The Creed family moves into a house adjacent to the state highway that sees Orinco trucks passing by every day. Mr. Judd immediately warns his new neighbor Louis to have their cat Church neutered, as that road has been lethal for many animals, and he also shows the Creed family the small pet cemetery that the children have erected right behind the new arrivals' house. Despite the operation, Church dies on the road precisely during Thanksgiving, when only Louis is at home, so Judd decides to reveal a secret to his neighbor: beyond the small pet cemetery, there is an ancient Indian cemetery that has the power to bring the dead buried there back to life. Louis then buries his cat, which comes back to life the same night, only Church no longer seems the same. Some time later, the new victim of the state highway is Cage, the second child of the Creed family. Louis, devastated by grief and blinded by madness, decides to bury his little deceased in the Indian cemetery as well.
There are films celebrated everywhere and at all times, generators of sequels, episodes, and more, films that have a fame that often goes beyond the qualitative reality, which prove to be true golden geese in the hands of the majors. Then there are those films to which public success (and also critical) has not been lacking, they have had a certain following, and when they are mentioned, one ends up celebrating the era in which they were produced or seen. "Good times, those", in general, one starts or ends like this, one brings up an event, one celebrates a bit the value of the film in question, and then one ends up talking about something else, putting back in the memory drawer the object of discussion from which everything started. "Pet Sematary - Cemetery Viviente" has had a bit of this sad fate.
Based on the famous novel by Stephen King, "Cemetery Viviente" is a beautiful and poignant fresco of the pain that accompanies the loss of a loved one, as well as a disturbing and cruel zombie movie. The way King (here screenwriter) and Mary Lambert (director) describe the quiet and family happiness dotted with disturbing omens of death is exemplary: initially, there are no negative characters, everyone is wrapped in good intentions and dedication to the family. The omens of horror that will soon befall the Creed family are, however, evident, they take the form of disturbing places that demand domestic animals, manifest themselves through the stomach pains that torment Missy Dendrige, take the appearance of a ghost, and, above all, break the silence with the roar of the deadly trucks that cross the state highway daily. The omens become more and more insistent, the innocents (the little Ellie) have premonitory dreams, and people begin to show their skeletons in the closet (the complicated story behind Zelda's illness). All of this is wrapped in a leaden and oppressive atmosphere, which explodes with the death of the little Cage and everything that follows.
Mary Lambert - who will also direct the sequel, but with less expressive force, before ending up working mainly for television - directs one of the most painful and poignant scenes that contemporary horror cinema remembers, namely the death of the little Cage: a shoe stained with blood that rolls on the asphalt, a tearing and tearing cry of a father alternated with photographs showing the happiest moments the child had lived. But Lambert has no pity for such an anguishing grief and puts on stage the macabre kinghian without concessions, describing Louis Creed's descent into hell in a credible way.
"Cemetery Viviente" boasts at least two moments of authentic terror still today of great impact: the flashbacks on the suffering Zelda (played by a man, Andrew Hubatsek) who pronounces in a sinister way the name of her sister Rachel; the long finale in Judd's house with the actions of the returning Cage. Furthermore, the explicit and decidedly "raw" way in which the theme of death, particularly child death, is treated really manages to be at times disturbing, to the point of earning the film a ban for minors under 18.
The major flaw that afflicts "Cemetery Viviente" is perhaps King's inability to properly filter his novel, leaving in a massive way some elements that do not work very well in a film and that could certainly have been reduced, such as the overly insistent presence of the ghost Victor Pascow, which sometimes proves to be intrusive and redundant to underline a message that the viewer understands at a glance.
Good cast, composed of Dale Midkiff ("The Crow 3") in the role of Louis, Denise Crosby ("The Guardian") in that of his wife Rachel, Fred Gwynne (the Herman Munster in the tv series "The Munsters") in the traits of the neighbor Judd, and the little Miko Hughes ("Nightmare - New Nightmare"; "Mercury Code") in those of Cage. Unforgettable the cat Church, probably the most disturbing ever appeared in a film.
In conclusion, "Cemetery Viviente" is an excellent horror film, really disturbing and profoundly anguishing, especially if you watch it as an adult; it is not exempt from flaws but remains enjoyable and effective even after many years. One of the best adaptations from a Stephen King novel.
It deserves half a pumpkin more.
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