Pet Sematary remains one of the most iconic adaptations of Stephen King’s work, as well as the only novel of his that he admits actually scares him.  One of the most disturbing sequences in both book and film is Jud Crandall’s telling of the infamous Timmy Baterman incident, the first time Jud himself realized why “sometimes, dead is better.”

So Paramount saw fit to do an entire prequel film based on that one sequence, and the result is a movie that could have been so much more than it is…

Small Town, Big Secrets
Opening in Ludlow, Maine in the late 1960s, we meet a young Jud Crandall, who’s getting ready to join the Peace Corps with his girlfriend.  Meanwhile, Timmy Baterman has just returned from a tour in Vietnam.  However, strange things start happening, and Jud begins to unravel a mystery going back generations.

The film features performances from the very talented David Duchovny as Bill Baterman, as well as Henry Thomas as Jud’s own father.  However, neither of them (nor the rest of the admittedly talented cast featuring Pam Grier) can save this movie.  The ultimate issue is in the writing.

As far as prequels or spinoffs of King adaptations go, doing an “origin story” about Jud isn’t inherently a bad idea.  There’s a rich mythology there, but the movie never really seems to use it.  We never actually see anyone get buried in the titular Pet Sematary, and it honestly doesn’t even feel like it’s in the same universe or it’s the same character.

Jud is recognizable in name alone, no one has a Maine accent, and Timmy Baterman is far from the terrifying monster Jud described.  He comes off more like a teenager going through a nihilistic emo phase.  And the movie seems to forget he exists for a sizable portion of the second act.

Wasted Potential
There’s even a flashback to the 18th Century as Jud reads about the original settlers who came to Ludlow and how the town’s namesake was afflicted by the curse of the ground that went sour.  And all it got me thinking was, “why wasn’t this the prequel” because it was a much more interesting story.

It also makes no mention of Jud’s dog, whom we hear about in Pet Sematary and creates other issues with continuity.  Again, doing a prequel story wasn’t inherently a bad idea, this one just wasn’t done particularly well.

Duchovny and Thomas are talented actors and do the best they can with the material.  But it’s clear that there was no love or passion put into this project, rather it was a streamer’s attempt to create more “content” based on an IP they owned the rights to.  Because there were a million different ways you could have taken the source material other than this boring story that doesn’t even add up with what came before…

What do you think of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines? What other Stephen King adaptations would you want to see a prequel of?  Let us know in the comments!

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