Pet Sematary II

A fairly worthless sequel, Pet Sematary II follows Anthony Edwards’ Chase Matthews as he and his son (Edward Furlong’s Jeff) move to small-town Maine after the shocking death of Darlanne Fluegel’s Renee – with Jeff’s inevitable discovery of the series’ title locale paving the way for a progressively horrific narrative. The degree to which Pet Sematary II morphs into a seriously unwatchable piece of work is rather distressing, to say the least, as the picture opens with a reasonable degree of promise that’s slowly-but-surely squandered by filmmaker Mary Lambert – with Furlong’s less-than-compelling performance merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the movie’s many off-putting, incompetent elements. The arms-length atmosphere is exacerbated by a total lack of compelling characters and an overly (and oddly) deliberate sense of pacing, while the emphasis on somewhat comedic plot developments does absolutely nothing to alleviate the pervasively underwhelming feel. (Everything involving Clancy Brown’s zombie-like Gus is tedious and unwelcome, to put it mildly.) And although Lambert closes the proceedings with a gruesome, Grand Guignol-like climax, Pet Sematary II has long-since confirmed its place as a wholly misguided followup that makes its lackluster predecessor look brilliant by comparison.

* out of ****