{"id":41065,"date":"2023-09-23T23:30:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T03:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41065"},"modified":"2023-09-24T09:11:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T13:11:03","slug":"pet-sematary-bloodlines-2023-fantastic-fest-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/23\/pet-sematary-bloodlines-2023-fantastic-fest-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023) [Fantastic Fest 2023]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is the third adaptation of Stephen Kng\u2019s \u201cPet Sematary\u201d and we\u2019re still not in that area where King\u2019s story is remotely interesting or comprehensible. Never really confirming if \u201cBloodlines\u201d is a prequel to the book or to the movie, Lindsey Anderson Beer\u2019s is a confusing, lethargic and often grotesque horror drama that never has any idea what kind of movie it wants to be. It has eighty five minutes to unfold the narrative of Jud Crandall and despite the implications that Jud had seen a lot of horrifying disturbing imagery in his lifetime, we\u2019re given a dull glorified remake of \u201cDeathdream.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 1969, a young Jud Crandall has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to Ludlow. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a prequel set to the tune of the King\u2019s storyline about the dread Pet Sematary that causes everyone in Ludlow to be convinced that they cheat death, \u201cPet Sematary\u201d is surprisingly pointless film. It almost feels like a movie made by a committee in an effort to retain the rights to King\u2019s novel. The writers for \u201cBloodlines\u201d don\u2019t do much to offer up an interesting and scary narrative. Instead it spends a lot of the time squeezing in dull mythology, and pasting in trite themes about colonization and the Vietnam war. Director Beers spends a ton of time on the film\u2019s central antagonist Timmy who does nothing but lurk in the darkness taunting his friend Jud.<\/p>\n

All the while his condition and mental state is propped up as social commentary about the effects of the war and the inherent resentment Timmy has toward Jud. Jud evaded going to the Vietnam war due to circumstances beyond his control, building a tension with his long lost friend. All the while the script alludes to the obvious visitation of the pet sematary, as events gradually spiral out of control. And when I say gradually, I mean a snail\u2019s pace. So much of \u201cBloodlines\u201d is centered on the usual Stephen King tropes involving small town secrets, and sins of the parents, all the while never pinning down the more pressing questions.<\/p>\n

So does the sematary control the dead or are the dead cognizant of their state of life? Is the Sematary a living entity or is there something controlling the land? And why does the sematary turn its undead rotten and murderous after a while? In either case, \u201cBloodlines\u201d essentially fails as a prequel in spite of the strong cast and moody direction. The script spends too much time on foreshadowing and can never decide if it wants to pull the curtains off of the mystique of the sematary leaving us just as clueless and confused leaving as we were going in.<\/p>\n

Fantastic Fest 2023 is taking place from September 21st<\/sup> to September 28th<\/sup> at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third adaptation of Stephen Kng\u2019s \u201cPet Sematary\u201d and we\u2019re still not in that area where King\u2019s story is remotely interesting or comprehensible. Never really confirming if \u201cBloodlines\u201d is a prequel to the book or to the movie, Lindsey Anderson Beer\u2019s is a confusing, lethargic and often grotesque horror drama that never has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284,12],"tags":[64,302,477,703,797,982],"class_list":["post-41065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","category-movie-reviews","tag-adaptation","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-prequel","tag-stephen-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41162,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41065\/revisions\/41162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}