‘Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ Review: Paramount+ Resurrects a Property That Hardly Needed a Prequel
variety.comMichael Nordine author Evil, as conceived by Stephen King, is an inexorable force as old as the world itself. It exists in countless forms, some of which can be staved off for a time but none of which can be extinguished permanently.
It’s as much a part of the earth as it is a part of us, and it persists in a way none of us can or will. The best adaptations of King’s work get under the skin as they force you to reckon with such ideas, staying with you in much the same way his books do. “Pet Sematary: Bloodlines” is not one of those adaptations.
On a scale from “Thinner” to “The Shining,” it falls in the bottom half alongside the likes of last year’s “Firestarter” remake. (That the original even spawned a sequel, remake and now a prequel is a bit puzzling in and of itself, as it hardly ranks among the better movies based on King’s work.) “Who asked for this?” is the question such projects invoke, and Lindsey Anderson Beer’s film never comes up with a satisfying answer.
Set in Ludlow, Maine, in 1969 — 14 years before the novel was released, 20 before the first movie — “Bloodlines” suggests that its setting, not unlike the town of Derry in “It,” is a nexus of malignant forces due in part to the original sin committed by its founders.
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