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The Dominator reviews
Pioneer LDCE
- Cat.no: PLFEB 35321
- Cert: 18
- Running time: 98 minutes
- Sides: 2 (CLV)
- Year: 1989
- Pressing: UK, 1997
- Chapters: 31 (17/13+1)
- Sound: Dolby Surround
- Presented in Fullscreen
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Trailers for The War of the Worlds, Barbarella, Mission: Impossible. Teaser trailer for Star Trek: First Contact.
Director:
- Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary 2, Siesta)
Producers:
- Richard P. Rubenstein
Screenplay:
- Stephen King
Music:
- Elliot Goldenthal
Cast:
- Louis Creed : Dale Midkiff (Time Trax (TV))
Rachel Creed : Denise Crosby (Miracle Mile, Star Trek : Next Generation (TV))
Jud Crandall : Fred Gwynne (My Cousin Vinny, The Munsters (TV))
Victor Pascow : Brad Greenquist
Gage Creed : Miko Hughes (Wes Craven’s New Nightmare)
Zelda : Andrew Hubatsek
Stephen King’s Pet Sematarytells the story of the Creeds, a new familywho have moved into town for a new start in life, with father of the family,Louis Creed (played by Dale Midkiff, last seen in TV flop, Time Trax) asa doctor whose first patient is a dead man named Victor Pascow. Well, he’s notquite dead…
Pascow breathes his last in front of Louis, then when they’re alone, Pascowsits up, grabs hold of Louis’s arm and whispers some bizarre words of wisdom.Later that night, Louis wakes up to find that the dead walk as well as theytalk, and he is led to the local cemetary where he finds himself waking upthe next morning.
Shortly after this incident the family cat, Church, dies, and is buried in the“Pet Sematary”, a place which children built out of broken dreams. Onthat patch of land is a mysterious Indian burial ground with the power ofresurrection, and yes the cat comes back to life, but now Church is an evil cat.After an introduction to the whys and wherefores of the burial ground, fromlocal old man, Jud Crandall (played by the late Herman Munster, FredGwynne), it doesn’t take a genius to work out what’s going to happen toLouis and Rachel Creed’s son, Gage, after he shuffles off his mortal coil,(Note : The picture on the back of the sleeve is a bit of a giveway…),and then things go from the bizarre to the extreme, and beyond.
It’s been a number of years since I first saw this film, and I wasn’t too biga fan of it at the time, but it is worth a watch, partly for its cast of C-listactors, most of which you may not be able to put a face to when you see theirnames above, but when you see them chances are you’ll recognise them; partly forsome of the overacting, particularly Fred Gwynne’s as he blames himself forGage’s death after “introducing Louis to ‘The Power’“; and it’ll appealif you like a bit of schlock horror, which prevails for most of the film,especially the laughable ending, which I wasn’t too sure was meant to be funny,or meant to be unintentionally funny…
Throw in a cameo from Stephen King himself as the minister at MissyDandridge’s funeral; Denise Crosby as Louis’s wife Rachel, who can’t bringherself to terms with her actions as a young child, when she inadvertentlykilled off her sister (played by a male actor!), who was meant to be sufferingsevere spinobifida but looked more like Amanda Plummer on a bad day, when shechoked on the food Rachel was feeding her; an evil Gage back from the dead andbehaving more like Chucky, the doll from the Child’s Play filmseries; and quote of all quotes from Dale Midkiff who responds to dead Church’sactions of dumping a dead rat in his bath, and then scratching half his faceoff, with “Fuck off, hairball !”, and it’s quite a bit of fun in parts.
Picture quality is very good indeed, and no it’s not presented in widescreenbut the film was shot flat and matted to 1.85:1 in cinemas, so while you’ll losea small amount of picture information at the sides, you’ll gain at the top andbottom, but this fullscreen transfer is very pleasing to the eye. However,full marks go to the use of the surround sound in most of the scenes to givean eerie atmosphere. The disc is well-chaptered with 30 in all for the 98minutes of film, plus one for the following trailers : War of the Worlds,Barbarella, Mission: Impossible and a teaser trailer for Star Trek:First Contact which was the one beginning with the camera panning downthe Next Generation logo, before being ‘intercepted’ by the Borg’s lesseliptical oblong spaceship.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.
Check outPioneer‘s Web site.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.