isn’t worth your time. The film is not scary, has no sense of suspense and proper style, none of the acting is particularly good, and the plot is so paper-thin that it eventually falls apart as it reaches its nonsensical climax. If you are curious enough and want to watch it, at least it’ll be short (88 minutes), and you’ll forget about it about an hour after watching, so there’s that.
I give Pet Sematary: Bloodlines a 0.5/5
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is now available to stream on Paramount+.
What did you think of the Pet Sematary: Bloodlines? Were you a fan of the 2019 or 1989 adaptations? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow us on social media!
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