Cemitério Maldito II

So i sat myself down today to watch the sequel to the famous movie "Pet sematary" and expected a half-assed thing made only to drain a little extra money from the Pet sematary fans. I was positively surprised though as the plot was interesting(A widower vet moves to the village from the first movie together with his son to start a new life) and so was the characters. The actors was also good and performed excellent especially the guy who played Gus(cant remember his name). He manages to actually behave like a gleeful psychotic man without going so far that his performance would evoke laughter instead of shivers. His performance is without doubt the best part of the movie. This movie is more gory than the original movie and has less of the psychological terror elements that were a big part of the first movie although this is rarely taken too far, a few moments of the movie features over-the-top goriness but not enough to make it ridiculous in any way. To sum it up: Pet sematary 2 is a good horror movie featuring both psychological terror as well as gore, the simple yet interesting plot as well as the performance of the actors makes this a movie well worth seeing.

Many will lump this into the sequels of Stephen King based movies, which is correct. This one was not written by King, but despite this lack of originality it is a fairly good sequel to an excellent movie.

The mood is dark, just not as dark as the first film. We have Geoff and his veterinarian dad relocating to rural Maine (and the location of the Pet Sematary) after Geoff's mom is accidentally killed in front of him while shooting a movie. In their new small town, Geoff's dad opens up his own practice while Geoff has trouble adjusting to his surroundings. He befriends another outcast, Drew, who has an abusive stepfather named Gus to deal with at home. One night, out of meanness, Gus shoots and kills Drew's loyal dog Zowie. Drew then gets Geoff to help him bury Zowie in the notorious cemetery in hopes of bringing his dog back to life. It comes back, just different, mean and nasty, like it's mad about being resurrected and now hates everything and everyone (like all things brought back to life in the cemetery act). This starts off a chain of events that leads to the destruction of the lives of everyone involved (and some who aren't involved incidentally). Now its just a matter of who can survive the supernatural terror engulfing the town. The storyline is fun and the acting is good enough. The gore and other special effects are great.

I can easily look past the bad points in a film and see the good in it. This film is like that for me. The film also posses qualities that make me automatically like it. It is an underdog film (meaning it's not very popular with most people on this site). It also has that early 90s disillusioned grunge youth generation feel to it. Some may see this quality as making the film darker, even mean-spirited, but I love that era and love its influence in movies. This is just the frosting on the "cake" for me, and overall the "cake" is worth a viewing on its own merits, even if it's just so you can judge for yourself.

This was an average sequel yet the performance by Clancy Brown made it way much better.

While shooting a horror film, the famous actress Renee Hallow (Darlanne Fluegel) dies in a weird accident. Her ex-husband, the veterinary Chase Matthews (Anthony Edwards) decides to leave Los Angeles and move with their teenage son Jeff Matthews (Edward Furlong) to Renee´s house in Ludlow to start a new life. Soon Jeff is bullied by his schoolmate Clyde Parker (Jared Rushton) and befriends the teenager Drew Gilbert (Jason McGuire). When Drew´s stepfather Sheriff Gus Gilbert (Clancy Brown) kills his dog Zowie, Drew buries his dog with Jeff in an ancient Indian cemetery that has the rumor of raising the dead. Zowie returns and kills Gus and they bury him in the cemetery. But soon the boys learn that sometimes death is better.

"Pet Sematary II" is a forgettable sequel of Stephen King´s "Pet Sematary (1989). Directed also by Mary Lambert, the plot is weaker and unoriginal. The one-dimension lead actor Edward Furlong keeps the same expression when is happy, sad, bullied or whatever. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Cemitério Maldito II" ("Damned Cemetery II")

I have indeed watched the 1992 "Pet Sematary II" movie before. Twice actually, I think, since 1992. And I sat down to watch it again here in 2023, as I had the opportunity to do so, and I only vaguely remembered parts of the movie.

Writer Richard Outten put together a fair enough script for the movie, though it wasn't all that different from the original 1989 "Pet Sematary" movie. Though it should be noted that "Pet Sematary II" most certainly outdid the abysmal 2019 remake of the 1989 original.

Edward Furlong was quite good in the lead here in "Pet Sematary II", adding his back-then-usual-charm to the movie for sure. The movie also have Anthony Edwards on the cast list, but it was a shame that he wasn't given more on-screen time. I have to call out Clancy Brown and Jared Rushton for doing great jobs in portraying two characters that you just can't help but loathe. They really put on spot on performances in bringing Gus Gilbert and Clyde Parker to life on the screen, no pun intended.

After watching the movie again here in 2023, I have to admit that I was sort of puzzled by the fact that dead Gus Gilbert could bury and bring back Clyde Parker. Isn't the lore of the Indian burial ground that you, and I quote, "bury your own". But Gus is never mentioned to have any relation to Clyde, which just seems to be strange as it breaks the lore.

Visually then "Pet Sematary II" is quite good. Sure, the movie is showing signs of aging, but for a movie from 1992, the practical special effects still hold up.

Not really as good as the 1989 movie, of course, but "Pet Sematary II" is actually not too bad for a sequel. It was just lacking somewhat of originality in the writing department.

My rating of "Pet Sematary II", from director Mary Lambert, lands on a six out of ten stars.