3 out of 5

Directed by: Mary Lambert

It goes way off the rails in its conclusion, as Pet Sematary Two’s crafters clearly didn’t know exactly what to do with its story or tone, but leading into that, this is a true 80s / 90s horror sequel – taking and expanding on the mythology and concept of what came before and making it fully franchiseable, goofier, gorier, and probably less logical. This can be a slight, but seeing as how I didn’t find the first Pet Sematary to be all that great for various reasons, scriptwriter Richard Outten getting in there and making it a bit more mean-spirited, and returning director Mary Lambert allowed to apply her poetic, gothic touches without being hard-lined to a Stephen King script means that PS2 is ultimately more satisfying and successful than its lead-in, inclusive of its bonkers ending.

When Jeff’s actress mother dies in an on-set accident, the teen moves back in with his single father, Chase, and the duo move away from LA and back to hometown Ludlow, Maine, where Chase can set up his vet practice and which also happens to be where the Creed family used to live, their Pet Sematary chronicled events now having passed into town lore. So when Jeff (Edward Furlong) befriends Drew (Jason McGuire), and the latter’s dog dies at the hand of Drew’s emotionally abusive stepfather (Clancy Brown), we’re off for a burial – and resurrection – at the titular cemetary.

There’s a key ingredient here that already work better than the original: by framing it around the children, the loosey-goosey logic of using the cemetery is much more acceptable, as-is the guilt-fueled need to hide the results when doggo comes back, quite feral. And by not needing to overload the movie with much background explanation beyond retelling the Creed spook story – this is a benefit only a sequel can get away with – there aren’t so many moments where we have to line up the expectation of the cemetery’s effects with the results, and the dog can be a wolf, and when others meet resurrectable-fates, it’s cool that they’re totally psychotic. Actually, on that last point, that better aligns with how PS1 pitched things, and the movie has a lot of fun getting good and mean with it, even if that’s when the first real notes of the movie losing the thread occur.

Lambert may not be a great director of actors, but she has a good batch here. Furlong was always rather disconnected, but he’s a cool-ass 90s kid who can hit a glower and pose in a jean vest jacket like no other; McGuire was quite a discovery – definitely the best kid actor in the pack – and it’s interesting he didn’t continue much further beyond this role; Anthony Edwards, playing Chase, puts a lot of emotion into his role, adding more emotional nuance than may have been on the page; and Brown just digs in, no pun intended, and I respect that they made his lout a believable asshole instead of full-on mustache twirling. But: it feels like these benefits are incidental, with Lambert more concerned about crafting a camp-tinged moody splatterfest, and she very largely exceeds at that, with some of the gore (and comedic!) beats just perfect. Again, she (and/or editor Tom Finan, and/or the studio?) loses control with very bizarre choices in the final scenes, but that whole thing reeks of kitchen sink desparations, and “we’re already past 90 minutes” hurry.

Did Pet Sematary need a sequel? No, not at all, but PS2 proved it was a flick that could be dusted off and propped up in a new, even-more-90s vibe – check that stuffed-to-the-gills soundtrack – and gave us the framework for a likely diminishing returns set of sequels I would’ve watched, but didn’t happen until a 2020s reboot.