Pet Sematary (2019)

Louis Creed, his wife Rachel, and his two children Gage and Ellie move from a large city to a small town. Louis works in the university hospital and his wife takes care of the children. They get acclimated to their home and befriend the gruff neighbor Jud Crandall, but something is still bothering them. On their property lies a pet cemetery where local children ritualize their pet's deaths, but the real and very powerful cemetery lies beyond a barrier. When the family cat dies, Jud shows Louis this burial ground, but the cat is simply not the same anymore when it returns. Then tragedy strikes their family and Louis plots to do the same without looking at the grave consequences.

Pet Sematary is a flawed film that doesn't live up to the book or the original film for me. The family is adorable but their underlying issues aren't really established before anything happens. Rachel and her anxiety and trauma about her sister Zelda are without all the deeper implications of her fear of death and sickness. It's played only for jump scares. One of the best things about the book is the deep friendship between Jud and Louis, but here, it's like they don't even know each other, putting into question why Louis would even follow Jud at all. Even Ellie's relationship with Church seems surface level. When he becomes cruel and weird, she seems happy to be rid of him instead of heartbroken over the loss of her constant companion. Gage's precognition abilities seem to pop out of nowhere and only serve to get Rachel back to their house. The exposition is glossed over probably because it's a familiar story, but those deep relationships need to be established before things happen for it to mean anything.

** spoilers **

The best parts of the film are in the resurrection of Ellie and the ending with big caveats. Ellie's death scene is framed so much like the original with Gage running towards the street. It would have been a perfect twist to have Ellie die instead, but it was literally spoiled in the final trailer. The impact would have been so much more visceral if there was no mention of it at all and frankly ruined the effect of this twist on the story. Louis takes zombie Ellie and cares for her like he would any other child, bathing her, feeding her, and putting her to bed. These mundane tasks take on a tense and unnatural air because she's not the same. Little things remind Louis that she is dead like the brush tangling on the staples in her head. I loved how Gage's death is in your face with graphic descriptions of his decay and I was disappointed with how perfect Ellie looked in comparison. Having Ellie so decayed and disgusting would never be accepted in a film, so this was a good way to portray it. The ending is by far the best part of the film with Ellie making her parents into zombies (in record time) and converging upon a still living Gage locked in the car. The ending is so much more bleak and dark because Gage is like the last bastion of their previous lives.

Pet Sematary is an entertaining movie, but compared to the depth of the book (which I still had numerous problems with) and the original film, it just pales in comparison. The acting was fine, but John Lithgow as Jud felt completely wasted. The vast majority of problems occurred in the writing, especially in glossing over exposition to get to the scary stuff. The ending was unexpected at least. The best twist in the movie was unfortunately ruined in the trailer, so others should take note and not repeat those mistakes. The emotional impact of that scene would have been entirely different if it hadn't been plastered everywhere first. Overall, it was on ok movie, but it really felt short of what could have been.

My rating: 2/5 fishmuffins

Gerald's Game

* spoilers *

Jessie and her husband Gerald go to their isolated vacation home by a lake to relax and rekindle their relationship. When they arrive, Gerald wastes no time in taking some Viagra and handcuffing Jessie to the bed. When he roleplays that he's an intruder there to rape her, Jessie refuses to continue. He refuses to release her, relishing in the control, but then he has a heart attack and dies on top of his wife before he can uncuff her. Jessie pushes his body to the floor, but can't reach the keys or the phone. No neighbors can hear them and no one is expecting them to come back for days. Can Jessie escape the handcuffs or at least stay alive until someone will find her?

Gerald's Game is a faithful adaptation of the novel that makes minor changes to improve the story. The film establishes both Gerald's and Jessie's outlooks on life right at the beginning of the movie. A dog is in their way on the road. Jessie immediately feels sympathy for the starving animal and is on the cusp of adopting him. After they arrive, she doesn't hesitate to give the dog some of their food. Gerald, on the other hand, thinks of the dog as a nuisance that needs to be removed or killed. He also considers the extremely expensive food wasted on the dog. Jessie is kind hearted if oblivious to her wealth and Gerald is uncaring and cruel.

Once their roleplay starts, it's clear that Jessie puts up with a lot and wouldn't have protested until Gerald called himself "daddy." It triggers something in her and she soundly refuses. The book has him flat out planning to rape her and she physically fighting back, causing his heart attack. The film has a slightly less disgusting Gerald pondering their marriage and discussing with her (even though he previously refused to release her) and then dying due to possibly too many Viagra pills. It was a good call to not have an addition sexual assault onscreen when another one is more prevalent and important.

So Jessie is left lying on the bed with her hands in cuffs with no one to find her, away from anything that might help plus the dog is now eating her dead husband. The book has different versions of Jessie talking to her, insulting her, and giving her advice. The film version only has Gerald and Jessie. Gerald shows his true nature as a misogynist and an abuser by mocking her ideas and belittling her every step of the way trying to get her to give up. Hallucination Jessie is an idealized version of herself that gives her encouragement and helpful information while slinging insults right back at Gerald. Her physical appearance is pristine. The deterioration of real Jessie is highlighted throughout the movie with the visual comparison of her hallucination.

You might assume that the story is too basic to hold up for a full length film. You would be wrong because the rest of the film is Jessie trying to survive and mentally dealing with why she accepted so much abuse for so long. Jessie's world has become incredibly small because she's trapped. Insignificant things to her before like leaving a door open or placing a glass on the headboard are suddenly the stuff of life and death. We see things from Jessie's perspective on the bed, so even Gerald's body is only partially seen because of the vantage point. A misshapen  man shows up in her house at night with a box full of jewelry and bones, which she assumes is her hallucination of death. The fear of this figure spurns her on to take action to escape death.

The mental journey about her father's abuse is something she's tried to protect herself from since she was 12. By ignoring it, she found it easier to ignore many harsh truths in order to feel safe. The memories had a different look to them, almost dreamlike. The family dynamic is established before showing the abuse, the talk afterward, and Jessie's state afterwards. It's so insidious and disgusting how her disgusting father sets up the situation, puts the blame on himself and her, and then forces her to promise never to tell anyone. The aftermath isn't in the book, but makes more sense to show a possible solution to her problem.

Gerald's Game is an intense film that improves upon the book in subtle ways. The memories relate to things her subconscious is trying to tell her and makes more sense overall. The gore is subtle up until the end in a graphic, cringe inducing scene. The ending is much better than the book. Where the book simply sums up what happened, the film gives it meaning by having Jessie reclaim her life, get past her fears, and finally address and free her 12 year old self. It does come off a bit Lifetime Original Movie, but it fit for me based on Jessie's journey.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

It (2017)

Georgie Denbrough was last seen peering into a storm drain and disappeared, never to be seen again. His family is in tatters over his presumed death, leaving his older brother Bill without support. Bill is the only one convinced Georgie might still be alive or at least has hope to recover his body. The summer after Georgie's disappearance, he gathers his friends brash Richie Tozier, hypochondriac Eddie Kasprak, and shy Stan Uris to search for him themselves, running into violent bullies, horrific visions and creatures, apathetic adults, new friends, and Pennywise the Dancing Clown, an enigmatic and horrific creature, along the way.

It is undeniably a huge success, breaking box offices records left and right and sparking a renewed interest in Stephen King film adaptations. Many aspects of the film impress with their innovation and ability to surprise, including child actors, the nightmarish tableaux, and Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. The Losers Club are actual children who mostly talk like kids would talk. The best writing and performances are in Bill, Bev, Ben, and Eddie. Their worst fears are realized in unexpected ways. I thought I knew what the slide show scene would be based on the trailers, but it was the best surprise of the film. All of these scenes feel dreamlike and the CGI is used to enhance that feeling. The strength of the film is having childhood fears hold real danger Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise takes a different approach than Tim Curry in the 90's version. Both have their merits and Skarsgard's stands on its own with his barely concealed rage at the children. He drools consistently while he speaks, giving a sense that something is off kilter even when he tries to lure them in and perhaps showing his true hunger.

Other parts of the film aren't as successful, even failing where the book did not, mostly with establishing the Losers Club, in the portrayals of Bev and Mike, and in Pennywise's powerset. The children didn't do a lot of fun things over the course of the film due to Bill's singleminded drive to find Georgie. In the book, they built a dam and flooded the sewere system, built a safe haven, and just talked to each other much more. A lot of the dialogue felt taken over by Richie's tasteless jokes, which were far too numerous. A few would have been fine and it became annoying. There wasn't any reason why they fought so hard for each other because the later additions, namely Ben, Bev, and Mike, seemed to have little reason to do so. The group didn't feel like friends, let alone a group that would fight to the death for each other.

Bev's portrayal wasn't great in the book, but it's worlds better than film. In a very awkward scene, her underwear clad body is ogled by the camera and the boys in the Losers Club alike, which is disturbing considering her age. The boys make total sense, but there's no justification in the camera lingering over a young teen's body. The boys are also in their underwear, but aren't objectified as Bev is. Her role as integral to beating It with her marksman skill is ignored and she's reduce to a damsel in distress, bait for Bill to come and save with no agency. Mike, on the other hand, had a rich story in the book as a librarian and a connection to the town's deep history of racism. All that is ignored in favor of an underdeveloped backstory about his family's slaughterhouse. His character barely makes an impact and his librarian role is given to Ben, who had a perfectly good role as engineer. It doesn't make sense and proves much more troubling than his role in the book.

Pennywise's powerset makes no sense at all. He has the power to become anything he wants and eats children like they're candy. The gory opening scene with Georgie is excellent in establishing danger and showing that these kids are in real danger. Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true for the whole film. The filmmakers make Pennywise too much like Freddy Krueger in that he is powerless if you don't fear him. It's utterly ridiculous especially with the tools at his disposal and make it seem like a poorly reasoned way to keep the main characters safe. The book is much better in that regard where the children's faith in their weapons led to his demise. The final confrontation between the Losers Club and Pennywise disappointed despite the creative visuals of his tower of artifacts with his victims literally floating around it.

While it's a resounding success, I find It to be a flawed movie that amazingly failed where the equally flawed book succeeded. The children, scares, and Pennywise are all well constructed and acted, but they ultimately disappoint. The children have no reason to fight for each other. The scares and Pennywise have no bite. I'm still going to watch the second film, but the children's story was always more compelling. I think it will be even more of a disappointment unless significant changes are made.

My rating: 2.5/5 fishmuffins

Halloween Arrives Early: Adventures in Hollywood Part 1

I trekked to LA with a friend and experienced some spooky things to jumpstart my Halloween season.

* The It Experience

The It Experience is a free haunt on the corner of Hollywood and Vine to promote the new film. The outside is magnificent as if it was ripped right out of the pages of the novel. I made a reservation when it was a first announced and I'm glad I did since the walk-in line stretched around the building and down the street. It now has expanded hours form 11am to 11pm daily until September 10th.

Anyway, now to the actual experience. Georgie leads groups of 7 (our own Loser's Club) throughout the house, urging us in frightened whispers to stay together and not wander off. Our Georgie really roleplayed well and acted like a scared kid for the duration, which helped the atmosphere. The house is creepy with cobwebs and random, dusty artifacts everywhere. Noises from scares in other rooms can be heard as a small preview of what's to come. Pennywise's voice provides the first jumpscare behind a closed door that made me jump. Maps of Maine and other It easter eggs litter the walls. This haunt does something that most don't: it forces you to stay in the room for longer than the times it takes to walk through it. The first room was the scariest to me. Clown statues stood all over with a small coffin in the middle of the room. An eerie music box tune plays and the door opens (with a jumpscare) but nothing's in it. The clown has been in the room the whole time and he reveals himself after some suspense.

The next room shows a TV show taken over by Pennywise with a wholesome host surrounded by children chanting "kill them all." On the back wall, the projection scene from the trailer is recreated as we see the family pictures of Bill and George until Pennywise is revealed. Going to the next room has flickering lights and disembodied hands grabbing at you through a wall. Unfortunately, the hands looked pretty cheesy and fake, but the thought was cool. The next room has three doors to choose from labeled not scary at all, scary, and very scary with Close to You playing in an eerie music box tune and flashing lights come from behind the doors. The walls are papered with missing children signs. The first has a creepy animatronic clown and the second has a real clown jump out. We are led through the final door into a bathroom with guts in a bathtub and skittering cockroaches. (Presumably) Beverly stands in front of a sink screaming as it spews blood, an exact scene from the book. It ends with It in the sewers in one last jumpscare that's broadcasted a little too early and perhaps a little too clearly lit for an animatronic.

Overall, The It Experience is a good haunt that uses the suspense of being in the rooms for an extended period of time to heighten fear. The Georgie actor I saw was excellent, but I saw some videos of other less impressive ones. I love the music that played throughout and I hope it's from the film's score. Pennywise's voice was everywhere, unifying the maze even though a lot of it was just about fear of clowns. My biggest disappointment was that so many of the scares were completely unrelated to the story of It. Other than that, it's totally worth going to especially as a free event.

More to come!

It

* spoilers *

Derry, Maine looks like a quiet, idyllic small town where nothing momentous happens. Oddly, it has higher murder rates than the most large cities despite the population difference. From before the city even had a name, weird, macabre events occured with terrifying frequency for about a year every 27 to 30 years. Because of It's influence, the town experiences just over a year of grisly children's deaths and escalating violence that culminate in some sort of large scale tragedy, sometimes with Derry citizens as the perpetrators. A few notable instances include the factory explosion near an Easter egg hunt leading to dozens of children's deaths, the destruction of the African American club The Black Spot full of people. the murder of a notorious criminal at the hands of a mob of Derry citizens, and the disappearance of a colony of 300 people before the city was established. I found these vignettes to be much more fascinating than the present day plot of the Loser's Club as children or as adults. I would have loved to see a short story collection detailing what happened during a choice years in It's life cycle.

It is an interesting creature whose favorite form is Pennywish the Dancing Clown. Although frightening clowns existed before it, Pennywise put the clown into a whole different level of horror. It takes the form of whatever secret fears we have that include a giant bird, wolfman, the mummy, a lecherous leper, giant aggressive leeches, and all manner of creatures. It lives in the sewers, so anywhere there are drains aren't safe. It can even use the voices of the dead to torment the living. Every single person in Derry has experienced some sort of supernatural event that scared them, but few ever talk about it. I love this aspect of the novel because idyllic looking small towns always have unspoken secrets. This story just adds a terrifying supernatural element. One small problem I had with It's forms were the inclusion of the pom pom buttons or a part of It's silver clown suit in each form meant to tie them together. However, if all the kids are seeing movie monsters and things out of their nightmares, it's safe to say they are from the same source without a visual cue.

The members of the Loser's Club are Beverly Marsh, Stan Uris, Bill Denbrough, Mike Hanlon, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kasprack, and Ben Hanscom. They met as a group during the summer of 1958 when they were 12 years old. Each character is well drawn and memorable, even the minor ones. Stephen King is always adept at making all of his characters feel real. The novel introduces them as adults and has each of them answering Mike's call, telling them to return to fight It. It takes an excruciatingly long time for essentially the same thing to play out for each character in order to give a window to their lives. It could have been accomplished by throwing them together and looking at how they interact and what stories they tell instead to keep the story movies forward instead of stagnating. At this point, we don't really have a reference for how they were before. I understand that King wanted the two storylines to echo each other in form, but it would have meant so much more if we had known how much they grew and how they changed over time. The two stories also have parallel expositions going on at the same parts of the novel that make for a long stretches of dull reading, but the ending has each of their fights with It and the escalating supernatural events that are much more interesting.

Although I enjoyed the book, Stephen King's books always have aspects I don't like such as the length of novel, the use of deus ex machine, and the treatment of women in the story. This book is over a thousand pages and could have benefited from a lot of editing. Some passages are repetitive and don't have a lot to do with the main story. I expect it could have been half the length and been a much faster paced story. When the Loser's Club are adults, they don't remember anything at all about their childhoods and are even missing scars that reappear when they are called. These memories only resurface when they are sorely needed and then fade away again by the end. They also feel a supernatural connection to each other and have knowledge that can't be explained by conventional means. This feels so contrived and badly reasoned. How can their entire childhood memories being gone escape notice? It seems that they only have a small amount of free will and are basically destined to fight It. I don't like heroes who are forced to; I like heroes who choose to. It seemed like their only choice was to go back or kill themselves.

The treatment of Beverly Marsh and other women in the story truly bothered me. Even as a twelve year old child, the descriptions about her are sexual in nature because of how she is viewed by her friends. However, these types of descriptions stay with her throughout the novel no matter who is with her and she's the only main character viewed in this way. The other women in the novel are seen in the same way, showing that women are seen as sexual objects. As a child, Beverly was beaten by her husband and then grew up to marry an equally abusive man. It seems telling that the only female main character is physically abused thoughout her life. The ending scene of her having sex with all of her friends as a twelve year old child as a means for them to "mature into adulthood" is nothing short of disgusting, disturbing, unnecessary, and incredibly unrealistic. The last piece of the misogynistic puzzle is Kay, described as a strong, feminist who supports Beverly. Beverly's husband Tom breaks into Kay's house and threatens to kill her unless she gives him Beverly's location. Kay stays strong until Tom threatens to multilate her face, basically saying that she was willing to die for her friend but proves too vain to live with a scarred face. It's completely out of character and a gross stereotype.

Stephen King's It has a lot going for it. A small town with a big secret, a macabre past, and the threat of horrific events happening far into the future. It is a singular entity that is horrific and also able to communicate directly with its victims. I wish It's true form was left up to the readers' imagination. Another of King's flaws is defining every aspect of the ending when it's not necessary like in Gerald's Game. It has enjoyable parts and well drawn characters, but it's incredibly bloated. I would tentatively recommend it if you are a fan of King's writing and you have a lot of time to read. I look forward to watching the new movie adaptation to see how they handle the problems I had with the story.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins