''Pet Sematary Two'' is a 1992 American
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by
Mary Lambert. The screenplay was written by
Richard Outten
Richard Outten is an American screenwriter who works in both motion pictures and television. Among his writing credits is the 2012 Warner Bros. adventure film '' Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'', starring Dwayne Johnson.
Career
After receiving ...
. It is the sequel to the film ''
Pet Sematary
''Pet Sematary'' is a 1983 horror novel by American writer Stephen King. The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and adapted into two films: one in 1989 and another in 2019. In November 2013, PS Publishing rel ...
'' (1989) which was based on
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's 1983 novel
of the same name. The film stars
Edward Furlong
Edward Walter Furlong (born August 2, 1977) is an American actor. He won Saturn and MTV Movie Awards for his breakthrough performance at age 13 as John Connor in James Cameron's '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day''; which was followed by a mini-seq ...
,
Anthony Edwards, and
Clancy Brown
Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.
Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...
. ''Pet Sematary Two'' was theatrically released in the United States on August 28, 1992, by
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
and grossed $17.1 million worldwide. It received negative reviews from critics, but
Clancy Brown
Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.
Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...
's performance received critical acclaim.
Plot
A few years after the events of the first film and following the accidental death of his mother Renee, 13-year-old Jeff Matthews and his veterinarian father, Chase, move to
Ludlow, Maine
Ludlow is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 434 at the 2020 census.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The northernmost po ...
, his mother's hometown. He's introduced to the belligerent town sheriff, Gus Gilbert, and his stepson, Drew, whom Gus abuses relentlessly. Jeff also draws the ire of local bully Clyde Parker, who tells him the story of the Creed family and the legend of the
Miꞌkmaq
The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...
burial ground.
One night, Gus shoots and kills Drew's beloved dog Zowie after the dog disturbs him during sex. Drew asks Jeff to help him bury the dog in the Miꞌkmaq burial ground to see if the rumors are true that it can resurrect the dead. Zowie does indeed return from the dead but is uncharacteristically fierce. Chase treats Zowie for his gunshot wound, which refuses to heal; even more bizarre is the fact that Zowie has no heartbeat. Chase sends a sample of Zowie's blood to a lab. It turns out that Zowie's cells have completely deteriorated and are no different from those of a dead canine.
Jeff and Drew go to the Pet Semetery on Halloween for a night of horror stories with local boys. When Gus finds out that Drew's mother allowed him to go despite being grounded, he rushes to the cemetery and breaks up the party. He attacks his stepson, but just as he is about to hit him with a grave marker, Zowie appears. The dog fatally mauls Gus, whom the boys subsequently bury at the Indian burial ground. Gus returns to life; he now moves stiffly and rarely speaks, but treats Drew better. Over time, Gus becomes increasingly crude and sadistic,
sexually assaulting
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
Drew's mother and brutally skinning the pet rabbits for supper.
Zowie breaks out of the veterinary clinic and kills three cats before entering Chase's home and attacking him. A day later, Jeff encounters Clyde, who is about to sever Jeff's nose using the wheel spokes of his own bicycle when Gus shows up. He sends Jeff home, then murders Clyde as Drew looks on. Gus then pursues Drew to their house, where the boy is trapped with the savage Zowie. He escapes through a window just as his mother arrives home in her car, and the two take off. Gus pursues them at high speed in his squad car, eventually killing them both by ramming their car into an oncoming potato truck. Gus then returns to Clyde's body and puts it in a body bag, intending to take it to the burial ground as well.
After Drew's funeral, Jeff decides to reanimate his mother by using the Indian burial ground's power. Gus exhumes her corpse and brings it to Jeff at the burial ground. When Chase hears that his wife's grave has been robbed, he rushes to the Gilbert house. There, he is attacked by Zowie and Gus, and he shoots and kills them both.
Upon coming back to life, Renee stabs and kills Marjorie Hargrove, the Matthews' housekeeper. Jeff confronts his undead mother in the attic, and they embrace. Chase arrives home and urges Jeff to get away from Renee, who says she wants to spend quality time with her husband. An undead Clyde arrives and, after knocking Chase out, tries to kill Jeff — first with an axe and then with an ice skate. Renee locks Chase and both boys in the attic, which she then sets on fire.
Jeff kills Clyde with a severed
livewire and then breaks down the attic door to escape. Not letting both Jeff and Chase leave, Renee says that she wants the three of them to work things out. Renee wants Jeff to stay and join her in death, saying she loves him. But Jeff drags his father out of the house as Renee is destroyed by the flames while shrieking "Dead is better!" In the final scene, a recovering Chase locks up his veterinary clinic before he and his son leave Ludlow behind.
Cast
*
Edward Furlong
Edward Walter Furlong (born August 2, 1977) is an American actor. He won Saturn and MTV Movie Awards for his breakthrough performance at age 13 as John Connor in James Cameron's '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day''; which was followed by a mini-seq ...
as Jeff Matthews
*Jason McGuire as Drew Gilbert
*
Anthony Edwards as Dr. Chase Matthews
*
Darlanne Fluegel
Darlanne Fluegel (November 25, 1953 – December 15, 2017) was an American actress, fashion model, film producer and professor. She was one of the few American fashion models who successfully transitioned to a career as a serious actor. Fluegel ...
as Renee Hallow-Matthews
*
Jared Rushton
Jared Michael Rushton (born March 3, 1974) is an American former actor. He is best known for his roles in several films from the late 1980s, including ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'', ''Big'', and '' Overboard''. He has been nominated for two Saturn ...
as Clyde Parker
*Sarah Trigger as Marjorie Hargrove
*
Lisa Waltz
Lisa Waltz is an American actress who has had roles in many television shows and who played Nora in the film adaptation of ''Brighton Beach Memoirs''.
Personal life
Waltz was born and raised in Limerick, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Bobby and ...
as Amanda Gilbert
*
Clancy Brown
Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.
Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...
as Gus Gilbert
Production
Paramount was anxious to follow up on the success of ''Pet Sematary'' with a sequel and invited Mary Lambert to return and direct. She has stated that her original concept for the film would have involved Ellie Creed as the central character, the only survivor from the first film. However, Paramount was not confident in making the film's lead a teenage girl, so the story was written with completely new characters and a male protagonist. Thirteen-year-old Furlong was cast in the lead role, capitalizing on his rise to fame in the previous year's blockbuster ''
Terminator 2: Judgment Day''. Shooting took place in
Coweta County, Georgia
Coweta County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is part of Metro Atlanta. As of the 2020 census, the population was 146,158. The county seat is Newnan.
Coweta County is included in the Atlanta-S ...
.
Release
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
, who wrote the novel upon which the first film was based, had his name removed from the film prior to its release. The film debuted at #3.
Home media
Paramount Home Video
Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global.
The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...
released ''Pet Sematary Two'' on VHS in April 1993, and on DVD in September 2001.
Shout Factory
Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...
released it on Blu-ray on February 25, 2020.
The original score / soundtrack album was released on CD as a limited edition from La-La Land Records on August 29, 2019, and on limited-edition vinyl (October 11, 2019) and audio cassette (September 3, 2019) from Terror Vision Records.
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, a
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
, reports that 22% of 23 critics gave the film a positive review and the average rating was 3.70/10. The site's consensus reads, "Not realizing that it had no unfinished business, ''Pet Sematary'' rises from the grave once more to beat an undead corpse." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic.
Biography
Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote that the film "is much better at special effects than at creating characters or telling a coherent story".
Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote, "Not nearly as scary as the 1989 original, it nonetheless expresses and attempts to resolve in bold mythological terms the anxieties of being 13." ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, ''"Pet Sematary Two'' is about 50% better than its predecessor, which is to say it's not very good at all." Richard Harrington of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' likened it to "an elongated ''
Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt may refer to:
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s
** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...
''" episode and criticized the script as a rehash of the original. Jay Carr of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' called it "better entertainment than the first ''Pet Sematary''" but more of a remake than a sequel. Patrick Naugle of
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...
wrote, "Everything about ''Pet Sematary Two'' stinks like the dead."
Accolade
Clancy Brown was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the
1993 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards
The 1993 ''Fangoria'' Chainsaw Awards ceremony, presented by ''Fangoria'' magazine and Creation Entertainment, honored the best list of horror films of 1992, horror films of 1992 and took place on May 1, 1993, at the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles (71 ...
for his portrayal of Gus Gilbert, but lost to
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...
for his performance in ''
Bram Stoker's Dracula''.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Pet Sematary
1992 films
1992 horror films
American supernatural horror films
American sequel films
American zombie films
Films set in Maine
Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state)
Paramount Pictures films
Films directed by Mary Lambert
Films set in cemeteries
Resurrection in film
American teen horror films
Pet Sematary
1990s English-language films
1990s American films