Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary

I love Pet Sematary, though not the best Stephen King adaptation it's certainly up there, therefore I was excited to see a documentary about it and get a peak behind the scenes.

With interviews from every surviving cast member, behind the scenes footage and plenty of interesting stories I'd say it's decent viewing for fans of the movie but overall a very weak effort.

Though it features interviews with the cast it has absolutely no footage from the film and though King is seen several times there are no interviews with him which seems a tad odd.

Although it covers important aspects such as casting, special effects and issues during production it also delves into some really lifeless areas such as extras and their contributions.

There is plenty of stuff that fans will really enjoy but I was left feeling it should have been better. Maybe it was rushed, maybe the absence of movie footage damaged it, or maybe it was the fact that too much of it felt like filler.

There have been some great documentaries about horror classics such as Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, this is sadly not one of them.

The Good:

Some interesting production footage/photos

Cast/Crew interviews are decent

The Bad:

Extras section

Frustratingly boring

The stage curtains open ...

The film starts out with Stephen King talking about his book, Pet Sematary, at a UMass event and his expression was that he didn't think anyone would want to read anything like it, so he put it in a drawer. That was the most interesting part of the documentary, at least to me, and it was gone far too quickly.

Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary isn't anything significant or noteworthy. This documentary could just as well have been in the Bonus Materials section of the DVD or BluRay to this movie. It was more of a sentimental journey as we remembered one of our favorite horror films brought to the screen. There were some interesting little factoids here and there, but certainly nothing that was "unearthed" or "untold". These are some common stories that we've already heard before surrounding the production of the movie.

It does have interviews will all the actors involved with the film, and it was fun to see what they look like today and some of the stories they had to share. But, in the long run, this was a bit of a yawner. If you are passionate about this film, then you would enjoy this. For the average movie goer, however, there is nothing special here.

This was a documentary that I watched while working. I treat these like a podcast where I'll follow what they're saying and if I don't have anything pop up, I'll watch the accompanying video. Pet Sematary is a movie that my sister and I would watch regularly. It always seemed to be on the movie channels. It is one that I've also gotten the chance to see at the theater, thanks to the Gateway Film Center.

What I like about this documentary is that tracked down both actors and people that worked behind the scenes to make this movie happen. We are getting things that happened during pre-production. Something that I never knew was that this had struggles being made. It was thought that Stephen King properties wouldn't sell. Due to a writer's strike, Paramount said they need scripts that were ready to go. The producer who was pushing this to get made saw her chance and it still took convincing.

Something else I didn't know was that Mary Lambert was selected to direct this because she was the 'it' person from her music video work. I'm glad she did as she brings a unique perspective. We hear from her about things that she decided as well as other behind the camera crew members. This includes people who selected locations, special effects people and the like. I also didn't know that King helped push to get this filmed in Maine. They also used local people for extras and other positions which was cool to learn.

Now a big thing here as well as the actors that were interviewed. Brad Greenquist, Susan Blommaert, Denise Crosby, Miko Hughes and Dale Midkiff, just to name the major people in the film. There is also Blaze Berdahl, who I didn't realize had a twin who helped out with taking on the role of Ellie Creed, Beau Berdahl Oliver. We even get interviews with Heather Langenkamp, whose now-husband, worked on this film. They also talked to Marky Ramone.

I'll say to end this out that it was well made. I love hearing stories about how they did certain things to help bring this world to life. Lambert was strategic and it seemed like had a good team. This is constructed well. The flow of pre, during and post-production makes sense. If you're a fan of Pet Sematary, I'd highly recommend giving this a watch. It gave me a deeper appreciation for sure.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

I love a good making of documentary film and this one covers all the bases making for a great journey back into the world of the film. I'm a little surprised the didn't get Stephen King himself but he's not missed and everything that's presented is just great and a fantastic journey to go on. I've always been a huge fan of the film and watching this documentary gave me new insight into the film's journey to get made when it almost didn't. Whether you're a fan of the film or not this is just a great documentary for those who like to know more on how films get made. And it's not too scary for anyone!

Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary: 5 out of 10: A behind the scenes look at the making of the film Pet Sematary with interviews thirty years later from the cast and crew and the locals where the film was made.

The Good: If your name or the name of a family member appear on the credits this will be a treat. If you live nearby the filming locations and drive past them on a daily basis or if your curious what the actors look like now and don't have access to Google this film is for you.

The Bad: Pet Semetry is one of my favorite books. Not just Stephen King books mind you but books overall. The movie is ... okay. For fans of the movie (and to a lesser extent the book), this film provides dozens of anecdotes and trivia about the filming. The kind of thing you hear at a panel discussion at a second-string Comic Convention. You know "So Gage was thirsty and the second unit director had to stop filming because he was too parched and everyone was scrambling for a water bottle and then Mary Sue remembered she had a water bottle in the cup holder of her Astovan and it turns out it that was the first year that they had put cup holders in those vans and she ran and got the water bottle and gave it to the AD which is what we call the Assistant Director who got it to Gage and the scene was saved."

The filming of Pet Sematary, from what I gather from the dozens of anecdotes of this film, was a fairly uneventful shoot. Everyone basically got along and some locals were hired as extras or to help build props and sets. There is no overall theme, people didn't realize they were making a film that would shake the foundations of our civilization and most tragically nothing terribly interesting (good or bad) happened.

Now a talented documentary filmmaker can squeeze excitement out of ordinary stories about ordinary lives but even Errol Morris would have trouble punching up this material.

The Ugly: Guess who doesn't have rights to show clips from the movie Pet Sematary? I hope you just saw the film or are some superfan who has every scene memorized cause that will come in handy when trying to make sense of many of the stories.

There is also (despite being in the credits) a lack of the man himself in the documentary. Stephen King is someone I imagine who could have punched this up with a story or two.

In Conclusion: If this was an extra on the Blu-ray release of Pet Sematary I would consider it an above average (if overlong) extra. As a stand-alone documentary, even the titular Pet Sematary itself couldn't bring this dead horse to life.