Review: ‘Pet Sematary’ exhumes a Stephen King masterwork

Hollywood, in its infinite irony, has resurrected a tale about the unholy perils of resurrection. The mean roads and mangy cats of Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” are back from the dead in Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer’s vividly acted, blandly condensed remake of Mary Lambert’s 1989 movie, adapted from King’s 1983 novel. If the new “Pet Sematary” is solid enough, it’s due in large part to the sturdiness of its source material: a darkly honest New England parable of grief, pulled from King’s own fatherly fears. When the family’s pet cat, Winston “Church” Churchill, is found dead roadside, Louis and Rachel debate whether to tell Ellie, who will surely be crushed. Still, I wouldn’t want to level the tale’s most lingering line — “Sometimes dead is better” — on this “Pet Sematary.” The actors are too good.