Pet Graveyard

Struggling with her life, a burnt-out nursing student decides to join a group of friends performing a special ritual to kill themselves and then come back to life to observe what happens after death, but when they realize they've brought a malignant figure after them and have to stop it.

This was an enjoyable enough if overall problematic genre effort. Among the better qualities here are the measures included that provide for a rather fun way of mixing together several different scenarios. The original idea of the ritual that must be performed including special rituals, preparations, and safety measures that will then allow them to be able to contact their specific deceased relative, making for a fun time here to understand their motivations and reasoning to undergo everything, including the whole concept of killing themselves. That this triggers a literal personification of the Grim Reaper to chase after them for breaking the rules of entering it's domain makes sense with the second half making use of the series of encounters present to discover they've been attacked by these supernatural forces including the demonic cat setting up encounters involving their deaths being made to look like suicides. These manage to provide some likable factors here, as there are a lot of issues holding it down. The biggest drawback to this one is the immensely sluggish pace that never once leaves this one with an uninspired and plodding setup. The central idea of everything starts well enough to get her to the group looking for a nurse to help them complete everything, but going about it while making the first half feature nothing of interest until after the fifty-minute mark, while they get everything in order, is just painfully, abysmally dull and pointless. That leaves this to rush through the final half, stalking and killing them in some rapid encounters to make up for how the first half lays everything out. That everyone who performs this is so monumentally stupid and ignorant of what they're doing is another big issue as their inability to see what's going on around them yet continuing to trust everything makes it feel very stupid and uninteresting, and with the film's equally obvious budgetary limitations in play, are what manage to bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

The writing is bad, the plot is bad, the acting is bad, but y'know what? I went in knowing it would be because of the clickbait title, and here I am, still alive. It wasn't that bad considering low budget horror movies.

The name The Asylum is enough to fill anybody with dread, the odd surprisingly watchable one aside much of their films are mediocre at best and most are dreadful to an intelligence insulting degree. A vast majority of their output is cheap looking, badly written and acted and basically looks like little effort was put into the film in question. When they rip off films too (a vast majority of them good or more ones), which is the case often, they strip away everything that made those films in question work and produces something the completely opposite in quality.

Capitalising upon the release of 'Pet Semetary' with a concept that borrows a lot from 'Flatliners', 'Pet Graveyard' is not one of The Asylum's worst (of which there is a large group of) and is not even the worst film of theirs released this year. Every flaw that is seen in much of their output is here though and as a film in its own right it has next to nothing to recommend it. Anybody expecting to be scared or intrigued are best looking elsewhere, as both are nowhere in sight in 'Pet Graveyard'. The recent 'Pet Semetary', which has yet to be seen but do want to see it having fond memories of the older version (that needs a re-watch though), has to be really terrible to be as bad or worse than this.

Visually, 'Pet Graveyard' is poorly made. Drably and less than stylishly shot, less than tightly edited and too drearily lit, with effects that look like they were made as an afterthought and with next to no money left. The music when it appears has no atmosphere and always used inappropriately. The inexperience does show in the direction but hopefully that will improve over-time with the right budget and resources.

What particularly sinks 'Pet Graveyard' is the script and especially the story. The script is as flat as a soggy pancake, has no natural flow and is quite cheesy. The pace is dull throughout, with a story that has far too little going on or at least takes too long to get going. What should have been intriguing with the experiments instead bores and perplexes as well as looking distractingly cheap. There is nothing scary or suspenseful, and when there are any attempts the execution is too obvious and occasionally camp.

Found nothing interesting or investable about the dull or irritating characters with vague motivations. The acting is very poor at best, not being able to do anything with the poorly written characters and having practically nothing to work with.

Have to agree that the least bad thing about 'Pet Graveyard' is the cat, but sadly not enough to save the film.

The cat aside, a waste of time. 1/10

Was this a rip-off from Pet Semetary, Flatliners or both? Yes! And what has happened to the art of the Brits making high-quality productions? At first I thought that The Asylum Production company made this, but no. If they did, it would be at least worth a look!

The obviously cheap ploy, with the title, aside, the film plays with very familiar horror tropes decently. The supernatural, reaching the spirit world, and the eternal longing for an understanding of of death. All these, only in a twisted nightmarescape where delving into the darkness can be deadly.

The acting faulters throughout the film, character development is only slightly developed to a level that only supports scene staging and we never really get to connect emotionally. Most of that seems to stem more from a lack of character committment than story. Still there is enough present to tell a complete story, The things lacking cause a lack of energy, suspense and elevated level of horror desperately needed.

"Pet Graveyard" does implore practical elements, which are always a plus and something I really enjoy. There isn't much of a musical score to to amplify the feel and thrill of the movie, overall. It kicks in during the kill shots but often it feels clunky and does little to accentuate the moment. Overall, the film never reaches it's potential, and there is a lot of that present in"Pet Graveyard". Check it out but don't expect too much.