Pet Sematary is the first of the Stephen King’s novels I’ve read at the tender age of 14 and after that I was totally addicted to King’s scary stories for afterwards. Granted, nothing ever came close to the chills I got out of this particular novel – King himself has said that this is the only one of his writings that genuinely scares him.

After The Shining, Pet Sematary is the second best filmatisation of King’s works and Mary Lambert does her very best to cram the whole book under two hours. The story is well told, but due to time limit feels rushed and no real relationship with the characters is established.

Similarly to The Shining, Pet Sematary is thematically so heavy that it makes for a distressing movie experience at times (although it gets a little lighter towards the end as it turns from devastating tragedy into ’just’ a scary movie), but if a movie is able to provide such a thrill, it really can’t be dubbed nothing short of a triumph.

80s-o-meter: 90%

Total: 91%