Scream Factory has revealed that they will be releasing a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of Pet Sematary II (or Pet Sematary Two on the sleeve) on February 25th with new cover art by Laz Marquez (above – original artwork on the reverse, of course).
Scream Factory has confirmed the following:
- The national street date for North America (Region A) is February 25th.
- This is being presented as a Collector’s Edition and will come guaranteed with a slipcover in its first three months of release.
- The newly commissioned artwork you see pictured comes to us from artist Laz Marquez. This art will be front-facing and the reverse side of the wrap will feature the original theatrical artwork.
- New extras are in progress and will be announced on a later date but we can confirm today that Director Mary Lambert is on board and very excited about the release!”
Meanwhile, here’s our previous coverage of the film itself:
‘Raise some hell’
Pet Sematary II is a 1992 supernatural horror film directed by Mary Lambert (Mega Python vs. Gatoroid; The Attic) from a screenplay by Richard Outten. It is the sequel to the 1989 film Pet Sematary, also directed by Lambert and is stylized as Pet Sematary Two.
The film stars Edward Furlong (The Zombie King; Arachnoquake; Brainscan), Anthony Edwards (Zodiac; The Forgotten) and Clancy Brown (Little Evil; John Dies at the End; Cowboys & Aliens).
Steve Johnson handled the special makeup effects.
Opening plot:
Following the accidental death of his mother Renee during the production of her latest film, thirteen-year-old Jeff Matthews and his veterinarian-father Chase move to the Maine town of Ludlow. Jeff learns about the Creed family, and about the cursed Indian burial ground.
His friend Drew’s dog, Zowie, is fatally shot by Gus Gilbert – Drew’s stepfather, who also happens to be the town sheriff – for chasing Gus’s pet rabbits. It doesn’t help that Gus was in love with Renee 20 years ago; ever since she turned him down to marry Chase, Gus has been venting his ire on everything and everybody around him.
Jeff and Drew bury Zowie at the Indian cemetery, in order to bring the dog back to life. It works, with some side effects: Zowie is uncharacteristically fierce; the dog’s eyes have an unnatural glow to them, even in daylight…
Buy DVD: Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
” …it’s better stupid entertainment than the first Pet Sematary. The difference is that in the three years since she directed the original, Mary Lambert has sharpened her skills, and although Stephen King’s name is nowhere on this sequel, his characteristic braiding of Freudian and Christian themes is present…” The Boston Globe
“Filled with sadistic story turns, mean spirited humor, and almost gratuitous animal cruelty, Pet Sematary Two is an ugly, unappealing, and unnecessary follow-up to the ’89 melodrama that fails to pinpoint the appeal of the sematary yet again.” Cinema Crazed
“Pet Sematary Two tells a very different story from the first film while still incorporating the elements that made the original great. It’s part bonkers, part creepy but always interesting. It’s also a bold movie, one that attempts to fully realize itself and its ideas around every turn. It doesn’t hide behind the first but embraces it and creates something new and genuinely disturbing.” Coming Soon
“Ms Lambert made her reputation directing Madonna’s music videos, and the new film has the garish theatrical look and pumpingly precise rhythms of an extravagantly produced heavy-metal video. Most of many shock scenes are above average in impact and suspense, with the scenes of the resurrected, red-eyed Zowie going for people’s throats especially gruesome.” Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“Things really go haywire with downgraded production values. “Pet Sematary Two” looks shockingly cheap for a multimillion-dollar studio movie, a lot like an episode of “Friday the 13th: The Series” or a similar show. Between the sudden camera zooms, equally sudden bouts of slo-mo, and weirdly heavy reliance on needle drops, there’s an odd hodge-podge of styles in play that were already dated in 1992.” Culture Crypt
“Director Mary Lambert (reprising her duties from the 1989 release) again errs by setting much of the action around the cemetery in daylight, although the pacing is significantly better than the first pic. Makeup and special effects are topnotch.” Variety
“What made the first film work is not so much its theme but the way that Stephen King approached it, particularly during the latter half where he gave it a driving sense of cosmic fear, of a great and unutterable desecration about to be committed and of the supernatural stepping in to aid in stopping it. Pet Semetary II lacks any similar sense of drive and seems too pedestrian and obvious in its setting up of characters and situations.” Moria
“The two films are so different in tone it’s actually difficult to believe they were both directed by the same person: however, with Stephen King having nothing to do with the sequel it just goes to show the person with the pen is often more important than the person behind the camera.” That was a Bit Mental
“While it contains more dark humor than the first, there’s also more gore than the original and I think these two things go hand in hand. There are more squeamish, visceral, hard to look at moments–which the ’89 film already had its share of. These elements of the movie–particularly the death scenes–seem absurd, and they are, but I think that absurdity is a bonus for the narrative, not a hindrance.” Wicked Horror
” …rather than being classically morbid, this horror tale is grossly sickening and nihilistic in its statement about man’s inhumanity to animals – not to mention man himself.” John Stanley, Creature Features
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