Every review I could find about this movie mentioned its over the top gore, and while I usually have the same policy towards gore as CGI (only use it when absolutely necessary) and thought I could just ignore it and make my review focus on the deeper meaning of the film, I find that the goriness of the film is all I can think about after watching this one. I absolutely loved the first Pet Sematary by Stephen King (as you can see in my review of the film at the link) but this one just isn't the same. Now that being said I still think the film is decent if you're a fan of the first because there are a lot of similarities: the evil pet, pretty much everyone dying, several references to the events of the first film, similar sets used, and of course a great Ramones song playing at the credits. The sheer amount of gore is the film's main weakness, but other weaknesses include its trying to hard to be a teen movie. There are all sorts of angsty "teens have problems" scenes, but in the grand scheme of the film they are totally irrelevant to rest of the events in the film, except that they help to emphasize that the main [teen] characters of the film are outcasts whose only true friends have died (the main boy's mom, and the fat boy's dog). This movie has an unlikely hodgepodge of B celebrities: Anthony Edwards (Goose from Top Gun), Edward Furlong (the boy from Terminator 2), Lisa Waltz (Brighton Beach Memoirs, Starry Night), Jared Rushton (Tom Hanks's friend from Big, Honey I Shrunk the Kids) and Clancy Brown (Shawshank Redemption, Highlander, and the voice of Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants). The movie also has some unexpected black humor in it, most of which comes from Clancy Brown's character (the dinner table scene, and the teen with motorcycle scene). As with the first movie when people or animals die the characters then bury them in the special Native American burial ground behind the Pet Cemetery and they come back to life, but usually
with a murderous streak in them. Furlong's character is obviously messed up psychologically after the death of his mom at the beginning of the film, and he only continues to get more messed up as the film goes on and more people die. But at one point he becomes so messed up (as does his world around him) that this weird synergy is created and it's almost as if his misfit character has found a place he belongs (albeit among the dead/undead), and that is probably one of the best/weirdest and most unique moments of the film, because you don't really know what will happen next (except that he will resurrect his mother). The only other thing worth mentioning about this one is that it has one of the most realistic looking car wrecks I've ever seen in the movies, and I have no idea how they could have damaged the car the way they did without the people inside actually getting killed. And there's a crazy scene where a guy pops the eyes out of a
taxidermied pug dog (who you think is alive at first). Also I liked the dog in this movie. In my opinion the dog is much scarier than the cat from the first movie. I should also mention this movie is pretty hard to find at the moment, except if you have Xfinity on demand with Comcast it is currently available there. I give the film a 3.25/5, and you can view the trailer below:
I've
seen a lot of movies lately that have been based around the famous horror short
story by English author W.W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw. In The Monkey's Paw a
mother wishes that her recently deceased son would come back to life, but when
he does he's not the same way she wished he was. The Monkey's Paw is a "be
careful what you wish for" story, and so is Deathdream. Deathdream is
about a family whose son goes to fight in Vietnam and gets killed, and the
mother in her deep grief and denial about her son's death, somehow manages to
bring him back home from the dead. Upon the son's arrival back home the family is
immediately aware that something is different with Andy and he is completely
different from how he was before the war, he becomes increasingly violent and
he seems more dead than alive. The film is also a less than subtle look at the
issue of how war changes people and a look at the baggage they bring home with
them (primarily PTSD). The film covers troubled relationships the soldiers had
with family and friends upon coming home, but also their romantic relationships
and how difficult that could be, and the film also symbolically looks at soldiers
and the drug addictions they would come home with (primarily Morphine because
of its use as a pain medication), even though the main character needs blood to survive instead of actual drugs.
The movie is a good "be careful what you wish for" story, as well as a unique zombie and vampire story. This was one of director Bob Clark(Black Christmas, Porky's, and A Christmas Story)'s
first films, and for famous horror movie make-up artist and actor Tom Savini
(original Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th, Creepshow, The Burning, Martin,
and Knightriders)'s first film. I love Bob Clark and his style and
cinematography that he brings to each of his films, and that style is still present
even this early on in his career, and the special effects are of course great
(of course because they're by Savini) as well. The acting is great too by the
whole cast which includes John Marley (The Godfather)as the father and Oscar
nominated actress Lynn Carlin (nominated for Faces[1969] in which she also
starred with Marley) as the mother. Deathdream is marvelously creepy and lots
of fun because of it and it's message, be it metaphorical or not is much like
the message of another film I reviewed recently
(The Walking Dead[1936]), which is "let the dead stay dead." That
message of course can also be reinterpreted to apply more directly to one's
life as "let the past stay in the past." I loved the film and I give
it a 5/5. The film is mentioned in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See. You can view the trailer below:
I've been meaning to write a review of this one for quite a while, I saw it a while ago and just never got around to it because I didn't feel as strong of an urge to write about this one as I did Black Christmas, or the original Child's Play, or Fright Night, or Badlands, or any of the other movies I really loved. This one was ok, better than the average horror movie sequel, but still on par to some of the other movies I've reviewed (or have seen but have yet to write about) is just ok. I liked that they kept the kid and Chucky as the same actors from the first movie. I also liked how this one was more humorous than the first (the sequels seem to get progressively funnier as they go). The plot is that the toy company who made the Good Guy dolls rebuilt the insidious Chucky to try aid their defense in court against the mother the police officers and the child, but they realize the error of their ways too late when Chucky kills some of the workers and escapes to go back to pursuing Andy from the first movie. This one is less believable than the first, and a little less scary than the first, but this one does have its moments.
The highlight of the film for me is no question the last 20 minutes or so when Chucky is chasing the kids through the maze of Good Guy dolls in the toy factory. Nothing is quite as scary as running away from a killer through a maze that has his face all over the walls. I also liked how this movie picked up right after the first Child's Play, just like Halloween 2, so that the sequel isn't a different story with one same character, but a continuation of the first story. Overall I give this a 3.75/5, it's better than most horror sequels, but I wouldn't classify it as one of the better sequels in the horror genre either. The movie is available to be streamed on Netflix, and you can watch the trailer below (You can also listen to the cheesy novelty song they made to promote the series "The Chucky Rap", that I recently discovered, here):
