Pet Sematary Two

Plot

Following the accidental death of his mother Renee during production of her latest film, thirteen-year-old Jeff Matthews and his veterinarian father Chase move to Renee's hometown of Ludlow, Maine. He is introduced to 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 about the story of the Creed family and the legend of the Micmac burial ground.

One night, Gus shoots and kills Drew's beloved dog Zowie when he disturbs his pet rabbits. Drew asks Jeff to help him bury the dog in the burial ground to see if the rumors are true that it can resurrect the dead. Zowie does indeed return from the dead, but he 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 cemetery 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 (unfairly) 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 cemetery. Gus returns to life; he now moves stiffly and rarely speaks, but treats Drew better. Gus becomes increasingly crude and sadistic, sexually assaulting Drew's mother and brutally skinning his 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 police car, then kills them by ramming their car into an oncoming potato truck.

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 by Gus, 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 Matthewses' 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 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, then breaks down the attic door to reach his father. 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. In the final scene, a recovering Chase locks up his veterinary clinic, then he and his son leave Ludlow behind.

Cast

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.

Release

Stephen King, who wrote the novel the first film was based on, had his name removed from the film prior to its release. The film debuted at number three. Paramount Home Video released it on VHS in April 1993, and on DVD in September 2001.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 26% of 19 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 3.8/10. Stephen Holden of The New York Times 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 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 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 likened it to "an elongated Tales from the Crypt" episode and criticized the script as a rehash of the original. Jay Carr of The Boston Globe called it "better entertainment than the first Pet Sematary" but more of a remake than a sequel. Patrick Naugle of DVD Verdict wrote, "Everything about Pet Sematary Two stinks like the dead."