Pet Sematary 4k Blu-Ray Review

March 22, 2019 at 7:45pm
By Jason Stettner

For the 30th Anniversary of Pet Semtary, and I imagine to tie into the upcoming remake we're given a restoration of the film. This is a 4k HDR enhanced version and the picture quality is simply stunning. The movie itself is rather awful, but looking at this purely from the perspective of someone wanting to get an enhanced version.

This is the best option out there as the quality is excellent, it has a smooth interface with a number of options and there are some extras. The story largely follows a grieving father named Louis (Dale Midkiff) that continues to restore life through an ancient secret hidden nearby his house. This special spot is presented by his close neighbor Jud (Fred Gwynne). The former of the two could barely act whereas the latter was actually solid throughout.

The two became close as Louis had just moved with his family into the area. Things go wrong however as death starts to follow him, and then he takes drastic steps to "correct" the course. This is somewhat of a horror film, and as not to spoil things it does have some rather gruesome situations. It's nothing like in modern times, but it still has a shock here or there.

Pet Sematary 4k Special Features

The Pet Sematary 4k Blu-Ray comes with a number of special features. Both discs have a commentary option. These are available to view on both the 4k and Blu-Ray disc, the latter has more content. The 4k includes the following options that can be viewed individually. "Fear and Remembrance"; "Revisitation, New Interview with Mary Lambert", "Behind the Scenes Galleries" and "Commentary by Director Mary Lambert".

The Blu-Ray includes highlighted extras such as "Stephen King Territory", "The Characters" and "Filming the Horror". I was generally fine with the extras, it was nice to see some of them on the 4k disc which is often not the case. The menu options were perfect on the 4k and the special new inclusions were nice behind the scenes on the film.

The Conclusion

The Pet Sematary 4k Blu-Ray package brings an alright selection of extra special features for this 30th Anniversary remaster. This was my first time viewing the film and honestly it's not at all a good movie. The acting is bad, the story isn't great and it's all over the place. That being said, many will be viewing this film again so you might generally like it. If that's the case, then this is a fantastic remaster. The film quality is clean, the audio while not given a full upgrade sounds fine.

Upon a first viewing the HDR seemed a bit dark, believe this was due to a setting issue with the player. Upon a second check up the visual quality is fantastic for lighting in this. The contrast was well set whether it was a day setting, or whenever scenes transitioned towards differing hours. Anything dark or set at night in particular looked absolutely fantastic. The creepy mystic area was stunning to view in this quality, love that it holds up so well. I think if you're a fan, or someone that wants to check out this version. Then, this is the best way to do so. Out of that realm, this really wasn't that great. The true horror here is trying to fight the auto-correct on the title. Jokes aside, 4k is the best way to view this one.

Pet Sematary 4k Blu-Ray Review
Provided by Paramount Home Media Distribution

Rating Overall: 4.0