Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary (2017) Reviews

• Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary: Underwhelming behind the scenes

  Platypuschow2019-03-21

  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

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• JUST OKAY - (5 stars out of 10)

  Front-Row-Reviews2018-10-08

  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.

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• Doesn't have a reason to exist.

  Monolight2018-08-28

  Contains a handful of amusing stories and footage from the set but suffers from being somewhat disjointed, overly self congratulatory and just not that interesting. Also lacks context so if you haven't seen Pet Sematary in a while or don't remember it well, you'll be lost as to what scene people are talking about exactly and when it happens in the movie. If you're a Pet Sematary mega fan and need to know how they chose the house to film in, this'll do OK(not great), otherwise - skip it.

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• Even the titular Pet Sematary itself couldn't bring this dead horse to life.

  juliankennedy232018-09-04

  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.

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• Excellent Documentary

  AverageJoesDriveInPodcast2017-09-04

  I need to get this out of the way first thing. I may be really, really biased on my enjoyment of this. Most of Pet Sematary was shot less than 50 miles from where I live and I know many of those locations well. The directors did a wonderful job creating a very well put together documentary. Their interviews with cast members and people involved with the film, coupled with revisiting of the locations were a fantastic insight into the behind the scenes of the film. I learned a ton about the film I didn't know. You can tell this was a labor of love project from the filmmakers. It definitely shows. A must watch for fans of the movie, Stephen King fans, or people from the area in Maine. My rating: 9/10

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