I'm not going to lie, I have not read Pet Sematary since it was brand new (about 35 years ago), and I have not seen the original film that was made of the novel since that was in the theaters 30 years ago. I remember liking both, but not being totally freaked out by either.

I do have to say this, though, the new movie version of Pet Sematary is spooky as hell. I mean it, it's one of the most chilling horror films I've seen in a long time. Quite probably since the film reboot of another one of the novelist's classic books – IT (of which the second half is coming down the pike just a few months after Pet Sematary).

The storyline is as well-known as it is horrific. Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) decides to move his family – wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz), eight-year-old daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and toddler son Gage (played by both Hugo and Lucas Lavoie) – from the bustle and danger of the big city to a rustic farmhouse in Maine. Little did he know that dangers show up everywhere.

They quickly learn from their kindly neighbor Jud (John Lithgow) that their property houses the local pet cemetery (misspelled on the sign, of course, leading to the title). Sadly, the cemetery gets a lot of traffic, because they live right off a road where trucks speed by day and night.

When Ellie's beloved cat Church (short for Winston Churchill) falls victim to that busy roadway, Jud lets Louis in on a secret about his new property. Beyond the pet cemetery, obscured by a haphazard log wall, is an ancient Native American burial ground. It is magic – or cursed – so that anything that is buried on the ground will come back to life and return to you. But it will never be the same as it was. Louis buries Church and the cat returns, but it is filthy, smelly and mean-spirited – constantly growling, hissing and lashing out.

You know it's only a matter of time before someone takes a human being to the burial ground. And then, watch out!