Pet Sematary Two

 ((Horror--Color))

By BRIAN LOWRY

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A Paramount Pictures release. Produced by Ralph S. Singleton. Directed by Mary Lambert. Screenplay, Richard Outten.
 
Jeff Matthews ... Edward Furlong
Chase Matthews ... Anthony Edwards Gus Gilbert ... Clancy Brown
Clyde ... Jared Rushton
Renee Hallow ... Darlanne Fluegel
Amanda Gilbert ... Lisa Waltz
Drew Gilbert ... Jason McGuire
Marjorie Hargrove ... Sarah Trigger
 

Pet Sematary Two" is about 50% better than its predecessor, which is to say it's not very good at all. Still, pic does offer the requisite combination of tension and gore and even tripping over some unintentional laughs, it's doubtful moviegoers will bury this latest outing deep enough to prevent a third trip to the graveyard.

Like the first installment, which was based on a truly scary Stephen King novel, the latest incarnation relies more on gore than on genuine chills and proves sorely lacking in subtlety, never the strong suit of this particular genre.

That proves to be a problem here, however, because it's important to understand why someone would risk bringing a human corpse back to life, particularly after they've seen the process turn a run-of-the-mill dog into the Hound of the Baskervilles.

The story opens with the accidental death of an actress (Darlanne Fluegel) in front of her teenage son (Edward Furlong). Mom is estranged from dad (Anthony Edwards) and father and son move to a small town, where the boy has to grapple with his loneliness and with fending off the obligatory school bully (Jared Rushton, much bigger than he was in "Big").

Jeff (Furlong) befriends another boy (Jason McGuire) whose tyrannical stepfather (Clancy Brown) guns down the kid's dog. The youths take the beast to the "pet sematary," an ancient Indian burial ground rumored to revive the dead, subsequently repeating the process on the stepfather and setting up the inevitable question about tempting the forces of nature by awakening mom.

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 time around, and since there is no source material there are no deviations from the novel to gripe about.

Lambert and writer Richard Outten nevertheless suffer several zombified lapses in logic, among them breaking the stated rule that "you bury your own."

After his impressive debut in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," Furlong fares less well here, exhibiting essentially one posture under Lambert's guidance--surly adolescence. Rushton faces the same constraints as the one-note bully, while newcomer McGuire shows promise as the overweight friend.

Brown appears to have some fun with his "living dead" sheriff, but again, the performance is so over the top that everyone's matter-of-fact response to him borders on the absurd.

Edwards is solid as the dad, though his own feelings about his wife are dealt with too sparingly to give the climax any resonance.

Makeup and special effects are top-notch, though Lambert's tendency to linger on the shots of gore should be a put-off to the even moderately squeamish.

Mark Governor's "Friday the 13th"-like score sets the proper mood, though it's still hard not to chuckle out loud at times as the film starts to rot in the last act.

Camera (Du Art color), Russell Carpenter; editor, Tom Finan; music, Mark Governor; production design, Michelle Minch; art direction, Karen Steward; set decoration, Susan Benjamin; costume design, Marlene Stewart; sound (Dolby), Shirley Libby; assistant director, Jeffrey Wetzel; second-unit director/mechanical and special effects, Peter Chesney; special effects makeup and animatronics, Steve Johnson; dead-animal effects, Bill (Splat) Johnson; casting, Richard Pagano, Sharon Bialy, Debi Manwiller. Reviewed at Paramount Studios screening room, Hollywood, Aug. 28, 1992. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 100 min.