My memories of the original Pet Sematary film from 1989 goes back to my coming of age in the ’90s. I’d often rent VHS tapes from the local library, and that’s how I came across the original film. When I heard that Pet Sematary Bloodlines was being released, I knew that it was something that I would have to check out (even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the 2019 reboot).
While I liked certain parts about Pet Sematary Bloodlines, I have to say that I didn’t enjoy the film as a whole. There seemed to be quite a few plot holes, including how Jud’s Father tells his son to aim for the eyes, but then fails to do the same (nobody had to aim for the eyes with Gage in the original film). Or how Timmy somehow gets ahold of Claymore mines, simply because he was in Vietnam? A few strange things like that didn’t add up for me.
The acting seemed fine, but the story barely gave us any backstory that we didn’t already know. The movie didn’t really go anywhere that we hadn’t been before. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be non-canon, but parts of it didn’t match with the original film (maybe it’s not supposed to?). It just seemed like a rehash of a tired franchise.
I wouldn’t say it was a bad movie, I would just say that it wasn’t necessary and didn’t go anywhere. Being a prequel, it didn’t tell me much more about the backstory than we already knew from the first film, only it changed it a little. Unrelated to Pet Sematary Bloodlines, but even if we look at Pet Sematary Part 2, it also veered off and even misused the “Sometimes, Dead is Better” quote that Jud proclaimed in the original film. With the problems that every sequel has had in this franchise, it would probably be best if it took its own advice.
