Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Review

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines review.

Everybody loves a prequel! Well…maybe not in the case of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines. At least according to early reviews. Are they right?

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines

Directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer

Written by Lindsey Anderson Beer and Jeff Buhler

Starring Jackson White, Forrest Goodluck, Jack Mulhern, Henry Thomas, Natalie Alyn Lind, Samantha Mathis and David Duchovny

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Review

I don’t know who was asking for a Pet Sematary prequel centered on Jud Crandall (Jackson White) …but here we are.  I guess I kind of get why there would be another installment in the world of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary.  It’s always been a popular franchise.  Well…maybe not the Edward Furlong lead Pet Sematary Two…but they can’t all be hits.  Bloodlines is a direct prequel to 2019’s Pet Sematary.  So, this would be a young version of the character played by John Lithgow.  If that matters to you.  It probably shouldn’t.  It works as a prequel to any version of the story if you are willing to suspend some disbelief in the period it’s set in.  The story has always been the same.  That’s kind of the problem.

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines has some interesting ideas.  It never finds a way to fully flesh them out, however.  Here, the elders of Ludlow know all about the power of the burial grounds and act as protectors of the land.  The story concerns a young Jud Crandall and his efforts to leave this no horse town behind him.  The overall message of the movie conflicts heavily with Jud’s actions in every version of the original story that we know…but to be fair…Jud’s actions never really made sense in Pet Sematary. 

Bloodlines doesn’t do the “Star Wars” thing of attempting to make everything line up so perfectly with stories that come later in the chronology…and it’s all the better for it.  Prequels that attempt to rectify plot holes generally fail spectacularly.  Pet Sematary: Bloodlines only fails…um…unspectacularly.  It’s true…it’s not a great movie.  It’s not even a good movie.  But it’s also not as bad as you may have been led to believe.  It feels like a Pet Sematary movie.  That’s important.  It’s not enough…but it’s important.

The antagonist of the story is a character we’ve heard about and seen before in Pet Sematary stories.  Timmy Baterman (Jack Mulhern) has returned from war…and he’s come back…different.  We know what’s wrong with him straight away.  Jud is not yet aware of what the grounds in Ludlow are capable of.  The town assumes Timmy has returned with a bad case of PTSD due to his war efforts.  The town elders, including Jud’s father (Henry Thomas) know the truth.  They’ve sworn to protect the town from its cursed land.  Bill Baterman (David Duchovny) broke the pact to return his son.

Timmy is a fascinating character.  At least, he could have been.  Walking through town without an understanding of who he is anymore…what his place in the world is…what he’s become.  It’s a great allegory for soldiers who return from war unable to deal with what they’ve seen or done.  Unfortunately, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines doesn’t go far enough.  Of course, Timmy is going to fully become the villain of the piece…but it’s the earlier scenes where he seems to struggle with his new reality that hit the hardest.  There aren’t enough of them.  Bloodlines opens the door to a genuinely interesting character study and shies away from delivering one.

Jud is presented as a kind of antithesis of Timmy.  He’s looked down on for not heading off to war.  Rumors that his father pulled strings don’t sit well with the Baterman’s in particular.  Neither does Jud’s dream of getting out of Ludlow with his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind) to join the Peace Corps.  Given its 1969 setting…the specter of war and resentment towards those who could and didn’t serve feels like a realistic addition.

The focus on the town of Ludlow is given a more thorough accounting.  We see a flashback to the founding of Ludlow…and learn the horrible reason it is given that name.  Ludlow’s leaders are looked at as people who never made it out…but that understanding is redefined when we learn that they remain with a great purpose.  To prevent things like Timmy Baterman from happening. 

So, if that all sounds good…what went wrong?  For one thing Pet Sematary: Bloodlines lacks the ambition to make its more interesting storyline threads pay off.  For every good idea it presents…it leads to a fizzle instead of a bang.  Yes, it eventually gets to some fun with the dead who have returned…but it takes its time getting there.  It’s a movie that is better on paper than in practice.  It’s also, on occasion, one of the most poorly lit movies I can ever remember seeing.  Many scenes take place in complete darkness…leaving you to guess what’s going on.  That’s an unacceptable flaw. 

That said…if you enjoy the Pet Sematary movies…Bloodlines isn’t bad.  It may fall short of its potential…but it does so with care put into the world.  You get some animal attacks…and some people who shouldn’t be walking around.  It’s gory enough.  It’s interesting enough.  But it’s never more than enough.  Three times in Pet Sematary: Bloodlines we are given the famous like “sometimes dead is better”.  For the purposes of this prequel…sometimes dead is just alright.

Scare Value

The truth is that Pet Sematary: Bloodlines isn’t as bad as you may have been led to believe. It’s not “good”…but it’s a perfectly watchable entry in the Pet Sematary saga. At least…it is when they light scenes correctly. There are some strong ideas here. They aren’t always fully fleshed out…but there are enough of them to keep Bloodlines watchable. Unfortunately, it rarely raises to much more than that.

2.5/5

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Link

Streaming on Paramount+

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Trailer

If you enjoyed this review of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, check out Saw X, The Exorcist: Believer, Don’t Look Away, Nightmare, No One Will Save You, Appendage and Mary Had a Little Lamb.